Camiguin Island, Philippines - March 10, 2008
When we got to this island, we went to the side near White Beach Island. The famous resorts across from it were real dirty ocean water and no beach tourist scene whatsoever. It turns out that people rent boats during the daytime to go to the sand bar that makes up the white beach over there. Over on the Camiguin Island bit, there wasn't any beach-type activities that I encountered anyways. Many people do the traditional diving thing like they do everywhere else however.
However, the locals of Camiguin Island is what made the place. They were genuine and honest and just good people. They didn't view foreigners as ATM machines or money bag givers. They quoted correct fares, were honestly and genuinely concerned that you were able to go where you wanted to go, and just all around really good people!
On this island, we did go to the touristic Hot Springs that were great for bathing and lounging around up in the mountains (or mountain). It was naturally warm water coming from the volcanic regions or something that kept it warm. Felt great to just hangout there for a day. They also had hotel rooms which were about the same prices as the resorts, so we were considering changing hotels to be near the Hot Springs instead, but we never did.
We also went to the main town of the island spelled something like Mambajao or something like that. It was also a normal place where people didn't follow you arround you, harass you, stare at you, treat you like a ATM machine, or do anything weird (most of which I'm relating to Manila, where I'm now writing this from). In other words, Camiguian Island felt great to visit because of the local people! There were also just enough other foreigners here and there, and you could tell they felt equally comfortable here for the same reasons. You could also hop onto jeepneys without thinking the weird guy on their was sizing you up for something or another. People were just good people here, and the jeepneys were normal and charged you normal prices. Unfortunately it wasn't that great of a touristic place (you had to hire a boat guy to get you to the White Sand Island, and the hot springs were interesting, but not worthy of real extended stays. However, I'd come back again just because of the people alone, even if their aren't any real beaches that I saw on the island and not a whole lot to really do except for the Hot Springs and renting a boat for that other island.
From here, we decided we'd take a ferry back to Mindanao than take another ferry to Cebu that same evening, and then start the Visayas part of this trip. The highlight of leaving Camiguin was all these kids who hung around the boat and asked us to toss pesos into the ocean, and they'd dive and swim for it. A peso is only about two cents, so it was nothing to throw a dozen or so altogether and watch the kids have a lot of fun diving and jumping and playing with this kind of game.
Continued journal entries in the Philippines:
March 11, 2008
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