CARAMOAN

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.

Island hopping

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.

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. 

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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