Perfect Storm at Caramoan

Hello!

It’s been so long since our Caramoan trip that I already forgot why we decided to have our vacation there in the first place. It was cheap and did not involve air travel (I wish it did - more on this in the next paragraph) so that was probably it. We just wanted to take Rafa on a beach trip and the rest of the family (parents, brothers, brother’s wife) tagged along as well. 

Anyway, a bit of research would reveal that the land trip to Caramoan would be a very long one and it was decided early on that we will just take a bus going there. We used the Bicol Isarog website to book our buses and the way things worked out is that me, Claire and Rafa will go a day early and the rest will follow the next day. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a sleeper bus and we had to settle for seats at the last row of the bus. Never again.

Needed the cuteness to take the sting off the long bus ride from hell. This is actually the Naga to Caramoan bus ride, which is the lesser of the two hellish rides (so we had smiles).

The idea when we decided to take the bus was to be comfortable on the way and to be able to sleep going to the place - instead it was an ass numbing, sleep depriving 9-hour bus trip from their Padre Faura terminal all the way to the Naga Bus terminal. We had to switch to a different bus for another 6-hour trip from Naga to Caramoan and we were seated again at the back row and there was no chance in sleeping as the bus was so packed, there were people standing up at the aisle for the next six hours. As I said, never again. In addition to the poor bus conditions, it was raining hard for the past couple of days and it’s in full swing on our transit towards Caramoan. Personally, I felt that there’s a strong possibility that we won’t be able to enjoy or even push through with the tours.

We arrived at Central Discovery Hotel around lunch time and it was still raining quite hard. The place where the bus stopped was around 50 meters from the hotel and we were quite drenched when we trudged inside. The rooms were better than expected and there were four very inviting beds to sleep on but instead we had an abbreviated lunch and soldiered on to our tour. At least the weather cleared up already by then. In Caramoan, you don’t really enjoy the beach from the town proper - you have to go out to a couple of islands with white beaches to really soak it in. So that’s what we did.

First use of my DJI Spark (that’s not for practice). Really nice because of the availability of different perspectives from where you can shoot from.

The first stop was Lahus Beach, a small island with a fine beach. This is where I got to use my drone for the first time (in a tour setting) and it was worth the wait! Had a couple of good overhead photos and videos of the island itself and it was amazing. Also had a couple of family photos from perspectives that are simply not possible if it were not for the drone. However, I didn’t get to swim there since I was just using the drone all the time.

Lahus beach from above. Part of all the package trips in Caramoan.

The next stop (and last for the day) is Matukad Island, another small island with a very nice beach. Did a few sweeps of the beach and the island with my drone and I got to swim a bit with the family. After that, we returned to the hotel and it was lights out immediately after a quick dinner.

The beach was so good, we were still having a good time even though this was just a few hours after our bus rides from hell.

The following morning, we just lounged around as we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. It’ll be their turn to arrive before lunch and it looks like that they had a better time going to Caramoan than us. They managed to get better seats so their 9-hour bus ride was quite comfy and they got to sleep in. The total travel time was still around 15 hours so they needed a bit of time to recuperate before we proceed with the afternoon tour (which is just the same as our tour yesterday). Took a couple of drone shots with our new vacation-mates on and underwater shots of the family using an iPhone 8 Plus. After feeding fish with bread crumbs while snorkeling and passing by a couple of islands, we went back to the hotel and we just rested right after a heavy dinner (because the parents were paying already).

I also have a slow motion video of this and it’s quite cool as well.

Family photo!

Trying to cram photos before the sunset

The following day was our first (and last) full day of activities. We had a kinda long boat ride to Manlawi Beach, a low tide sandbar just off Lahuy island. The place was amazing. There’s a huge stretch of white sand that is slowly being submerged as the morning tide comes in. We arrived around 10:30AM and chose our own floating hut which was still on the sand at that time. Took some pictures, videos and very nice drone shots of the place. As the tide slowly submerged the sand bar, we played with a couple of canoes on the knee deep water and had lunch in our floating hut (the lunch came with the tour package). After a bit of time just frolicking around the shallow waters, it was time to head out to our next destination.

It was a long boat ride but we were pretty close to shore so there’s cellular reception and pretty decent mobile data for most of the trip.

Jump shots on the sandbar. Took a couple of takes because we lack practice but it was worth it as the backdrop is just amazing.

You can take the canoe out of the sandbar for some rowing fun. Also to have Lahuy island as back drop to your photo.

I was racing against the tide to take a wide shot of the Manlawi sand bar. This was a couple of minutes before the sandbar was covered with water.

Lunch on a floating nipa hut? Why not.

Fine weather, excellent view and stuffed with food - there’s just one thing left to do - nothing. Just do nothing and lounge around and be lazy.

Next on the agenda is Cotivas island, a small island with a stretch of white sand on the east side and some huts that you can rent for less than a dollar. It’s really not a place where you can stay in and spend the night though. Regardless, the beach was wonderful and I took advantage and had my drone up and running again. We didn’t stay long as there are some jelly fish on the beach so we’re there for just 30 minutes or so.

Deuces! And no, Rafa didn’t get sun-burned that fast (or to that degree!). That’s not him but another drone-curious tourist.

Then we were off to Basot island where the unused Guinahoan light house is. There’s a short hike on a mostly paved path going to the top of the hill and the view was just breathtaking. I’ve never been to Batanes but that is what I’ve thought of when I saw the view and, indeed, the locals also refer to it as like a mini Batanes. The view was that good that the lighthouse became the most unremarkable thing in the place. Took videos, jump shots and drone shots of the place. I feel that I got good mileage already on my drone simply because this place was so nice to film. After our time there, we told the bankeros that we wanted to do snorkeling again but the seas became too rough for that so we just headed back to the hotel after just a few minutes of snorkeling.

We always do jump shots

It was quite windy there so I wasn’t able to take a lot of drone footage. But what we had was still quite nice

Viewtiful

Wallpaper material

There was a lighthouse. But no decent picture with it.

The following day was our trip back to Manila. The hotel had a shuttle service that would bring us to Naga City (which was nice as it is way faster than the bus). Before we left Caramoan, we stopped by the St. Michael the Archangel Church to get our wishes in (a custom where you get to make wishes in churches that you visited for the first time) and the Caramoan logo to act like the tourists that we are.

A prayer for safe travel

Didn’t see actual turtles, unfortunately.

All in all, it was a very good trip and everything that had to go perfectly well turned out pretty good. The weather when were touring was quite nice (while a storm has been ravaging Manila at that time). The touristy places were really something, a paradise and one of the more beautiful places in the Philippines. Besides the bus ride to Caramoan, I actually don’t have anything to bemoan about the trip. Instead, there were a lot of beautiful things to write home (or in a blog) about and I highly recommend the place. Next up is my Australia write up and my US video and write up so hopefully I don’t wait for one whole year to get to it. Until then!