The following morning, as soon as the sun was up, we were woken up by all sorts of singing birds, including roosters, and all sort of insects crawling on our bed, despite the mosquito net. Needless to say, I got more insect bites than I care to count.
Camiguin is a fairly small island off the northern coast of Mindanao. It has a ~60-km road going around its perimeter. Inside, we were told that it has more volcanos per square mile than any other island in the world. We knew all of this and, still, decided that renting a bike would be the best way to go around. It didn't seem to be such a wise decision when we were pedaling uphill for miles and miles to get to the sights. Going downhill, of course, was a different story.
The island has a few resorts, and tourism seems to be an important part of its economy, however it hasn't received enough foreign tourists yet to spoil the locals. We experienced the same feeling that we had in very few other places, where tourists are scarce: people try to be genuinely helpful without looking for every way that they can get money from you. We were biking by and everybody was greeting us with a "hello!", just for a smile, or asking "where are you going?", only trying to make sure that we were on the right track. I love that. To make things easier, most people can communicate in English.
We spent 2 days and a half exploring the island. Some of the places are shown in the pictures. We visited a couple of falls, the ones in Tuwasan were particularly beautiful (and hard to get to). We swam in a soda pool (not sure what that means, to me it was a cold-water pool a little out of the way, uphill, of course). We climbed the stations of the cross on the hillside of an old volcano with a wonderful view of the coast and of an enormous cross in the water marking the site of a cemetery that was sunken by an earthquake long time ago. We dipped in the Ardent Hot Springs: another bike trip up a hill, under such a strong sun on a humid day that even the hot springs felt cool when we got there. On the last day we moved to a resort on the northern shore of the island. The sand is black due to volcanic activity, so it looked less inviting, but we hired a boat that took us to White Island. This is a tiny white-sand island with nothing on it, 10 minutes away from the resort. Picture perfect: turquoise waters all around it, in contrast with the dark blue closer to Camiguin, white sand under your feet, and at the back, a view of the imposing volcanos covered in lush green. There's not much to do in White Island, so after the photos shots, a dip in the sea and a short sunbathing session, we headed back to the resort, where we found out that my bike's back tire was absolutely flat, and the bike shop was 5km away. Arghhh. Well, Simon took care of fixing this "minor setback". :)
Now it is Thursday evening, and we started our way to the next stop: the rice terraces in North Luzon. We should be there in some 36 hours time, weather permitting. This itinerary was picked from a long list of recommendations that Jerry gave me (explanation: my prior boss is from the Philippines, and Jerry is her brother). In fact, I never met Jerry in person, but his recommendations are spot on. I owe him many many thanks.
As I look back on Camiguin Island from the ferry, I miss outdoors paradise already. Although, thinking twice, my legs and butt could take a break from biking now. Simon, ditto.
Mercedes
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