Divisoria Night Market: Food Trip and Ukay-ukay in Cagayan de Oro City

Part of our Northern Mindanao trip was to experience the Divisoria Night Market in Cagayan de Oro City. On our second night, right after our ziplining experience in Bukidnon, we walked down to Plaza Divisoria, a mere 15-minute walk from Budgetel Inn. CDO City downtown looks similar to my home city in Iloilo, where it's fairly easy to walk around. The Plaza Divisoria located in the downtown area is just a typical city park but it transforms into a night market every Friday and Saturday night.

We passed by this monument of "Tribute To The Slain Members of the Press" on our way to the night market

Also known as the "Golden Friendship Park", Plaza Divisoria becomes an attraction during the Night Market where people gather for live entertainment, food and shopping (cheap and bargain shopping, that is). Before the sun sets, traffic is closed and various stalls are set up along the streets which include food kiosks, fruit stands, ukay-ukay stalls and what-not. Street hawkers and vendors selling various merchandise items can also be seen around. If you've been to Manila's Divisoria Market, you will find the setup quite familiar.

After a bit of walking around, we had our dinner in one of the food stations. It was a tiring day after our trip to Bukidnon so it was expected that we ate lavishly, like we were in a fiesta. LOL. Besides, the food are cheap. Of course, we did not miss to try Iligan's lechon baboy or roasted pig, which according to Kris Aquino is one of the best lechon she has tasted (I just read it from a blog :p ). You will never run out of food choices, especially Filipino street foods like chicken inasal, grilled pork barbeque and isaw. When you leave the night market, however, expect to smell like a walking BBQ. :)

After our sumptuous dinner, we resumed roaming around. We didn't really stay in one place because there's nothing we found really interesting. Even the ukay-ukays are just the typical ones you see in a flea market but it's the closest thing to being in Baguio. What I meant is that I never saw that much ukay-ukay similar to Baguio City and didn't expect they have this in Cagayan de Oro City during the night market. That means if you're really after the ukay-ukay then most likely you will find a lot of great items at bargain prices. But as a souvenir, I found a really nice sweater for P200 and bought it. That's the only item I bought because it's not part of our plan to shop and my budget was already set aside for everything else for the trip.

Aboard a motorela on the way to Budgetel Inn

More motorelas near Gaisano Mall

After feeling exhausted from the whole day's activities and disappointment (remember the non-existent whitewater rafting?), we left the night market and went back to the hotel (which we kinda lost at first but thanks to the very helpful strangers who gave us directions). This time we took a "motorela" which is a common mode of transportation within the city center. It's a four-wheeled vehicle powered by a motorcycle and CDO's version of the Philippine tricycle.

Upon arriving at the hotel that's when we decided to cut short our Camiguin trip from staying overnight to just a day trip. That means we need to leave for Camiguin as early as 3AM the following day.

Read more about my Northern Mindanao trip:

• Part 1 - First Time and (Mis)adventures in Mindanao
• Part 2 - Braving Asia's Longest Dual Zipline at Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon
• Part 3 - Divisoria Night Market: Food Trip and Ukay-ukay in Cagayan de Oro City
• Part 4 - Getting from CDO to Camiguin via Balingoan Port

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