“Camigiun, the Island Born of Fire” is a spectacular smaller island just south of larger Bohol island in the central Visayas in the Philippines.
I kept hearing about the area, so I called on two friends, Tom and Bida Solski who ran a small dive resort on the volcanic north shores to le them know the GMA7 wanted to produce another internationally syndicating wildlife Born To Be Wild episode featuring my Philipines filmography, so a date was set with Tom and Bida and Born To Be Wild producer Karl Camilia.
Getting to Camiguin used to be a bit time consuming, where one takes a fast ferry from the Cebu City port to Bohol’s Tagbilaran, then an hour long aircon Ceres bus to the port of Jagna, Bohol, then a slower 4 hour ferry to the Benoni Port. In other words, it took up an entire day. Us foreigners do not have Legendary Pinoy Patience, but now one can take a 50 minute Philippine Airlines or Cebu Pacific Airlines turboprop plane from Cebu’s Mactan airport to the small but newly renovated Camiguin island airport. If you are flying into Manila first, then you take a 55 minutue jet with the same airlines to Cebu’s Mactan airport, or just last May, Skyjet airlines started their inaugural daily passenger jet fly direct from Manila to Camiguin island.
Now don’t hate me airlines, but you MUST get a window seat, the flight alone is spectacular! I saw so many interesting future little islands and a very remote deserted tiny little sandbars and islands in the middle of absolutely nowhere, like one called Manok-Manok island which literally translates to chicken-chicken, or Chicken Island.
Flight are usually not full, so ask your friendly flight attendant if they can radio the pilot on which side of the plane will give you the best photo-op when approaching Camiguin island airport. I saw this as you will flight very low at about 500 meters by one of the many iconic nature attractions of Camiguin island, and its called White island, a deserted sandbar of fine white coral sands, and spectacular gin clear torquoise gentle waters perfect for snorkeling, swimming, diving and laughing your lives away.
Camiguin airport is very small, but they just completely remodeled it. This means you get a really well organized arrival and departure experience, with no crowds at all.
The primary area of beach resorts on Camiguin is on the north shore where all the diving is done. So off we went to Tom and Bida’ Solski’s dive resort.
Now I had heard that GMA7 was going to have their segment producer Karl Camilia there, their cameraman and the show host was going to be Kiko Rustia. I had not heard of that name, so if course, I looked him up on the Internet. Seems Kiko was well known as a Big Brother contestant, and his style was a cross between an 80’s hair band metal rocker and a surfer dreadlocker. So of course I had to find an online source for a dreadlock wig and a bunch of braided cloth wristbands. The plan was to show up and with the segment producer, crew and Kiko there, I was going to walk up, and start complaining about Kiko copying my signature style. I can guarantee you they all would have been rolling in laughter and getting out the cams for photo-op memories. The people of the Philippines, their sense of humor is totally awesome and they just get it, making it a blast to hang out with them. You may go alone, but with their warmth, humor and legendary hospitality, you are never alone in the Philippines. THEN, tragically, they sent Kiko off to the almost uninhabited northern islands of the Philippines for the pelagic whales there, so my gag was blown 🙁 Instead I got to meet substitute show host Recio Ferds, a skilled veterinarian known as Doc Ferds, who adds his professional knowledge of animal biology to the nature show mix.
Our first diving and filming was right in the volcanic sand mixed with coral sand shallows of the north shores of Camiguin. While there are the usual hard and soft corals spread out to be found in the loose sandy bottom, the easy to find macro critters diving there was full-on spectacular! Orangutan crabs, upside down jellyfish, bizarre clear nudibranchs that flop down and envelope organic matter in their paths like the movie The Blob, giant tridacna clams, clear decorator and Emperor shrimp shrimp, every imaginable anemone, crabs, colorful dorids, frogfish, filefish, snake and moray eels, etc. Wow! , I was in Paradise!
One of the most popular dive sites is actually a small island called Mantigue island that both dive boats o to and island hopping land lovers. Mantigue island used to have about 20 figherman families living on it, but t hey have all been renovated and all the dwelling structures are being removed. With the exception of some benches, a small concession stand and the really cool native wood elevated plank that goes through Mantigue’s central forest, a 15 minute shaded walk, Mantigue island is being returned to its natural state.
The entire Mantigue island can be walked around its perimeter in about 30-40 minutes. The diving is killer wide angle reef diving jam-packed with macro critters and the resident school of friendly jacks where you can swim or diving right through them jack-nado style.
Off the Richetr scale diving in not the only secret Camiguin holds, the things to do and see are legion, and conveniently it does not take up much time getting to any of them. Popular nature thing to see are Ardent Hot Springs where you can soak in warm hot springs, Bura Soda Springs where the fresh water tastes most interesting, then Santo Nino Cold Springs where the fresh water is, well, quite cold!
Other interesting cultural and nature places are the Gui-Ob Church Ruins from the 1600’s,the Sunken Cemetary that used to be above ground but is now a shallow reef. A tourist favorite is Katibawasan Falls, an 80 or so meter high falls that comes crashing down into a pool of refreshing colder water. Looks also for Binangawan and Tuasan Falls.
To the west near Catarman is an aquaculture facility that cultures tridacna clams. A lot of them! Near the shore facility is a larger area under about 2 meters of water where a significant number of large tridacna clams area arranged in symmetrical rows to reproduce and spread their eggs.
There are a few small caves along the roadside, so naturally I asked my guide to take me to one to shoot. He would not go inside, and upon my query, eh said in a lower voice, “Sir, there are spirits in there”. I said ok, then proceeded to go in through a tight opening. Just after I turned the corner where he could not see me, I sat utterly silent for a bit, then screamed quickly poked my head back around the corner, looked at him form 2 meters away, and said; “Just kidding!”, with a smile. He was both relieved and he laughed, that great Pinoy sense humor shining through again!
The east part of the north shore just pasted the Mantigue island bangka terminal has a popular destination area where they have exhilerating side by side zip lines that go out right over the lagoon. After that fun, adventure seekers like to dine at a place right there called “J&A Fish Pen” They farm fish here in the lagoon, and they have eating areas on the property and on shaded floating walkways and dining areas right ton the lagoon. Their selection of local dishes and seafood is excellent.
Speaking of interesting dining, you MUST visit the Beehive Bistro and Driftwood Cafe! They have a full organic menu of regular and quirky specialities ranging from dishes like organic local grown salads and organic vegetables, a large range of organic coffees like macadamia nut, fresh seafood of the day, Chicken Cordon Bleu, to their purple dragon fruit smoothie style shakes. But…the place is one of the most whimsical restaurants I have ever seen! Sort of like a micro-Burning Man festival with the most odd, quirky artsy items placed about. DON”‘T even think about forgetting to bring your camera, this place is wild! A take a jar of their organic honey too.
There are several resorts that rent out fast newer jetskis, and if you have half a day, try climbing up the upper half of Mount Hibok-Hibok, a giant volcanic mountain often cool mist shrowded at her peaks.
And remember that White island you flew over when landing at the Camiguin airport? Right next to Paras Resort is the little terminal where for a few hundred pesos for your own private bangka boat or even less if you share, you can go 15 minutes from the black volcanic north shores to spectacular uninhabited White island. The shape of this uninhabited huge sandbar is always changing with the winds and tide, and the color of the clear waters is just amazing. Take some snorkeling gear or rent them at the terminal if you do not have. Best time to go is early morn when it is cool, or the end of the day after 2 pm when the breeze pics up.
If you have some spare time when not taking in the popular adventures, your resort can arrange for a motorbike rental and helmets, and take a ride around the entire island which can be done in 60-90 minutes depending on your speed. Do wear eye protection in the early eves though as the kamikaze flying bugs t come out then and hitting a hard shell beetle at 75 kmph with your eyeball can ruin your evening. I speak from experience! If you go off road at night, take care to go slow and not run over the hilarious fat n sassy bullfrogs that come out in legion for a night of song and romance.
As to where to say, Secret Cove Resort is now called Kurma Eco Lodge, a well run budget style beach resort and restaurant that can handle your scuba, snorkeling and free diving.
We will be returning to Camiguin soon and will be featuring a couple of spectacular, most Instagrammable luxury beach resorts there and some new nature places, and we have an idea for a viral video planned using the famed sweet fruit Lanzones of Camiguin, so stay tuned for more!
And as always, special thanks to The Philippine Department of Tourism Region X Director May Saldana Unchuan, Candace Boromeo and her helpful staff of the Camiguin Tourism Office, the Honorable Romualdo’s Mayor Office and as always, the wonderful people of the Philippines.
