camiguin in brief

i can’t reiterate enough that one of the goals of this blog is to help fellow travelers plan out their own trip. so, to make it easier for those who are searching for travel information and tips about camiguin and were directed to this li’l place on the web, i’ve compiled all the posts i’ve written about the place. just click on the links provided. i also provided my travel expense for this trip at the end of the post. happy browsing!

camiguin finally
rough guide on how to get to camiguin via cagayan de oro city from cebu.

camiguin sleep in
post on how to get to yumbing, mambajao from benoni port + accommodations in camiguin

camiguin dine in
what else but for food, food, food

camiguin: paras beach resort
me and travelmates camwhoring at paras beach resort. but seriously, for views on the resort’s facilities and link to the resort’s official website

camiguin: golden sunset beach club
another accommodations option while in camiguin

camiguin: white island
how to get there, boat fee, and views of the island

camiguin: day trip
info on different spots in camiguin such as katibawasan falls, ardent hot spring, sunken cemetery, sto. nino cold spring, etc..

My Travel Expense

that’s it, folks. i hope my travel experience to camiguin will be of help to you. thank you, thank you.

camiguin: day trip

a reader asked sometime back if we went to other spots in camiguin aside from their famed white island, well..here’s a resounding, albeit late, YES!!!

in a previous post, i mentioned that as soon as you arrive in benoni wharf, men offering island tours will greet you. the one who greeted us offered to take us to yumbing + island tour for a fee of PhP1,000. if you’re that excited to see the island, i’d say 1K isn’t too bad. the downside is instead of a full day, you’ll only have half the day, technically. for us, it isn’t such a sweet deal. it was a blessing in disguise that we arrived hungry in camiguin for we truly found a sweet deal courtesy again of manang celia.

aside from finding us a place to stay, she found us a multicab to take us to different spots in the island for a fee of PhP1,300. Originally P1,500, she persuaded the owner to give us a discount of PhP200 as we were only ordinary workers from cebu, hehe. One-three divided amongst the four of us, PhP325, isn’t too bad, right? Thus, you’ll save more if there are several of you in the group. anyhu, i’ll let you be the judge if it was indeed a sweet deal.

Tour Fee: PhP 1,300, with driver
Tour Guide: Manang Celia and her daughter, PhP 0
Duration: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM

First Stop: Katibawasan Falls

camiguin: golden sunset beach club

notice the many people on the left corner of the pix???

well, they were a bunch of curious onlookers. see, when we were on our way back to aying’s place from the sto. nino cold spring, we passed by a scene of a motorbike accident. apparently, the motorbike that passed us earlier crashed a few meters ahead. according to my travelmates, they saw the bike earlier on and thought the driver was drunk as his bike was unsteady and wobbling. it turned out that the driver was indeed drunk. when we passed by the scene, i saw the driver passed out on the road. people were gathered around him as they wait for a vehicle to transport him to a hospital. meanwhile, the driver of the multicab that we were on thought he recognized the passenger of the bike. thus, he pulled over and went to check out the scene. when he came back to our vehicle, he brought with him the slightly wounded passenger. we learned that the two who figured in the accident were actually employees of golden sunset club beach resort. the two were supposed to be on the job. they were tasked to deliver the food of their guests to sto. nino cold spring. but the two went to have a few shots of alcoholic drink before returning to the resort. according to the injured passenger, he accompanied the motorbike driver to talk him out of driving while under the influence. obviously, his attempt was a big failure. anyway, our driver thought to give his injured friend a ride back to the resort. he took it upon himself to explain to the resort’s manager what happened to his two errant employees. it was because of this unfortunate accident that we came upon golden sunset beach club.

so here folks is another possible resort you can choose for your accommodations if you decide to spend your vacation in camiguin. well, all i can show you are a few pictures of the resort. as for specific details, you may have to call the resort at the number posted on their welcome banner
golden sunset beach club; 09185595686 / (63)(088) 3879163

a beautiful garden, path towards their pool

jacky and budlat posing before the resort’s big pool

the resort’s big pool up close

the beach beyond the big pool

the succeeding pix are just us camwhoring while we waited for our driver to finish speaking with the resort’s manager about the accident. moi – love their “duyan”

what can i say, we just love their duyan

us 4

budlat and dennis, back-to-back

attempt at acting

golden sunset beach club, folks.

Note: will really, really post next our day tour. pix used are mine and budlat’s

camiguin: paras beach resort

paras beach resort.

no. we didn’t stay here while we were on vacation in camiguin august of last year. we simply could not afford it.

we only had pictorials there. LOL!!! us 4 after our lovely dinner.

if you have money to splurge, i suggest you book yourself a room here. as i mentioned in my last entry, the resorts in camiguin don’t have beach fronts. i loathe to say that for one to enjoy the waters of camiguin, you’ll have to travel to the famous white island, unless you don’t mind jumping in rocky waters with black sands. [camiguin locals, please correct me if this is a misguided information!]. so if you plan to be in the water any time you want, you’re better off with a resort that has a pool. of course, if you’ve money to burn, you can always go back and forth to white island. it’s only PhP400 [less than $10] per back/forth trip.

anyway, here are a few pictures of the resort. i wasn’t kidding when i said we only went there for some photo ops, hehe…

kidding aside, we arrived in yumbing mambajao a little past lunch time. we thought it wasn’t practical to rush to seeing the sites of camiguin at that hour. the sun was at its mightiest then. thus, we decided to while away our time here while waiting for our 3 o’clock appointment to head to white island.

the tiny speck of white in the pix is white island as seen inside paras

let the pictorials begin.

moi. this is what i meant when i said the resorts don’t have beach fronts.

dennis with his classic pose

juliet with her take a pic of my back drama

the charming and demure jacky

paras, viewed from the beach

some mountain [mt. hibok-hibok???] viewed from paras

cio and budlat, what’s the drama here?

my travel isn’t complete without taking a pic of my “vetlongwalks” mark

haha. i wasn’t really kidding when i said we were at paras for the photo ops..

the beautiful pool

the beautiful innovation called timers

tinkering with the timer again

cio with his classic and ever consistent facial expression

jacky enjoying her ube ice cream

my watermelon shake @PhP60 [less than $2] and the resort’s menu. hmmm, now that i see this, i wouldnt say that paras is THAT expensive. perhaps it’s only their rooms we can’t afford as we’re BUDGET TRAVELERS.

night scenes at paras

the pool with a few of the resort’s guests enjoying the water

the tower on the left is where we had our dinner. warning: SUPER BREEZY…

the pool, viewed from the white tower

accommodations, accommodations

ordering for dinner

L-billiards/al fresco area– R-budlat helping out cio decide what to eat

playing table tennis while waiting for our dinner [@PhP50/hour – a little over $1]

our dinner [jacky’s spaghetti in pomodoro, budlat and cio’s beef and mushroom, and spicy mixed seafood, my beef lasagna]

dinner didn’t stop us from grabbing this photo op
hmmm, their food isn’t bad, but they’re not excellent either. i’ve had better. theirs is just so-so.

that’s paras beach resort for you folks. click on this to take you to the resort’s official site.

will post next our day tour of the island. probably in installments also.

credits: some of the pix used here are dennis’ [night scenes] and budlat’s.

for other travel stories, visit my other site —> HERE.

camiguin: sleep in

i just realized that my camiguin finally! post didn’t mention how to get to mambajao – camiguin’s capital [i think, correct me if i’m wrong]. pardon me for this omission. anyhow, as i mentioned we went cheapskate during this travel – so yeah, we didn’t avail of island tours . see, as soon as the ferry docks from balingoan to benoni, several men bearing laminated pictures of different camiguin sites will approach you. they’ll offer you tour options. one of the guys who approached us said he could take us to mambajao, help us find accommodations, and take us on a day trip for a fee of PhP1,000. since we were going cheapskate, we declined and found our own arrangements. besides, we were too hungry at past 11 AM and only had food in our minds. although not hungry enough as we still thought it wasn’t a sweet deal especially that most of the day’s gone and our day trip would only be a “half-day trip”, technically. so we walked a bit out of the wharf [less than 3 mins. walk] and hopped on a jeepney bound for mambajao. jeepney fare from benoni to mambajao was PhP23.

welcome to benoni port.

camiguin: finally!!!

back in 2003, i got myself boat tickets for cagayan de oro city to see the gardens of malasag. right after i checked-in at my hotel, i immediately hopped on a taxi and went to see the place. that done on my very first day, i was left with nothing to do. as i was a newbie traveler then, i didn’t prepare an itinerary. i thought i’d head to camiguin before leaving for davao on the 3rd day of my vacation. however, i let fear got the better of me. hehe, at that time, riding on small boats or ferries scare the hell out of me.

now, early march of this year, john and i got tickets for CDO. he had some business to take care there and i sorta was tagging along. when john informed me that the person he was supposed to meet up in cdo couldn’t make it and ergo, no point of him going, i told myself that i didn’t want to waste good tickets. i’d just head to camiguin on my own instead [this time, i was no longer a scaredycat with regards to traveling by ferries, hehe]. unfortunately, on the day i was to fly to CDO, i was burning with fever. thus, imagine my frustration when my plan to go to camiguin was foiled for the 2nd time.