In line with my 2016 Roundup post, claiming the Catanduanes trip as my "Most Fun 2016 Memory" and as part of my 2017 bucketlist of posting more entries on my blog, I find it a bit necessary to share my experience on that trip...even if it's been a while back.
My ignorance resulted to a baffled expression when I was told that we had to take the roro to reach Catanduanes. I have always imagined it to be just another one of those coastal towns somewhere along the edge of Luzon. Nope, it took us 3 hours of roro from the city of Tabaco to get to the port of San Andres, Catanduanes. One thing you must consider when planning the trip is the time because the roro schedules are only between 7am-1pm, with about two hours in between trips, if I remember correctly. And if you miss that last trip back, consider yourself stranded on the island until the next roro arrives the next morning. The land trip will also roughly take you 10-12 hours from Metro Manila to the port of Tabaco, plus the 3-hour boat ride. A real pain on the butt, literally.
Is it worth the trouble?
Yes. From what I've seen, truly, it is worth the effort. My first impressions of Catanduanes? The island is bigger than I thought, much bigger; the trees are still lush and plentiful which I love; air is of course fresh and clean; a lot of beautiful coastal roads; the water is as clear and blue as it could get; there's that far-flung feeling you get going around with a small town feel, a sort of low-key tourist destination; there are not that many residents there; a good representation of a Philippine island paradise; food is meh, but real fresh; still lacks tourist facilities, but I hope won't have too much commercialism in the future like Boracay.
*Fair warning about bringing a vehicle though, there are a couple of requirements that need to be met before they allow you to get the car in the roro. You will need to bring the car's registration, get a coastguard's approval form and another sort of form plus fee that will set you back at least 30mins to complete. Something you might have to consider when setting your time schedule. The driver of the car gets a free ride while the rest will have to buy a boat ticket, and we paid roughly P2400+ for the van per trip. The ticket costs around P300/head per trip.
*The water where the roro will trudge is one of the calmest waters I ever passed through...so nothing to worry about sea sickness. I'm not sure if it's calm year-round though.
*At one point, I saw a few dolphins leap out the water. Amazing!
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| View of Mt. Mayon from the port of Tabaco. |
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| The air-conditioned seats of the roro on the left, and the none-ones on the right. The one in the middle is not the roro, it's just a boat docked there that time. |
For reference, here's a rather messed up overview of our trip, according to my memory...more or less:
Day 1: Friday
6:00pm Left from Taguig to Alabang.
7:00pm Supposed meet up at Festival Mall in Alabang.
7:15pm People started arriving...LATE.
7:30pm Still waiting for other people to arrive.
8:00pm Finally, only two people missing. -_-
8:15pm We left Alabang a little over an hour behind schedule.
12MN We reached Bituka ng Manok at Quezon, it was exhilaratingly dizzying.
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| Puraran's white sand beach. It's not that powdery as the photo might suggest. It was low season, so no waves and not much tourists when we arrived. |
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| Puraran Surf is where we ate and stayed for the night. It's a laid-back place. |
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| The cottage on the left is where we stayed. It's an almost-run-down-kubo with an old twin-size bamboo bed, an electric fan, a mosquito net, and a dirty bathroom for only P600/night. |
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| What we ate at Puraran Surf. A pair of small lobsters for only Php200, cooked in whatever way you want it, but the one with the coconut milk and chili is the bomb! The girl in the counter said their specialty is the adobong pusit...and it tasted a bit sweet in a non-adobo fashion. My brother's birthday cake from Mer-nel's, redesigned with abstract patterns done in expressionist action through rhythmic swirls and random fork-slaps, topped with a ZAP and a POOW! |
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| With the absence of streetlights or other strong light source, you can gaze at the sky at night and see the stars that emit fainter glow, stars you would not normally see in the city with all the light and air pollution. This was taken by my friend set at 11"/sec shutter speed. |
*There are available ATMs and a few eateries at Virac, also one Jollibee branch.
*There are no street lights in most part of the island, so expect a lot of darkness on the road.
*Commuting there is hard, and you often have to book tricycles, which is also expensive.
*It's bigger than you might think, so you can't walk from destination to destination either.
*Peak season is also surfing season at Puraran beach which is Nov-Feb; as well as summer.
*With the lack of places to stay in, it's best to book reservations in advance because they do get fully booked during peak seasons. We were walk-in guests though, because we went there July.
Day 2: Saturday
12:01am Feeling sick at the zigzag ride, also scared of the possibility of the van falling into the cliff.
3:00am Reached Naga City and forcing ourselves to stay awake.
3:30am Dozed off.
5:30am Mistook Mt. Iriga for Mt. Mayon and was disappointed
6:00am Spotted the real Mt. Mayon and its perfect cone without a cloud in sight.
6:01am Swore to myself to come back and see Mt. Mayon again.
7:00am Reached Tabaco port and saw the roro drifting at short a distance. NOOOOO!!
7:30am Ate breakfast at one of turo-turo outside the port.
9:00am Finally rode the roro to Catanduanes.
12:00nn Reached the port of San Andres.
12:45pm Reached Virac, and had to withdraw cash from their ATM. They have a BDO branch there.
1:30pm Starving and still could not find a place to eat.
1:45pm Quick stop at Bato Church. Still starving.
2:30pm Reached Puraran beach.
3:00pm LUNCH! FINALLY! At Puraransurf! Lobsters for lunch!
3:30pm Checked in at Puraransurf
4:30pm Started on a roadtrip around the island. We managed to reach the boarder of Gigmoto and Viga before we decided to take a U-turn.
6:00pm It's getting dark and there are no street lights!
7:30pm Arrived back at Puraransurf for dinner, this time it's grilled pork belly.
9:00pm Let the drinking session begin!!! Limited booze are being sold though.
10:00pm The stars are out, stare up and see them in all their wonders.
11:30pm K.O.
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| Bato Church is a pretty old church the sits on the left side of the road if you came from Virac. A place where you can have a moment of silence. They also have a toilet at the back. |
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| The altar of Bato Church. If you gaze from the inside staring out, you'll see a serene river across the street. It's a nice spot to just sit and stare if you're not in a hurry. |
I DO NOT EVER RECOMMEND GOING TO GREEN LAGOON!!!
It was raining the day before we got there, making the ground slippery and muddy as hell. The type of soil you will have to go through is a sort of silty-clay type that will ensure the difficulty of your descent. The steepness of the descent gets as impossible as a 60 degree angle!!! You can grab onto abaca trees and small shrubs on the side to help you lessen your chances of falling.
Of the many residents who passed by the road next to the signage of Green Lagoon, all of them told us the same thing, "delikado" and "mahirap". And have they ever been? Nope, they don't even bother. And to those of us who made it down there, can they attest to the beauty? Nope, all of them came back up regretting the decision. It even became an inside joke in the group, like a punchline. "Maybe it's as pretty as Green Lagoon!" or "Just like Green Lagoon!" became a term for a place wherein the reality is nothing like the expectation. Just a photoshopped image set out to sway and disappoint fools.
As seen below, and unlike the one being shown in tarpaulin, it's a bunch of mossy-jagged rocks...where the water is not aqua but just clear water reflecting the brownish rocks.
Maybe we came in a bad time, because of the tide and the weather, but at the end of it all, it's something all of us swore by to not recommend.
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| DO NOT BOTHER WITH GREEN LAGOON if you don't have a drone. You will also have to trek down a very hard cliff where I basically just call it quits after several continuous slip and falls due to the mud and my useless damsel slippers. This is where I appreciate having a friend along to help me get through the tough descent. Thanks Pot! :D |
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| There are mini stalls at the starting point of Binurong Point. There you can have breakfast before the trek, or after it. |
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| The trek takes about 30-45mins, and it's a fairly easy walk with a lot of shade. Nothing to worry, even those who never trekked before can manage this one. |
*Not all residents speak Tagalog or English, so you might have to ask a couple of people before finding someone who does.
*It's a place to sit back and relax, there isn't much extreme activities available.
*Food wise, it's like Bicol food with a lot of coconut milk involved in their dishes.
*Shops close pretty early and open not-that-early. No 24-hour shops outside Virac.
*It's a slow-pacing place, so don't expect everything to come in a jiffy.
*Lobsters and other crustaceans are inexpensive, take chance of the opportunity.
*Binurong Point has actually three points where the guide could take you, with Point 1 and 2 being the easier ones, while the third point could take an hour or two to trek.
*The trail tracks, as claimed by our tour guide, were actually made by cows...hence the difficulty and randomness of it.
Day 3: Sunday
3:30am Alarm clock starts ringing. Pressed the snooze.
4:00am The supposed time we leave for Binurong Point.
5:30am Take Jollibee Adobo Flakes photos because we were trying to enter a contest. We didn't win. BOOOO!
5:45am We leave Puraransurf and head to Binurong Point.
7:00am Finally found the right place after getting lost.
7:30am A quick coffee and pancit breakfast at the parking area from the opened stalls.
8:00am After a quick registration and briefing we started the trek.
8:45am We reached our destination: BINURONG POINT
10:15am We had to leave to catch the roro back at San Andres. We only managed 1 out of 3 points. Saaaaad!
10:45am We reached the parking lot.
12:10pm We reached the port of San Andres. Got left by the boat again. -_-
1:10pm After processing the papers for the van, we managed to get the last boat back to Tabaco port.
4:00pm Finally arrived at Tabaco port.
4:30pm Stopover at Cagsawa Ruins at Legazpi for photo ops and to eat chili ice cream plus buy pasalubongs. Chili ice cream can be addicting.
5:00pm Stopover at Camalig for dinner at Vic Pinangat and Ervas Restaurant. Not a big fan of pinangat, but their Bicol Express is good though with the gata and the siling haba. We bought frozen pinangat for more pasalubong at Tata Nan Special Pinangat, just a few steps from Vic Pinangat as recommended by our friend.
6:00pm We leave Camalig area to get to Naga via Ligao City
7:00pm I was knocked out, waking up only after several hours
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| This is the final part where you go uphill to an open field, and when you reach the top there you will see the breathtaking view of the sloping grassland, jagged cliffs, and the dark blue sea. |
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| The cliff on the left is the last of the three points at Binurong. It takes quite a hike to get there, and is best if you're not in a hurry, unlike us. We had to skip it. |
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| This is the first point at Binurong, the one uncaptured in the photo on the right is the second point. |
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| Just for scale of how far you have to walk from where I was standing, down to the tip. This also shows how careful you have to be with your balance because nothing is gonna save you from a fall. So just stick to the trail and try not to die. |
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| This is the view looking up from one of the points at Binurong. We got there at around 9am, and it was pretty hot. |
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| Here's farther down point 1, where the humans are is where you'll have to pass, and further to the left is where point 2 is. |
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| This is how narrow and steep the pass is to get from point 1 to point 2. |
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| A selfie taken by my friend, I had to blur his face so avoid distraction. |
Day 4: Monday
12:00mn Sleeping.
2:30am Woke up because we reached the creepy zigzag road of Quezon again.
3:00am Toilet Break at one of the bus stops where our driver also had a power nap.
4:00am We reach Calamba, Laguna, where we dropped off some of our friends.
4:30am We reach Star Mall, Alabang, where we dropped off more friends.
5:00am Back in Taguig. Finally, home.
*I can't recommend doing this just for the weekend because it's far too tiring. Spend at least two nights at Catanduanes so you can really appreciate it.
*I regret not swimming there. My brother being an annoying-old-scared-thrifty-KJ insisted on discouraging us from doing the island hopping tour because he did not want to get wet with the clearest of waters. DON'T BE LIKE MY BROTHER!
Catanduanes, I will see you again...soon!
Disclaimer: There are some photos that I borrowed from my friend, Kaloi Obidos, due to my lack of interest in taking photos during the trip. Plus, everyone just counted on him as the official photographer of the group. You can check out his portfolio on his Facebook page, Kaloi Obidos Photography.
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