Motorela another kind of tricycle in Cagayan de Oro

We took a taxi from the airport of Cagayan de Oro to transport us to St. Nicolas Inn but the taxi driver didn’t know where the hotel was. So we decided to drop off the taxi and look for the location of the hotel in the Google map. A lady told us that we could take a rela in going to the hotel because it was just near where we were. We were clueless what rela was so she was the one look for rela for us. It’s a tricycle too but with a huge and long body. Rela short for motorela, sounds like a phone company, right?

Would you believe that its capacity is 12 passengers? The capacity is 10 passengers at the back and two passengers besides the driver, all in all 13. At first first we thought 6 at the back and 1 beside the driver but when the driver started to fill the vehicle with passengers’ ohh it was like we were compressed inside the vehicle. But well that’s the challenge of the trip how to blend with the locals, sort of community immersion.

I saw a lot of different public utility vehicles but motorela is somehow unique in this part of the country. It was fun trying to live like a local even though I didn’t understand well the language but still it’s great to experience new things. That’s one of the essences of the traveling to understand and appreciate different ways of living