Camotes Island Experience

Continuing with my Cebu-Masbate travel series of blogs, this post about Camotes Island travel will be the last post. After having travelled from north to south of the Cebu province, this time, I travelled to the eastern part of the island province.

Camotes group of island in Cebu has been on my travel list for almost 2 years now, and it was last January 2012 that I had finally set foot at this magnificent island. After a day trip at Oslob and Dalaguete on a Friday evening, me and my friend took a well-deserved sleep at Sugbutel. We chose Sugbutel since we will be just be staying for less than 10hours to sleep. Sugbutel is cheap and just near the SM Cebu. Our accommodation in the dormitel only cost 250 per night.

Santiago Bay, Camotes Island

It was a raining Saturday in Cebu City, and we started the morning with a breakfast. Well, we only ate some cookies and bread for our breakfast and then from Sugbutel, we rode a jeepney bound for Danao City. The travel time from Cebu City to Danao is about an hour. Anyway, you can also ride a bus at Cebu North Terminal. There are a lot of north bound buses that will pass Danao City.

Upon arrival at Danao City, we immediately proceeded to the port and bought our ferry ticket. The ferry leaves at 5am, 8:30am and 11am. We arrive at around 8am at Danao Port so we bought a ticket for the 8:30am schedule bound for Consuelo, Camotes. The fare is 180 pesos for economy accommodation. By the way, there are several ports in Camotes. One is in Consuelo, the other one in Poro and there is also a port in Cawit. When we arrive at the port, they were already a lot of passengers. The economy accommodation is first come, first serve basis only. There were a lot of Koreans at the ferry and I guess, Camotes is one of their favourite getaway destinations due to its proximity to Cebu City. Feeling nga namin nasa Korea na kami dahil sa dami ng Koreans na nasa ferry. Hehehe! 

RORO bound for Consuelo port, Camotes

After 2 hours of ferry ride, we finally arrived at Consuelo port and it’s not really a big port. Upon arrival at the port, there were a lot of motorcycle drivers who will be asking you if you want to rent a motorcycle or a vehicle for a tour around the island. Well, most of them has flyers and maps of Camotes and most of them same lang naman ang mga rates nila. We rented a motorcycle and his rate was 600 pesos for a whole day tour at Camotes tourist spots. 

Consuelo port, Camotes

Our first stop was our accommodation. Wala pa kasi kaming matutuluyan so we asked our tour guide if he knows a cheap accommodation in Camotes and he brought us to Pitos Sutukil. This lodge has only 2 rooms: one fan room, and one airconditioned room. We took the fan room since mga nagtitipid kami.hehehe! The price for the fan room was 750 pesos per night. By the way, this lodge is just near Santiago Bay Resort, and this is near the Santiago Bay beach. Madami din murang kainan sa lugar so I think it was a nice place to stay.

Santiago Bay, San Francisco, Camotes Island 

Santiago Bay, San Francisco, Camotes Island

After taking our lunch, we then headed out for our first destination.  Our first destination is Bukilat Cave. This is a cave with salt water pools. There are a lot of pools inside the cave. The cave is located at Tudela town, about 1 hour travel from Santiago Bay. We only took some pictures and just spent around 30 minutes and then we travelled to our next destination. Madami kasi kami gustong puntahan sa isla kya we won’t be able to spend long hours on every destination. Past 11am na kasi kami dumating kaya kakapusin kami ng oras kung magtatagal kami sa bawat tourist spot. Anyway, for our next destination, pumunta kami sa Buho Rock, this is a resort located at Poro, Camotes. There is actually no beach at the resort, but if you want to jump from a cliff, then this resort is the place to be. Actually there is a sort of a plank where you can jump to the sea.

Bukilat Cave, Tudela, Camotes

Bukilat Cave, Tudela, Camotes 

Buho Rock Resort, Poro, Camotes

Buho Rock Resort, Poro, Camotes 

After taking some pictures, we proceeded to our next destination. Our tour guide brought us to Baywalk. This is located at the town center of San Francisco. The idea was copied from the Baywalk in Manila. There are path walks near the shore and this area is also near the public market and the town hall. As usual, kumain lang kami at nagikot ikot and then nagpicture and after that umalis na din kami para pumunta sa next destination. Meron pa kasi kaming 3 destination na pupuntahan and it was already past 3pm when we arrived at San Francisco.  

Baywalk, San Francisco, Camotes

Our next stop was Tubunga Cave. This cave has a small entrance and inside the cave was a spring water pool. It’s kinda cold inside the cave but I find the cave a little bit overly renovated since there were already concrete stairs inside the cave. And well, my travel buddy was also kind of disappointed so after swimming for a few minutes at the spring pool inside the cave, we proceeded to Danao Lake. The travel time from Baywalk to Tubunga Cave is about 30minutes.

Tubunga Cave, San Francisco, Camotes

Danao Lake is not a huge lake located at Camotes. You can paddle a boat around the lake if you want but we chose to just take some pictures and enjoy the scenery around the lake park. And since it is already getting late in the afternoon, and of course, we want to catch the sunset at our last destination we immediately left for Mangodlong Rock Resort. This is where we will be spending the last leg of our our Camotes tour. However, I guess, luck wasn’t on our side to watch a beautiful sunset, a thick clouds blocked our sunset view, napaka KJ ng clouds na yun, ayaw ipakita sa amin ang Camotes sunset. Hehehe! So we just stroll around the resort and of course, kasama na din jan ang walang sawang pagpapapicture.

At nung nagsawa na kami sa pagpapapicture at dahil gabi na din, we told our guide to bring us to our lodge. We paid him the agreed fees and we took our diner at lumangoy din ng konti sa dagat and then natulog na din since sabi namin sa guide na balikan nya kami by 8am.

Lake Danao Park, San Francisco, Camotes

Lake Danao Park, San Francisco, Camotes 

Lake Danao Park, San Francisco, Camotes 

Mangodlong Rock Resort, San Francisco, Camotes

Mangodlong Rock Resort, San Francisco, Camotes 

Mangodlong Rock Resort, San Francisco, Camotes 

Sunset at Mangodlong Rock Resort, Camotes

Mangodlong Rock Resort, San Francisco, Camotes 

Sunday came, and it was a very beautiful morning. A cloudless blue sky, a nice beach and a cool sea breeze…aaaaahhhhh, beach life! After eating our breakfast, lumangoy na kami papunta sa marine sanctuary. It is really not that far from the beach since you can even walk going to the marine sanctuary. You’ll have to walk about 100meters on waist deep water. The nice thing about the beach at Santiago Bay, kahit ang layo na ng nalakad mo, mababaw pa din ang tubig, kya walang kachallenge challenge sa paglangoy.hehehe! 

After swimming for more than an hour, we got back to our room to pack our bags but after waiting for an hour, hindi kami sinundo ng aming guide. Ang usapan namin ay sunduin kami ng 8am para makasakay kami sa ferry ng 9am, but no guide appears at our lodge. So since we won’t be able to make it at the 9am ferry, we then chose to take the 2pm ferry instead since yun naman talaga ang next na ferry schedule. We just spent the next few hours swimming around the marine sanctuary and the sanctuary was full of corals and some fishes. Unlike sa other marine sanctuary that we’ve been around the Philippines, the fishes in this area are not used to being fed by people, kaya nagenjoy na lang kami sa paglangoy at panunuod sa mga lumalangoy na isda. 

Anyway, may bayad nga pala na 100 pesos sa marine sanctuary pero dahil Sunday and it was early in the morning, wala pang nagbabantay na mga bantay dagat personnel kya sinamantala na naming ang pagkakataon. Kuripot kami pagdating sa paggastos kaya kung ano anong strategy ang ginagawa namin.hahaha! Pero at around 11am may lumapit na sa amin na bangka at sinabi na magbayad daw kami sa barangay but we made an excuse, we told them that we didn’t know that there is a fee for swimming in the sanctuary so sinabi na lang namin na aalis na kami. (after almost swimming for 4 hours, nakalibre pa kami sa pagbayad ng 100.hahaha!)

Santiago Bay, San Francisco, Camotes Island 

Santiago Bay, San Francisco, Camotes Island 

Santiago Bay, San Francisco, Camotes Island 

After namin na masita ng bantay dagat personnel nagbanlaw na kami and we took our lunch and we just enjoy the cool breeze at the shore while waiting for 1:30pm. And then we informed the lodge owner na sila na lang maghatid sa amin sa Consuelo port and he agreed. 100 pesos was the price for 2 person for one way, from Santiago Bay to Consuelo Port.  So ayun, pumunta na kami sa Consuelo port and sumakay na kami sa ferry na 2pm na aalis. After arriving at Danao port, sinundo na kami ng one of our friends because she invited us na mamiesta sa Carmen. It was my first time to experience a fiesta in Cebu. Kakaiba pala sa fiesta sa amin sa Bicol kasi sa Carmen, everybody are welcome, at kahit saang bahay pwede kang makikain at two days pa daw ang handaan. Magastos pala ang magfiesta sa Cebu.heheh! So that ends my story about our Camotes travel. Mabilisang pagbisita sa mga tourist spot. Well, next time na bumalik kami sa Camotes, malamang we’ll just spend most of the hour bumming around the beach, especially at Mangodlong and Santiago Bay. So that’s it pusit! Till the next adventure!