The real reason of our Bicol getaway is to see the Caramoan Islands in Camarines Sur famed by the tv show The Survivor Series of multiple countries. Most of the islets are not commercialized and inhabited which made the peninsula really ideal for the popular tv show.
From Naga City, we managed to arrange the cab that brought us from airport to the hotel to drive us from the hotel to Sabang port at 5 in the morning. It took approximately 2 not-boring hours to get there; we enjoyed the scenery of the Mount Isarog and the rural area on our way. From Sabang port, we boarded a small boat bigger than the typical fishermen canoe that can carry around 30 people going to the town proper alighting at Guijalo port; it also took almost 2 hrs to get there. Don’t forget to get a glimpse of the top of the perfect cone Mayon Volcano before boarding. At Guijalo, many fixers will offer you Caramoan island hopping tour packages. .
There are lots of accommodations to choose from at the town proper near the shore. Most of the rooms for rent equipped with private bathroom are extension of the owners’ houses. We met the owner of the accommodation house we got and they were like our parents during our stay. We can request for food to eat and we were served more than what we expected – just like moms! ❤ That’s Bicolano hospitality at its finest.
We had the owner of the place we stayed arrange our island hopping for us for 2 days. . The package is inclusive of food for the whole day. We certainly had a blast! The islands were awesomely un-swamped with tourists and we gazed in awe at the picturesque scenery from our way until we reached the islands. There was one small island though that we were not able to visit as the waves were strongly splashing into the shore. Too strong that one boat we saw who firstly reached there seemed flying even anchored unto the ground. It’s sad that I can’t remember all the islands we visited but only one has really pressed unto my memory – the Matukad island – because we stayed longer there. I saw this website and the photos of the islands were amazing, it’ll make you go travel there and see them for yourself – http://www.caramoanislands.com/#/top-12-islands/ . Some islands, like Gota, were private and only those who checked in at the hotel are eligible to enjoy. It’s also good that we went to Caramoan when the Survivor TV Series don’t shoot. We were made aware that when the famous tv show tapes there, tourists are not able to visit some islands as boats were not allowed to go to the same island where they shoot or even come close to it. The sound of the boat is what the tv show is avoiding so tourists can only visit 2 or 3 islands less. The crew of the tv show including those who were voted out was firstly said to have stayed in the small accommodations in the mainland until the hotel in Gota was built. Anyways, here are a few of the snap shots of our trip.
The town is awfully quiet at night, seems the locals sleep early. The boutiques and gift shops closes early so there isn’t really anything to do but to enjoy the company of your friends with a few bottles of beers then rest early so you’ll have the strength for another round of island hopping the next day.
I must say that the pictures can definitely not give justice to what our eyes saw. Caramoan is indeed a precious gem to the Philippines. Such a beautiful, inviting paradise.
The Restless Firefly 