My Day at the Higalaay Garden Show and Agri Fair

Every August, my city holds it's annual Higalaay Festival in honor of the city's patron saint: St. Augustine.

Higalaay means friendship, and our Cagayan de Oro is touted as The City of Golden Friendship. It is tradition to go to church and visit the St. Augustine Cathedral. In front of the cathedral is the Gaston Park where the annual Higalaay Garden Show and Agri Fair is held and where the city showcases the different local produce and those from neighboring towns.

St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines

Since it happens only once a year, I decided to stroll around and check out the fair.

You could see different booths and stalls around the park's oval and they are grouped according to categories.

My first stop was visiting the Garden Show area where a lot of ornamental and agricultural plants and seedlings are showcased. I saw different ornamental plants from cacti to succulents, fruit trees, herbs and vegetable plants. As a gardener myself, nothing excites me seeing the greenery and the lush landscapes.

They call this the Money Tree, will this make my cryptos rise if I buy this? Teehee!

Cacti and succulents for sale which costs over a dollar

Lemons as big as half of a football

Never mind the heat, as long as you can have a selfie with the fruit trees! Lol!

Next stop is the Agri Fair with their the fruits and vegetable booths. Some booths are wonderfully decorated like a wooden hut with hanging fruits and vegetables.

Each hut represents the barangay (district) in the city who participated in the Agri Fair. They decorate the booth as a contest entry

A vegetable booth, the freshest vegetables you can find

Watermelon and mangoes for sale! Excluding me of course! Lol!

Then I chanced upon wooden furniture booth. They produce furniture from a wood called Magkono or what they call "Iron Wood", one of the hardest trees in the world.

Magkono Furniture Shop and their products

A lot of different booths are also present, there are t-shirts, dreamcatchers, dried fishes and many more.

Maybe someday they'll sell Steemit shirts!
This booth sells dried fishes and fermented fish. Anchovies anyone?

I saved the last destination, which is the best by far: the food stalls! LOL!

Snacks all over,
plenty of food to choose from, there are native delicacies, sweet corn and the common Filipino street food.

I already ate breakfast but I got thirsty from walking around so I found a stall who sells different kinds of fruit smoothies. They offer mango, avocado and soursop. I chose the soursop or guyabano in Filipino. The smoothie costs $0.40 each cup. Soursop is very rich in antioxidants and is believed effective in fighting against cancer. Healthy is always the way to go!

I proudly wore my Steemit shirt the whole time and I'm sure people are getting curious because I see a few reading the words on my shirt and caught them staring at it.

With my soursop smoothie

So if you get a chance to travel to my city and experience the Higalaay Festival, better come in August and you will enjoy a lot of festivities and events here!

And as we always say: Laag ta bai! (Let's travel and see places, friend!)

Happy traveling!

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Photos taken from a Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime