Matutum is an active volcano located in the South Cotabato province in Mindanao. Why have I decided to mention it when there are so many better-known volcanoes in the Philippines? (for example the nearby Mt Apo – the country’s highest mountain). Well, Mt Matutum is the first mountain that you see when you land on General Santos airport. Because of its prominence above the surrounding terrain it is hard to miss. Have a look for yourselves:

See? It is pretty prominent. And those fields on the photos? You guessed it.. These are the very same pineapple fields that I was talking about previously. The volcano itself is pretty far from the place where these photos were taken. I am estimating (with the help of Google Maps) that it’s about 14 km away (or about 8 miles). If you like volcanoes I can tell you that in some future posts we will have a look at other ones in other parts of the world.

Back to Mindanao for now. I was able to photograph the mountain while on the way to another great place: Seven Falls around Lake Sebu (not to be confused with Cebu). This gave me the opportunity to look around and enjoy the view of tropical island landscape.

Being a tropical island Mindanao has a fair part of its area covered by jungle. If people will not use the land, the nature will quickly reclaim it. And the jungle is dense.. But it would be a huge exaggeration to say that Mindanao is only forest. You have seen the pineapple fields and the volcanoes already. The island is also full of big and small settlements. Here’s a roundabout in one of such settlements (I should call it a town rather) – Surallah:

The landmark is called Tri-People Monument to honour the T’Bolis, the Christians and the Muslims living in the area. The golden statues represent figures from each of these three communities dancing, playing instruments and selling local produce. If you have heard about the novel “The Golden Man” there is absolutely no connection between the novel and the monument except for the colour of the skin. The novel is closer to X-Men rather that the Tri-People. However, that is not the topic of this post :).

Next stop: Lake Sebu!