LIGAO CITY, Albay – One of the most strategic sites for sports tourism, like biking, hiking and camping has been discovered in Ligao City as the local government opened up the Mt. Masaraga as the new tourism site in the province.
Mt. Masaraga is known as the twin mountain of Mayon Volcano, located few kilometers in the North-Western part of the world famous Mt. Mayon and a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).
Last weekend, the two-day 1st Mayor’s Cup Mt. Masaraga National Enduro Challenge kicked off as 152 participants from different provinces in the country, and even as far as Los Angeles California, in the United States have tried their luck to pedal the 60 degrees slope downhill of the starting point of the race track to meet the shortest time of travel in the 1st stage. Cliff, grassland and water await to them in the 2nd stage as participants describe the track as challenging.
Mayor Patty Gonzales-Alsua said that Mt Masaraga as one of the protected area, sports tourism such as biking, hiking and even camping will promote awareness on how to protect our environment and at the same time provide livelihood through tourism rather than cutting of trees or “kaingin”.
“To make them aware also on how Mt. Masaraga is being protected and at the same time, as we held a small event last year, the participants were very happy of the trail and we further improve it to be more challenging,” Alsua said. (Niño N. Luces)