AGUSAN MARSHES

On this tour, the guides can put you in touch with the indigenous Manobos at Sitio Panlabuhan. The best time to visit AgusanMarsh is from October to January, during the rainy season. The lakes are overflowing, so it's easier to travel through the forest by banca. Discovery becomes an extraordinary safari, where you can observe wild birds and endangered species. The arrival of migratory birds in October is a real spectacle. Around a hundred species are listed, from purple herons and wild ducks to storks and sea eagles. Multicolored butterflies are also present (70 species in all). Fish abound: tilapia, haw-an (mudfish), gurami and pantat (catfish). On this walk, you may have the opportunity to meet the danata, a spectacular aquatic species living in freshwater, a kind of giant tortoise without a shell, covered with thick skin and equipped with claws. Other animal species include rare Philippine crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques, the Philippine cobra and the python. Agusan Marsh is also a botanist's kingdom. The Manobo dialect is a mixture of indigenous dialect and foreign languages, very different from Tagalog and Cebuano. Other tribes derived from the Manobos share the same dialect, such as the forest-dwelling Dibabaons and Manguyangans.