There is no one word which can describe Caramoan. You have to tell it by your own story , with its own respective intensity. Here is mine.
Caramoan is a group of islands in the Bicol region which is located in the southern part of the Philippines. This is where the infamous reality TV show Survivor was shot, but apart from its fame gained from the said reality show, Caramoan is really a paradise not only because of it’s magnificent islands but mostly because of it’s people, the Bicolanos.
Getting there.
We were hesitant to leave that day for it was a holiday
thinking we might get stuck at the bus station because we didn’t have any
reserved seats, but we went on anyway. We waited for ten minutes at the station
and finally got a bus which was bound for Naga, a town where we have to go to
reach Caramoan. It was a long, not so smooth nine-hour drive from Manila. Once
we’ve reached the town of Naga, the bus conductor told us that we should
continue on to Pili, the next town after
Naga if we were going to Caramoan, knowing nothing about the place, we said yes
and continued on to Pili, once in Pili, we rode an ordinary bus which says
Lagunoy on it’s placard, it was a short two-hour trip to the port but we were
standing during the first hour and I was constantly asking the bus conductor
“are we there yet?”.
We arrived at the port, the local told us that we need
to get to a boat and travel for another two hours to reach Caramoan, I was
really hungry that time but the locals advised us that there will be no other
boat leaving that day for Caramoan, not
minding the upheaval of my stomach we catched the last boat and headed
to Caramoan. We arrived at Guajilo port at around 2pm, rode a tricyle where we
met Rene, who offered us to take us to town and said he knows a place for us to
eat, we agreed and took us there.
it was a simple poorly lit carinderia, they
had four viands available if I remembered it correctly, we sat there and ate. After the meal, I
started talking to the owner of the poorly lit carinderia , He has this artist
ambience in him, His head is big, had a goatee and his face I was sure was not
a local to that place. I noticed the Survivor related works of art when we
entered the placed and I started talking about it, surely, He said that he is
an artist and those are his works, then he started telling stories about the
production teams of Survivor Israel, USA, Australia and France. As much as I
would like to continue the chitchat whith Erwin we still have to find a place
to stay so I bid farewell to Erwin and told him I will come back tomorrow to
continue our conversation.
We stayed in a simple room with two beds with A/C, good
thing that it had no TV because I didn’t want to spend my vacation staring at
the idiot box, the only bummer was there was no signal for Globe and we
urgently need to contact some friends for a favor, fortunately, our tricycle driver
Rene has an extra Smart simcard which he lend to us. Problem solved. We decided
to just relax and explore the town for the first day and do activities the
following day. Rene said that he has a boat and he can take us island hopping
tomorrow, we agreed and said to meet him at 7am the following day.
Caramoan Sunset
We unpacked our things, relaxed for a while and decided to
go out and see the sunset. We headed straight to the shores of Caramoan and saw
the bangkas parked along the shore, there were a lot of them, colorful and
vibrant. We enjoyed the sunset while walking along the shore talking about various
ideas and what we should do with life, well that is one of the best things to
do while the sun is setting in front of you. The sunset was not the immaculate,
pristine, perfect kind of sunset, and really, that was not I was hoping for.
The mundane always inspire me and I always feel that things should be told as
they were, that is why I hate Shakespeare.
The sunset during our first day in Caramoan, the simple
conversation at the shores of it makes up a perfect memory of of an unperfect sunset.
Of first impressions and common spectacles
The houses were poorly lit, some are still using lamplights/candles
to light up their houses, kids were playing around a bright establishment which
we found out later on was a KTV bar. Around 70% of the houses we saw doesn’t
have electricity and as I observe, I realize that when the night comes, they
don’t have anything to do but stare and talk to each other or to the kids
playing outside their houses. This is a common spectacle in the far flung rural
areas of the Philippines. Most of the provinces doesn’t have electricity,
technology seems to be elusive and nights are quiet, really really quiet. People
are warm, even if you can’t see their faces on the roads, you know that they
are smiling inside and telling you that you’re safe here. We dined and went back to our place.
Unity in “Samsero”
We got back to the beach the following day to
meet Rene for our island hopping adventure when we saw a bunch of locals
pulling something from the seas of Caramoan. I approached a local and asked
what were they doing and He happily responded saying “Semsero”. It is a way of
fishing done by the locals of Caramoan where they set the “lambat” out to the
open sea and pull it to gather the fishes around it improving the number of the
fishes drawn to it. They do it once every fifteen minutes taking breaks once in
a while. The local said that the
fishes which will be caught during
the process will be divided equally to those who helped, He even told me that
if wewould help them, they will give us a fair cut of the catch. This is a prime example that the culture of
“bayanihan” in the provinces of the Philippines is still practiced and the
unity of the locals is still decisive and very much alive.
Rene arrived at around 7:30am which was perfect time for a
day in the open sea. We started loading
our things on to the boat, Rene brought a crew of three which were all friendly
in their own ways. We started chatting as soon as we boarded with me asking
where to go first and what island they recommend we should go first.
First
stop was Lahos Bato (Lampasan), an island in between two huge boulders which serves
as the passageway of waves hence the name Lahos Bato.
We stayed there for a bit and took some time to
appreciate the beauty of the island and when Iyna tried to climb the stones at
the far end of the island, she was about to step onto stones to climb up when she
screamed as loud as she can, “may ahas!” (“there’s a snake!”), we ran towards
her and saw what she saw, Rene said that
it was s water snake and it’s not venomous. I took a picture of it and then
left the creature and the island.
We stayed there for a bit and took some time to appreciate the beauty of the island and when Iyna tried to climb the stones at the far end of the island, she was about to step onto stones to climb up when she screamed as loud as she can, “may ahas!” (“there’s a snake!”), we ran towards her and saw what she saw, Rene said that it was s water snake and it’s not venomous. I took a picture of it and then left the creature and the island.
Second
stop was Matukad. The sand of the beach of this island was incomparable, more of
like a Polvoron, a Filipino dessert, it was pure , fine and very white. We
stayed there and took a quick swim, the water was a bit cold but the sun kept us warm us while
swimming.
Rene challenged us for a quick climb and said our trip would not be complete if we wouln’t see the “lagoon”, where He says is the home for a giant hito, whichh they believe is a mystical creature that protects Caramoan from calamities. Rene also added that it doesn’t always show itself, if we’re lucky, we’ll see it. The climb was hard, the steps was slippery because of the early morning rains and it was really steep . We took some pictures from the top, climbed down and bid
farewell to Matukad, the polvoron beach of Caramoan.
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view from the top of matukad
We
were welcomed with a coconut on our
third stop, Sab-itang Laya (long beach). We diffused the burning sun with the
warm, sweet fruit drink while walking along Caramoan’s longest beach.
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We traversed the other side of Sab-itang laya where we
found large rock formations and anoher beach, stayed there, smoked a ciggarette
and took another quick swim.
When we came back, Rene and the rest of the crew have
already cooked our lunch, the menu was smoked squid and other local fishes. It
was mouth watering, we even forgot to wash our hands before eating.
While we were eating, Elmer and Roger decided to do something else, and when they came back, they brought with them some weird sea creatures.
I tried two kinds, the first one was comparable to tahong, but a lot saltier, maybe because it was caught straight from the sea when I ate it, but they said that the real flavor comes out once cooked. The other one is more pallatable, it was more like scallops, they marinaded it with calamansi and wallah! instant pulutan!
We had a little chat with some locals there and exchanged
opinions about the sea creatures they brought and then moved on to our next
stop.
While
we were on our way to our next stop, we were advised that it would take some
time to get there, so what would be the best thing to do while on a boat? It’s
drinking time! Bicolanos love drinking and they have a favorite, kwatro kantos!
With the instant pulutan on the side, we talked about Caramoan, PUP, the NPA’s
and how they’ve helped the people of Caramoan and the yellow army who according
to them raped and ravaged parts of their beautiful island.
The second to the last stop was Manlawi, meaning sand bar. The rare thing about Manlawi is that you can go as far as 20 meters from the shore and it’s still thigh deep, it was a vast swimming pool-playground.
We took some time and enjoyed the the crystal clear waters of Manlawi, it was our second to the last stop and it was given that this beach was the perfect beach for swimming so we made sure that we’ve swam our heart’s out before we leave.
Last stop was the 444 steps grotto, it was not the ideal
finale but hey, this is our first time
in Caramoan, why not try everything the locals have to offer?
We needed to
walk for a few minutes to reach the steps of the grotto where we passed along
some local houses and from there, you can see the the white monument standing
tall from the mountain top.
Rene told us that there was a supposed to be
earthquake in that area but when a nun prayed to the virgin mary, it stopped,
that is why they decided to build an enormous monument of mary on top of it, and
according to them, since then, the area was calamity-proof.
We are not really into mystic stories and religious
monuments, but we enjoyed the story of hope and the bird’s eye view that the grotto
gave us, from there you could see the whole Caramoan in a quick spin.
Caramoan taught us something
While we were on the boat on our way to our start point, we
were confronted by a mild volume of rain which suddenly brought strong winds
and suddenly, all we knew was that we can’t see a thing from our boat, the pieces of
islands which earlier we can still see was not visible anymore. Rene started
shouting and we knew that He was
panicking saying that we should dock into the nearest shore to be safe, but how
could that be possible if we couldn’t see shit? So we tried to stay calm, I
remember saying “inom pa tayo!” (let’s drink again!), I tied my camera bag to a
safe place after taking Rene’s photo giving orders to Roger, shouting to secure
the boat then picked the kwatro kantos up and started drinking again. The rain
and the strong winds didn’t stop for twenty long minutes, then after, the islands that once were'nt visible surfaced.
It was smooth sailing after that, the
cool breeze of Caramoan dried our stuff on our way to our start
point.
We reached our start point safely at around 8:00 o’clock. It
was so dark we couldn’t see anything but the light from 10-20 houses. Rene guided
us to our place and said he would pick us up at 9:00am the following day.
We dined and slept like a baby.
Caramoan Church
We decided to take a walk before leaving Caramoan, we swam
into brackish waters and then walked back home. Rene picked us up and said that
ther is still a place we need to see, the Caramoan church, he brought us there,
took some time to look at the centruy old church, took some pictures of it then
left.
We arrived at the port at around 10:00am where we boarded a
small ferry headed to Guajilo port. We bid farewell to Rene and told Him that
we will go back the following year, we thanked him and headed our way.
We travelled again by boat for two hours and when we reached
Guajilo port, we decided not to end our trip there.
NAGA SIDETRIP TO BE
CONTINUED
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