Top Five Things to Keep You Busy in Butuan City

2) Party the night away!

As long as you know where to go, you can be sure you can have a night that you won’t soon forget. We highly recommend Boy’s Bar and Wine room when looking to paint the town red. Boy’s has an extensive list of imported beer and if you’re used to spending a good amount of money on beer in Manila, you will find that they’ve priced their beer here pretty well. This place can get quite busy especially if they have dj’s from other cities come down so you might want to consider dropping by early or calling them to reserve a table for you and your friends

*you may also visit the newly opened Gastro Bar or Moff’s as alternate venues to party with your friends.

3) A visit to the old world.

Butuan was once the center of trade in the country, the best proof of this is the discovery of 9 Balangay Boats and other archeological treasures in the areas around Butuan. To know more about the history and culture of the Butuanons, try checking these places out.

a) Balangay Boat Building Site

Butuan boasts of a rare and extensive collection of recovered maritime vessels, including the Balangay boats, perhaps the most extensive recovered collection in the country! Balangay Boats are known as the oldest Pre-Hispanic watercrafts found here in the Philippines. The number of boats found here gives us an idea of how Butuan played a central role in trade during the Pre-Hispanic era. The Balangay Boat building site is where 3 replicas of the balangay boats were built which in 2011 sailed Southeast Asia to retrace the trip that our ancestors made. The third replica is now here in Manila and is consigned to the National Museum. You may also want to visit the Balangay Boat Digging Site where just recently, 2 more Balangay boats were discovered and unearthed.

b) First Easter Mass Eco Park,

There is a controversy that the First Catholic Mass was actually held in Masau and not in Limasawa. This Eco Park is where you will find the Cross and the statues that commemorate the firs recorded Christian Activity in the Philippines. You can drop by the Balangay hotel or the National Museum to view books and artifacts where the first mention of this mass with Magellan was recorded.

c) Bequibel Shell Midden.

Shell Middens are areas where debris from eating shellfish have accumulated over time. They can tell you about activities of the indigenous people in the past. In Bonbon, Butuan, a large deposit of fresh water shells are found in the grounds of the Bequibel Family (hence the name of this place) along with human and animal skeletons that experts have proven to date back as far back as 7000 BC! Older than the famous Egyptian Pyramids! As the family gets little support from the government to maintain their lot, if you can, please leave a small (or big!) donation when you drop by. There aren’t that many Shell Middens recorded in the world so this find is quite rare and should be well taken care of.

d) Banza Church Ruins.

Before its destruction, it was considered to be the most beautiful church in the Mindanao region. It was built around the 1600’s and was burned to the ground in the 1700’s by the Moro Pirates and now all that remains is the bell tower that is enveloped by a Balete tree. The rest of the church is now below the ground and the river.

Banza Church Ruins

e) Century Old Tree.

In 2008, this 500 year old Bitaog tree was declared as the Philippine Centennial Tree by The Department of Tourism as well as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It’s been said that this tree used to be surrounded by so many fireflies that it once served as a beacon of light for fishermen during the night.