Thank You, Camiguin!

Our final destination in the Philippines was the island of Camiguin. Boasting the bragging rights to the title of “most volcanoes per square kilometer in the world,” this oddly remote island is a nature-lover's paradise, with clear blue sea, stunning beaches, lush tropical jungles and towering peaks, all on an island that's only 35km².

Camiguin from the sea

This was our last stop in the Philippines and we wanted to make it count. We already spent six days getting their from Dauin (read about that adventure here: part 1 and part 2) and we were ready to enjoy the luxury of not uprooting ourselves everyday and spending the daylight hours on a bus, boat or jeepney.

We started our stay at the Soul Diver's dive resort. We had been referred to this place by the dive master we were working with back in Moalboal as he used to work for them. Again, referral is a big deal in the scuba world and we were glad to have the connection.

Soul Divers is run by a middle-aged Dutch man who had moved to the Philippines full-time five years ago to work as a dive instructor. The resort was run out of his home and he had a cottage with private bath along with some shared rooms available for rent. We booked a night in the cottage and agreed to do a day trip to the nearby Mantigue island.

The cottage was Spartan, to say the least. Nathalie and I have become much less picky in terms of where we stay throughout the course of this adventure, but we still have a minimum set of standards; i.e. a clean room, clean sheets, and no obvious insect infestation. We've ditched our requirement for air conditioning (sleeping with a fan is much nicer!), and can even work with shared bathrooms given the right circumstances.

Unfortunately for us, the cottage wasn't up to par, and after spending a few minutes in it, we agreed that we would only stay the night and leave the next day after the dives. That being said, Jack was a very friendly dude. As the resort is in the middle of nowhere along the island's circumferential road with little in terms of places to eat within walking distance, he kindly offered to drive us into town and arrange a ride back for us later in the evening.

We wound up going to a cafe where his friend and dive master was playing live music that evening. We took the occasion to talk to Marco, the DM, and Jack and get to know them. We had dinner and after a few beers, headed back to the resort. Nathalie and I, not really comfortable in our room, decided the best course of action was to go to sleep as soon as possible in order to get out of the cottage sooner the following day.

The beach at Mantigue island

Morning came and we met Marco down in the dive equipment room. We prepped our gear and had a cup of coffee while the boat crew loaded up the tiny vessel we'd be diving from. After making sure all of our equipment was working and on board, we set out for the 45 minute boat ride over to Mantigue.

Mantigue, like Apo and Balicasag, is a protected natural park with white sand beaches, clear green water and ample marine life under the sea. The first point of business once landing on shore was to sign the guest register and pay the sanctuary fee. Once we completed our small bit of bureaucracy, we headed back to the boat, put on our equipment and hopped in the water.

The diving itself was pleasurable and up to the standards we're beginning to expect from the Philippines. We did see a giant green turtle and an eagle ray, but we're convinced Apo spoiled us. The second dive was probably more pleasant than the first one with more coral and a greater diversity of fish, but other than Nathalie and I recovering a plastic soda bottle and couple of empty bags of chips, there was nothing too notable about it.

In between the two dives and on the ride back to Camiguin, we took every opportunity to admire the wondrous landscape around us. The volcanoes steeply jetting out of the surface was both magnificent and intimidating.

We found Nemo. He tried to bite me. He's kind of a dick.

Once back ashore, we casually chatted with Marco and Jack, thanked them for the dives and headed on our way. Prior to leaving in the morning, we booked a night in a beach cottage on the other side of the island, a bit closer to humanity and with excellent reviews on Agoda to boot.

Getting over there was an unexpected adventure. Waiting for 25 minutes in the hot afternoon sun, we finally were able to get a jeepney to stop for us. The only space on board was either on the floor or on the standing platform on the back. Nathalie took a seat on the steps leading out the back exit and I wound up spending the entirety of the 20 minute ride holding onto to the side of the vehicle hoping to God that I wouldn't lose my grip or get tossed off at high speed.

We made it into the capital town, Mambajao, in one piece and after getting a couple of bottles of water, found a trike driver who would take us the rest of the way. Another 15 minutes of traveling (this time, we were both inside and seated) and we had arrived at Marianita's Cottages.

A small bed and breakfast run by a retired Frenchman and his Filipino wife, Marinita's was a small , two room guest house, that featured clean rooms (!), a filling breakfast, direct access to the beach, a front lawn complete with chairs and an umbrella, and perhaps most of all, some of the friendliest hosts we had met during our stay.

Marianita and Yves (the French owner) were incredibly helpful and always heartwarming to be around. Without a second thought, Marianita was able to fulfill almost all of our requests. She had a great network around the island and was able to get a motorbike for us to rent and help us arrange a climb to the top of Mt. Hibok-Hibok.

That evening, we went out to eat at one of the many restaurants just down the road from Marianita's. After finishing dining, we headed back to our room, ready for a well deserved, comfortable night of rest. It didn't quite turn out that way.

A twisty road leading up to a waterfall

Around 03:30 in the morning, the electricity went out. This meant that the fan stopped blowing air on us. This lead to us absorbing the thick, hot air that you'd expect in the tropics. This woke me up. Not being able to sleep, I went and sat outside where it was relatively cooler. After an hour of sitting around in my own sweat and feeling icky, the power came back on, which was a good thing, as it meant that the folks down the road could turn on their sound system.

Shortly before sunrise, as we were drifting back to sleep, the calm morning air was broken by thunderous dance music.   As it would turn out, there was a triathlon that day and due to the daily hot and humid weather, the race started early.   We eventually fell back asleep, waking up a few hours later feeling relativity rested.

Later that day, we rented a motorbike for the remainder of our stay and met with Tyson, the tour operator who organizes hiking adventures to the many natural wonders around the island. He was recommended to us by Marianita who has known him for many years and his built a well-earned reputation as an excellent guide and great person to be around. After chatting for the better part of 20 minutes, Nathalie, Tyson and I agreed that we'd scale Mt. Hibok-Hibok on Tuedsday, giving us the next day day to explore a bit and mentally prepare ourselves for the climb.

Mountain view from the road

We spent most of Monday exploring the island on motorbike.  As Camiguin is a small island, there is only one main road that wraps around it, with small tributaries shooting out either towards the sea or inland, heading to small villages and trail heads dotted across the isle.   We wound up following a small road towards the entrance of a waterfall.  As it would turn out, this involved an 9 km/4.5 mile climb until the road came to an abrupt end.   

By this point, the air had cooled considerably (we estimated it at 22-24C/72-76F) and the promised trail into the waterfall was nowhere to be found.  Instead, we were left looking at an abandoned construction site where it appeared that an attempt to build a bridge across a small ravine was left unfinished.  Maybe the funds ran out, maybe it was just too cold for the local construction workers to stay up there too long, but as it stood, we weren't going any further.    

We took a couple of minutes to take in the view and to take a break from the motorbike.   Once we were refreshed, we rode the brakes back all the way back down to the circumferential road and the warm tropical air surrounding it.  We took another hour to complete the loop back to the hotel, stopping briefly for a coke and attempting to get cash (this was more difficult than it should have been.  There's a "Travel Pro-Tip" post coming up on this).  After eating a carb-heaving dinner (hello, pizza!) we went to bed early in anticipation of our 05:30 am wake up call to scale Mount Hibok-Hibok.   

Camiguin

Tyson showed up on time and after a quick breakfast, we were off to scale the volcano.  I'm not going to go into detail about it here, but if you're interested, you can read my recap of the climb here.   Coming back down from the mountain, we didn't have the energy left to do much more than eat and sleep, and that's exactly what we did.

Climbing the volcano was both the pinnacle of the island and the pinnacle of our stay in Camiguin.  The rest of the week was spent doing a whole lot of nothing.   Wednesday, the day after our trek, we stayed close to the cottage, only venturing out to swim in the sea and eat.   As you could guess, our legs were completely shot from hike and needed to recover.

The last two days were more of the same, and other than taking a few small excursions on the bike, we stayed tethered to the cottage.  We took the time to brainstorm the rest of our trip and, as I've noticed whenever I have nothing to do, dove head first into deep thought and reflection about every notion and premonition that popped into my head.  I'd like to say that this was relaxing, unfortunately for me, it left me with many questions to answer and having the free time to do so oddly didn't help.

Oddly feeling trapped in paradise, we were strangely content when Saturday rolled around and we began our full-day trek not only back to Cebu but onward to Kuala Lumpur.   As the small turbo-prop took off and we got one final glimpse at the breathtaking beauty of Camiguin, a smile came across of our face and sense of satisfaction rolled over both of us.  We were glad to be heading back, but at the same time thrilled that we had the opportunity to visit one of the most remote places on the planet, one that is teeming with natural beauty and one that gave us so much to think about and appreciate.  Would I come back, most likely not, but would I recommend it to anyone looking for the adventure of a largely untouched tropical island? Without hesitation.

The beach looking out towards Bohol at sunset