The other side of Mati

By JIMS VINCENT T. CAPUNO

Little boys fishing

MANILA, Philippines -- Mati, even before it became a city, is already famous not only in Davao Oriental but also in other parts of the country for its tourist attractions.

“Mati has been drawing tourist crowds to her white sand beaches.  Mati now owns the bragging rights for  being the skimboarding capital of the country and an emerging surfing paradise.

“The so-called Amihan Boys of Dahican are also fast gaining popularity among the country’s growing surfing community, so much so that they are turning out to be some sort of new icons Mati is producing aside from her famous tarsiers and Philippine eagles,” said journalist Neilwin Bravo, a native of Mati.

But there’s more to Mati than meets the eye.  During the recent Pujada Bay Festival, Mati launched the Kamunaan, which houses some of the memorabilia, musical instruments, documents, and other artifacts of Mandaya, the tribal people that inhabit Mati and nearby towns.

Another tourist attraction is dolphin and whale watching in Pujada Bay.  So, when Mayor Michelle N. Rabat, through city administrator Richard Villacorte asked a group of journalists to go dolphin watching the following day, we all went.

The place of appointment was at Dahican Beach at four in the morning as dolphins forage early in the morning, and their hunting grounds are far from the coast.

We arrived at Dahican Beach on time.  No one was around yet.  However, the Amihan Boys were already awake.  George “Jun” Plaza, the team leader, was also there and he prepared a banca (outrigger) just in case the hired banca did not arrive on time.

At five o’clock, we left Dahican Beach. Aside from the four of us, there were George and two Amihan boys.  The banca was too small for the seven of us so our travel was a little bit slow.  No one was talking.

After some time, photojournalist Jojie Alcantara and I started to take photos.  We were eager to see splashes of jumping dolphins. But we weren’t able to see anything but waves.  Then, all of a sudden, something jumped from the sea.  Yes, it was a dolphin.  We tried to follow it but we could not see any trace of the dolphin anymore.

But we were not losing hope.  It was at this time that the bigger banca came. We transferred to it and started to relax. We can now move and do what we wanted to do. I felt comfortable and safe.

After almost two hours of waiting we finally saw several dolphins. Groups of them popped up from nowhere.  Unfortunately, they didn’t jump and twirl just like in a dolphin show or in the movies.

Jun said they might already be full.  Jumping and spinning, he told us, has a purpose. The dolphins are actually hunting for fish.  One group of dolphins chase the fish, scare them with all the noise they make, while others wait.  But even if they did not jump and twirl, we were satisfied to see dolphins in the wild.

Since we were already far from the Dahican Beach, we decided to proceed to the lighthouse where some whale sightings have been reported. The travel was equally exhilarating.  We saw bonsai trees growing on the rocky cliffs.

But the most dominant trees are coconut.  No wonder, Mati is considered to be the coconut capital of the country.  You see millions of coconut trees growing in the mountainous areas.  It was a sight to behold.

Then, we arrived in what used to be part of Pujada Bay.  We were told there are 15,700 species of sea creatures that can be found in its waters such as lobsters, dugong, hammerhead shark, blue whale, manta ray, and different kinds of turtles.  The area is also good for scuba diving and snorkeling.

It was already almost nine o’clock when we decided to go back to Dahican Beach.  All of us were hungry.  “The dolphins are already full, but we are hungry,” Villacorte said.  “I think it is time for us to eat, too.
”