DAVAO: 7,000 Times Closer To Nature

“Davao is an anchor tourist destination and one of the 7,000 times more islands that make up the Philippine archipelago. It is a natural haven for both sedate and daring pursuits.”

Endowed with a variety of picturesque landscapes, Davao’s topography dazzles: Fruit plantations and orchid farms mantle volcano-fed hills and valleys. Virgin forests nurture rare wildlife. Coral islands lie on mirror flat water. And the country’s highest peak magnificently lords over the hinterland.

Just as enchanting is its brilliant tapestry of harmony, woven from the diverse cultural threads of its people. In Davao, the contemporary fuses with the traditional as migrant settlers from all over the country co-exist in peace with a fairly large expatriate community and numerous ethnic tribes who continue to live as they did centuries ago.

It is the hub of commerce and industry in the Southern Mindanao region. Yet, to this day, Davao City continues to straddle two worlds - the new and the old.

Part of it is a flourishing metropolis of business districts, mechanized farms and cosmopolitan villages where "instant millionaires" live. And the other part is a rural landscape of hills that roll down into fertile valleys, dominated by the 2,954-meter-high Mount Apo, the grandfather of all Philippine mountains, and peopled by the Bagobo, Manobo, Mandaya, Bilaan and other ancestral tribes.