Camiguin Island Countryside Tour

CAMIGUIN ISLAND TOUR

Another quick recap of my Philippines trip in August. I went to see my family and friends as well as visit some nice places in the country. The first place we visited was the Camiguin island. Camiguin island is located on Mindanao. This island is full of stunning places to visit. The best thing to do while in Camiguin is to have the Camiguin island countryside tour. The tour takes the whole day and it’s up to you if you stay overnight there or not. We could not figure out how to go there by ourselves, or how to tour the island so we decided to pay the travel agency to book everything.

I paid whole accommodation for seven adults and five children. The package includes one-night hotel accommodation, a one-day tour van, and tour guide, and all entrance fees. We traveled early morning. Luckily we have our own van to travel from Cagayan de Oro to Balingoan, Misamis Oriental. It was hard to commute with little children. Having your own transportation was a plus. So, we rode the van from Cagayan de Oro city to Balingoan. From there we took a ferry to take us to the island of Camiguin, about an hour or so. It was a very small ferry and quite hot, but we were very excited, so everything just fine. Even the little children enjoyed the ride.

At the Benoni port, our tour guide and the van picked up were already there waiting for us. We didn’t waste any minute, we then started our Camiguin Island countryside tour.

Camiguin Countryside Tour

Katibawasan Falls

Our first stop was the Katibawasan Falls. It’s a beautiful clear stream of water dropping more than 70 meters to a huge pool. Surrounded with green tall trees and grasses, big rocks, and a nice pool down under. You can swim there in the pool or simply have picnics with friends or family. Do whatever you want. You can feel the nature and the sound of the water falling was amazing. It wasn’t my first time to see waterfalls, but Katibawasan falls were very unique and beautiful. Even my Finnish husband loved it and really enjoyed the natural ambiance.

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Sto. Nino Cold Spring

The next stop was the Sto. Nino Cold Spring. It was located in Catarman, Camiguin. It has two swimming pools with a few cottages. It was lunchtime when we arrived there. We didn’t go swimming, but we ordered a few foods and had our lunch. It was so nice to eat such yummy Filipino foods that I missed so much! Having lunch at the beautiful spot was perfect. We had so much fun!

Bura Soda Water Park

Another swimming pool. At first, my sister and I complained about why we visited mostly swimming pools? But the Soda Water pool was not an ordinary swimming pool because the water is a soda. Literally, soda water. None of us interested to even touch the water. We were tired already I guess. But the place was very nice and beautiful.

Sunken Cemetery

It was raining when we arrived at the Sunken Cemetery. So we didn’t take such good photos and were not able to ride a boat and go to the floating cross. We only stayed a few minutes, just checking and looking at it, and then we continued to our next stop. Sunken Cemetery is the most well known visited place in Camiguin island. It was also one of my main goals of why I visited the island. The history says that as Mt. Vulcan erupted in the 1870s the cemetery sank and swept away by the water. The cross serves the memory of the place.

Another place to see that we didn’t visit. Okay, we just went down from the van to take few photos of the sign. We were very tired to go upstairs. It was very high, and having little children to climb up there was very hard. They said it is very nice at the top. Oh well, I just wish we went there, but there is still another time.

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Ardent Hibok Hibok Hot Spring

Hibok Hibok Hot Spring was a very nice place. My hubby who was a nature lover really loves the place. Again, we didn’t go swimming, we just explore the place and feel the nature. There was a small waterfall (photo below), and a small pool like a river (don’t know how to explain). Other tourists went swimming. It has tall trees and grasses and it was a very nice place.

White Island

White Island was our last stop. The tour guide made us decide if we want to go there that day or we go the next day. It was still very early so we decided to go there on that very same day. We needed to go to Butuan early the next day, so we need to finish the tour within that day.

I was really astonished when I saw this White Island. It was located about 1.4km from the northern shore of Mambajao, and can only be accessed by a motorboat. It was just a small island, with no trees or shelters on it. Just a pure white sandy beach.

We all went swimming this time. It was our last stop, so we made sure it was perfect. The water was crystal clear, the sand was very white. It was around sunset, and if it wasn’t about to rain we will stay there until evening.

After the whole day tour, we then headed to our hotel. We were all very tired. But we enjoyed the day tour so much especially the white island. It was a perfect family getaway, indeed! Everyone was happy and contented. Our hotel was also nice, I just cannot remember the name.