Waking up at 2 am in the morning and driving down south in the dark and then in torrential rain on the mountains for two hours was all worth it when I arrived in Mantalongan Market, a place where many hikers park their car for another 30-minute motorcycle journey to the highest peak of Cebu, Osmena Peak.

Mantalongan is in the town of Dalaguete, in the province of Cebu, Philippines. In order to get here, you'd need to drive a windy road on the side of a mountain. The drive is definitely scarier when you can see a meter of the road only and have to turn on your high beam lights only to realize that there are certain parts that do not have a fence- a slight wrong move means you go over the cliff. Imagine that with a driver (yours truly) who has only slept for 4 hours.

I survived the adventurous drive so back to good, happy memories... First up are photos from Osmena Peak. Getting a glimpse of the fogs rolling out and the sun rising is definitely something that reminds me how beautiful the world and, specifically, my mother island is.

Hiking up to catch the sunrise

This is what the farmers use for getting their produce down the mountains and to the market.

Selling budbud/sticky rice in the middle of the hike.

Fog rolling out

Hello, world! Rise and shine.

Can you spot the cabbage farm in the valley?

Another easier trail.

What I didn't expect though the market is the actual place where farmers of Mantalongan bring their baskets of produce freshly picked from their farmlands. At the brink of dawn at 5 am, the vendors were still setting up their stalls with not so many produce in sight. But by the time I came back after my hike, it was a whole new experience.

There were so many big baskets of perfectly plumped carrots, cabbage, eggplants, and squash. It was a sight to behold. Now this is the real deal farm to market experience that is hard to find in city centers. Most of the vendors even refused to sell us one or two kilos of their produce since they are selling it by the basket in Cebu City.

Back at the market after the hike.

If it is still packed in like this, it means you have to buy the entire basket!

And yes, I did find Carrot Man and Eggplant Man although they are not as photogenic as the original Carrot Man. If you don't have a clue of what I'm talking about, please google 'Carrot Man model' :)

Vegetable man

Eggplant man

The #CarrotMan had this on his back.

If you've never set foot at a wet market or a market where you can haggle the price, you're probably wondering if the vegetable prices at Mantalongan are cheap. And the answer is yes. On average, it is about half the price versus the ones your find in the city markets. My friend didn't even bother haggling and ended up buying a whole sack of carrots, which thankfully didn't weigh the car down as we journeyed back to the city.

Watch out for more (mis)adventures from my most recent trip back to the mother (is)land.