Camiguin

What to do. Where to go. What to eat. What to visit. What to bring home.

The ‘Lagoon’ at my back.

In a day (if you have a car or transportation), you can tour the whole island of Camiguin. If you don’t have a car, I guess you can always rent a van or a habal-habal (motorcycle). I’d probably prefer habal-habal because for sure a van would cost A LOT. Plus, if you’re from the city, you’d definitely enjoy the fresh air with a motorcycle :)

Where to eat:

I am utterly disappointed with the food (not for the lack of it of course) in Camiguin. You’d think that there’d be a lot of seafood in Camiguin seeing as it’s an island but NO! Don’t get your hopes up. Apparently people in Northern Mindanao who are very very fortunate to be near bodies of water loves chicken. Yes, chicken! Imagine our surprise when we went there in hopes for seafood and found chicken instead.

The port where the local fishermen usually fish. See how squeaky clean their water is? I would take a dip there any time of the day!

How come there is lack of seafood in Camiguin? It’s because most of the shores are protected by their local government which you can really see. Any body of water in Camiguin is crystal clear I tell you! Me and my family fell in love with Camiguin’s cleanliness. After you dock at Port Benoni, when you go right you’ll see the little mangroves the government is growing.

J & A Fishpen. Met a travelling merchant, Mr. Lim, who was kind enough to help us during our first night in Camiguin

Anyways, if you’re looking for seafood in Camiguin, the best you could get them at would be at J & A Fishpen (turn left of Port Benoni). Just ask any of the locals about it or the ‘lagoon’ and they’d tell you. Their food isn’t really anything special but hey, at least you got to taste seafood!

Camiguin is widely known for their sweet lanzones. Back in my hometown, I’d often see vendors selling lanzones with placards saying “Camiguin Lanzones” and my mom would always buy some. Since I don’t eat fruits, I can’t really tell you if their lanzones are that great but definitely, my mom and dad were blown away.

Tough luck. When we arrived at Camiguin, October 30 (if I remember correctly), the Lanzones Festival just finished a day or two ago. So when we were there, we saw torch like stands holding lanzones in the streets. We thought they were real lanzones and my parents were desperate to get some to the point where they’d almost stopped the car lol... until we noticed some parts were chipped off. The whole time we were in the island was basically a search for lanzones which for some reason is unavailable. We were actually able to find some but they were priced the same like those sold from where we came from. My parents were hoping for cheaper lanzones but I guess they’ve all used it up for the festival because they’re hard to find.

We got free lanzones from a friendly resident.

Fun fact: The lanzones trees in Camiguin are basically everywhere. They all grew naturally. The reason why they bear sweet lanzones would be because they grew on volcanic soil. Oh, and you won’t really find any diversity of fruits in Camiguin since the local government encourages to plant only lanzones.

Where to sleep:

My parents wanted to sleep in an ancestral house or any antique house but ’twas late when we arrived in Camiguin so we settled in Ardent Hot Spring Resort Hostel in Mambajao where you have to go up the mountain to get there. We got one room with 3 beds for I think, Php700? It was really cheap and well, you get to go to the hot springs whenever you want. It was my first time in a hot spring. I was quite disappointed that it wasn’t as hot as I’ve imagined it to be. But people there told me it wasn’t as hot because we went there in October so I guess it probably depends on what time of the year you go there.

Paras Beach Resort at my back

The famous places to stay the night in Camiguin, which markets mostly foreigners because they’re too expensive for Filipinos, would be Paras Beach Resort and Bahay Bakasyunan. If you prefer to have a homey feel, you can try to find houses that caters homestay (another tourism project by their local government).

White Island

My dad tried 3 of these. We were kidding him that he'd get poisoned but thank God it never happened.

Sea Urchin

Try this sea urchin delicacy that locals sell at White Island

Walkway to the old volcano

Sunken Cemetery

Photos taken by Joshua

While we were in the sunken cemetery, we met this boy named Joshua. He earns a living by taking illusion pictures. He is a very very very inspiring kid I tell you. I was supposed to interview him but we never went back to sunken cemetery and I regretted that I was not able to share his story.

Old Church Ruins

Bura Soda Water Park

We didn’t go for a dip at all lol. We just tasted their water. Tourist-friendly residents were kind enough to give us water (which comes from a spring). There is a distinct soda-y taste in their water hence the name. For some reason, the water in this specific place in Camiguin has soda-making components...

Sto. Nino Cold Spring

I am chicken especially when it comes to coming in contact with cold stuffs so I didn’t swim. Plus, there were so many people >.<

Old Church somewhere near/before Sagay

Shores of Sagay, Camiguin

Giant Clam Sanctuary

Can you believe that those clams up there are actually endangered? They didn’t look like it at all! If you wanna learn more about nature, go to the Giant Clam Sanctuary. This sanctuary is actually hard to reach (that’s why tourists rarely comes here)... and the roads to this place isn’t cemented so you’re in for quite a ride. But I suggest that you really really really should go because you will learn a lot!

When I went there, there was this girl who I think was from UP Visayas/Silliman University who was working there. She explained the complexities of giant clam’s life like how they’re hermaphrodites and has a life time of PMSing. The great thing about going here is that, the explanation about Giant Clams is in full English! English!!! You could also go snorkelling. I didn’t try it because I already went swimming that morning and I found it a hassle to swim again (lazy).

Katibawasan Falls

I have seen better falls but this place is memorable because in one of the souvenir shops, I fell in love with ukulele (totally unrelated topic). Let me tell you a secret, in a small pond beside the CR, there are koi fishes :)

Sweet Island Pastil

Pasalubong! If you want something to bring home other than the Vjandep Pastil (You can see their flagship at Mambajao Public Market) that you can buy even at SM, you can try this pastil. Compared to Vjandep, this pastil is a lot softer but a little more expensive than Vjandep.

Kugita

It’s a delicacy that can be bought inside Mambajao’s Public Market. It’s a kind of squid delicacy.

Dried Squid

If I remember it correctly, it was dried squid or probably dried fish... that people were selling for 3 for 100 or 4 for 100 but if you buy directly from the makers in Sagay, you can get it for I think, 5 for 100.

Pardon the low quality photos x.x

Enigmata

You definitely should not miss this place especially if you’re into arts or architecture! This place is a hodge podge of works by different renowned Philippine artists from sculpture, painting, architecture, literary to wire art! It’s a shame that this was the last place we went to and ’twas almost close when we got there. Me and my sister bought shirts as a remembrance - I got that brown one on the table! I would've loved to bring home a soil painting but they were too expensive for me. I also don’t think this place gets featured much which is a shame because it is something we Filipinos should be proud of.

I’m sure you would love Camiguin just like I have thanks a lot to the supportive local government who trained the people to be hospitable and tourist friendly. Camiguin definitely tops my must-visit and tourist-friendly places in Mindanao! //Hoping my parents could buy a plot of land there. Money, rain down please//

I would like to recommend the most awesome tour guide ever so that you can enjoy your stay in Camiguin just as I have. Contact him here.

PS. We skipped some places (mostly beaches/pools/waterfalls) like Mantigue Island because I don't really like swimming that much (more on the hassle of stripping and dressing up again).