Birthday Trip

Birthday Trip to Camotes Islands, Cebu Province, Philippines

Well for my Birthday I decided to take the family on a trip to Camotes Islands. We had never been to Camotes in the 15 year I have been coming to the Philippines. We had heard from several people – local and expat – that it is a nice scenic place to stay and they were correct about that. The ting is it was one of the most expensive trips I have taken in the Philippines!! I know I am chap and if you knew how much it cost you would say I was being cheap BUT I am comparing it to trips I took as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I was making only $200 a month and subsequent trips and let me say I think it was beautiful but way overvalued. Enough of my bitching… It was a beautiful trip and we had a great time, Ashley wanted to stay another day and I could have if we had more money. Again it was a wonderful trip and I am glad I had taken it.

Camotes Island is located off the coast of mainland Cebu Island and is known as the "Lost Horizon in the South" due to its unspoiled natural beauty. Camotes Island is very rich in natural beauty and is a popular tourist destination for locals and now more and more the Korean students who come to Cebu to study English. I have to say this might be why it is so expensive. Unfortunately it might become so expensive that only the rich locals will be able to visit, but my wife said many of the local tourists just bring their cars on the ferry boat over thus dramatically reducing the cost of vacationing there. This island is part of the Cebu Province, and as it is very close by boat it is a perfect getaway to people who wants to escape from the hassle and bustle of the city life.

On a side note: The Philippines and Cebu in particular has become a major destination for Korean students learning English. In the past 8 years I have seen the number of Korean students expand dramatically. This is great news for the country and the Koreans really seem at home here in the Philippines. It is great to see how they really seem to take to the Philippines.

There are two ways to get to and from Camotes, we took the “fast” boat over, this boat leaves from downtown Cebu City from Pier 1. My how the piers of Cebu have changed over the years, I remember so many wonderful experiences at the Piers of Cebu when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Mostly I remember that they were packed with activity and excitement (possibly danger) was around every corner. The Piers used to be lined with street vendors selling everything; snacks, BBQ, soda (you had to drink it there as the bottles had deposits or you could take it in a plastic bag if you wanted), beer, Tanduay (the local Rhum), single cigarettes, fresh roasted peanuts (fried in oil), you name it it was available at the pier for a reasonable price too. You also had to watch out for the porters loading the parcels onto the boat, any wrong step and you might be hit by one. But now they have sanitized the Piers and they are nice and clean but I miss the old dirty Wild West style pier, they kind of reminded me of Detroit. I hope that in our journeys this vacation we can find one of the old style piers so I can get some photos for my memories of the times I had.

This is how they sell gasoline on the island!! Yum tasty coke!!

The trip placed us on Camotes at about 8 pm, not having been to Camotes before we ahd no idea how far the resort was from our pier. One thing you have to understand about Camotes is that the two main islands are separated by a mangrove forest in a shallow plane between the two islands. This area has been seen the development of a bridge connecting the two main islands. The unfortunate fact is that the bridge greatly reduces the flow of ocean water in the mangrove forest thus leading to several areas of stagnant sea water, making the area very foul smelling. So we arrived during the 2 ½ hours of no power everyday and were not sure where we were or where we were going. It turned out we had landed on one island (Poro) and were staying on the other (San Francisco). Now in most of the Philippines this problem is easily solved by public transportation. All you need to do is to hop on a jeepney (elongated jeep that fits 10+ people in the back) , Trkie (125 cc motorcycle that has a side car that can fit 4 + people) or a tricad (human powered bike with a side car for 2+ people). It turns out there are no such forms of transportation on Camotes, which baffled not only me but my wife, who is from Cebu!!! We ended up getting a ride on the back of a motorcycle, well 2 motorcycles. It was a nice ride even through it was raining lightly and the motorcycle I was on did not have a head light. Needless to mention my drive stank of Tanduay Rhum, luckily for Tita his was not but he did not have rain gear and was frequently wiping his face to see. I am not complaining personally I think it adds to the fun and excitement of the trip. It was an hour journey over to the hotel from the pier; I only wish we could have taken the trip in the day light as for what I saw it was truly a naturally wondrous island unspoilt by overdevelopment.


Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

We decided to stay at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort for our 2 nights and 2 days. “The peaceful village of Santiago, San Francisco is Camotes’ first tourist enclave, home to Santiago Bay Garden and Resort, a 2.5 hectare of lush greenery. This 19-bedroom resort is charmingly tucked in a profusion of landscaped exotic foliage overlooking a wide, white sandy beach and a dazzling blue ocean. The resort successfully and effortlessly blends nature with friendly hospitality. It is a few minutes from the town and the ports of San Francisco and Poro.” Well this is not exactly true as it took us about an hour
http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/santiago.htm

On our first day there we took the sightseeing tour which involved hiring local transport. Again it was much more expensive than we had planned for, luckily we had brought what we thought was too much money so we did not have to worry.

Bukilat Cave

Bukilat Cave was named after the founder Bukilat. This cave was used as a shelter from the Japanese during World War II. Camotes Island has 8 natural caves.” http://www.mingsworld.com/cave1.html
The cave was a wonder to behold and the trip to it involved the trip back past the village we started in and offered us a view of all the wonderful scenery that we missed on our trip over the night before.

The cave itself is a nice place to hang out but we went while the water was low so we ended up not swimming. It seems to be a spring fed cave evidenced by the various stalagmite and stalactites from the dissolution of the calcium carbonate deposits of the corals and sea shells that make up the islands. The cave did have a number of bats in residence which were very vocal if we went into the darker areas of the cave.

Boho Rock Resort in Poro Camotes

Our next destination was a series of small islands that had been eroded from the main part of the island. They were reached by a series of bridges and LOTS of stairs that we would regret climbing back up being as out of shape as we are. The sea gently erodes and cuts into the coral island, so that if you walk to the edge of the island you are always standing on a (solid) overhang. Well at Boho Rock Resort this offers you an opportunity to do some cliff diving. As we arrived at low tide we were only able to jump off the 18 foot cliffs. I was surprised that the kids were more than willing to fling themselves of these clifs- after of course I did so myself checking for the safety for the dives. You had to climb a bamboo ladder to return to the top of the cliff which was a neat thing to do itself. The kids had a blast here and did not want to move on.

Baywalk, San Francisco

We decided not to visit the old church at Poro because there are plenty in the Philippines that are in their more natural condition. There are quite a few churches in Cebu that are more than 600 years old and the churches on Camotes seem like they are just new buildings.

Baywalk, we just loved the name of the place. It was by the bridge connecting San Francisco to Poro. The Baywalk was nice and clean local market with many shops to choose from offering house wares to dining to snacks and of course what place would be complete without a Karaoke bar. Speaking of Karaoke, from watching Filipino TV you might have the impression that all Filipinos can sing well. OK maybe you do not watch Filipino TV but I am sure you know a few Filipinos who will break out into song in a heartbeat. No? Well surely you have been in a show with a Filipino attendant just singing away. But I digress the point is I have always thought that the Filipinos are some of the most musical people (granted most of the stuff they sing I hate (sappy love songs) BUT that is not the point) and that they can carry a tune quite well. So what happens at the Karaoke bar? They sound like a cat being murdered by a loud screeching dog with a bit of bat mixed in to make it truly horrid! I guess it is the alcohol because I have NEVER heard singing like this by the Filipinos anywhere else.

Well we loaded up with lunch and snacks and headed off for Timubo Cave.

Timubo Cave

Now the kids had had a blast at the Boho Rock Resort and to tell the truth the Bukilat Cave was not really a swimming spot, so they were a little less than enthusiastic about going to Timubo Cave. Luckily we were all pleasantly surprised by the beauty and complexity of the Timubo Cave.

This was truly a cave whereas the Bukilat Cave has many openings through the limestone to show the light of day Timubo Cave lies deep within the island offering no light save for that which is strung up by the operators of the cave. It also had no bats to speak of which I think is a bit strange, maybe they were hiding well enough for us not to see or hear them. You descend down several flight of stairs to get to the cave bottom I would say the cave bottom is about 40 feet deep into the island. Then you have to traverse some pools of water on the walkway to get to the main swimming spot. One of the pools that yu have to traverse is quite deep and as Tita was not wearing her swim suit she had to hike up her shorts quite far to get past it and remain dry.

The main swimming pool is a sight to see it is deep and quite long and still fresh for the most part. For the most part because they have put a bathroom near the entrance and it smells as if the septic tank that they are using is not efficient enough for the task as some of the stretches of the pool near the front of the pool are quite rank. Luckily those stretches are not lit up and are all nut impassable, but I think in10 year the whole pool might be fouled so it is good we went now.

The main pool is lit for two of the pools and goes back at least 100 yards. It is also quite deep about 8 feet at some points in the pool system. Well we had a good time swimming in the pool and as it was fresh water it cleaned off the salt that we had gotten from swimming in the ocean at Boho Rock Resort. We spent a good time swimming in the pools and explored a bit of the system which seemed to go on forever.


Lake Danao

“Lake Danao is known to be the largest fresh water lake in the Visayas and Mindanao. The total size of the lake is 680 hectares. The shape of the lake is a number 8. This place used to be full of crocodiles until they were all hunted down and their hides were sold in Mindanao to produce bags, shoes, and belts out of crocodile skin. Lake Danao contains fresh water and still is abundant with fishes. The Bureau of Fisheries holds their office here. You can buy a variety of fresh water fish which is also dried and sold as a dried fish specialty from the island.” http://www.mingsworld.com/lakeda.html

We ate lunch at the picnic table under a large tree. The picnic table with the tree shade offered us a nice place to relax and have our lunch with views of both the lake and sounding area. We were visited by one of the local dogs at lunch a beautiful animal with nice coloring and cool eyes.

After lunch we decided to walk around the lake as there are paths that go along both sides from the main sitting area of the lake. The walks were nice and refreshing and they offered us views of the lake, the tree plantation (they start trees for planting in little bags in the shade of the mangrove forest) and the land adjacent to the lake as well.

We decided not to take the boat out for a spin on the lake as we were getting tired, but Ashley and I did take a dip in the lake by the small pier that the boat was docked at. Unfortunately the area by the dock was filled with silt and Ashley and I got covered with the silt in our brief swim.

Mangodlong Rock Resort

“Nestled in the serene fishermen’s village of Mangodlong, Heminsulan, San Francisco, the resort stands on 2 hectares of extensive coconut-shaded garden close to the beachfront. Across the resort and separated by a blue sea is a coral islet with tropical huts spread out, connected by a sand bar from the beach. The resort offers an ideal combination of intimacy and laid-back island atmosphere. It is a few minutes from the town and ports of San Francisco and Poro.” http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/mangodlong.htm

There were some cliff diving spots here that we jumped from and there was plenty of swimming in the ocean. Also we saw some cool crabs and fish that jumped about on the rocks out of the water like little mud skippers.

Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

After a long day we headed back to the resort for a dip in the pool. Even Tita joined us in the pool. For dinner we headed down the beach to a local restaurant for a wonderful dinner of BBQ pork. All in all it was a great birthday.

The last day we decided to hang out at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort. The kids swam in the pool while Tita and I packed for our trip back to Cebu.

We decided to take the boat that goes to Danao City in Cebu. This trip takes about 3 to 4 hours and it puts you about an hour north of the city of Cebu. The trip itself was nice and relaxing we saw a lot of flying fish from the boat. It was a much more relaxing and enjoyable trip than the fast craft as we got to see a lot while in transit. Also I really like take the old slow boats and the kids enjoyed the trip more even though it was longer.

Can you believe that the trip was only 2 days long?

David, Tita, Andrew and Ashley
The Traveling Rumptzes