Camotes Island

After the rally we (the two Sarahs, Katrijn and I) left again for a trip out of town..destination Camotes Island. Camotes is quite close to Cebu, only a 2-3 hour boat ride away. It consists of 4 islands and we visited 2 of them. These 4 lovely islands are almost untouched by tourism, although they have a lot to offer. Stefanie, a Dutch girl, is doing research in Camotes on current tourism and tourist possibilities.

We arrived late at night and we went straight to Stefanies place (near the harbor). She’s renting a room next to the sea…a wonderful place. Nice and quiet…she even has a terrace..so we sat there the whole evening chatting.

Camotes is quiet small and most of the people who live there have a motorcycle or a car or at least they have a friend or family who own one. That’s why the only public transportation method is the habel habel and this might be quite expensive…especially if you want to go from one place to another. We wanted to rent a car, but no car rentable…or the car was already rented or it was broken…:).

So in the end we took the habel habel…(wuhuuuuuuuuuw..I still love it!)…to the beach on the other island. Two stops…first stop at San fransisco…lunch time. Since three weeks there is a new place…a sandwich bar opened by an American and Filipina. Very friendly people and good food!

Next stop…a newly discovered cave…hmmm very recently…not much to see…just a whole in the ground. But nice walk to get there :)









And Finally we arrived (in the rain) at the beach! A wonderful place..really white sand beach (although the recent storm and rainfall made it a bit less tropical…a lot of seaweed)! After the rain we jumped in the water and yes of course…we went snorkeling! The marine sanctuary was just recently created (sponsored by some NGO’s) A way to promote tourism. It wasn’t that diverse as the other snorkeling places I have been to…as it is new…but still very nice!



For diner we bought some fresh vegetables and fish. We went to some kind of restaurant and there they prepared the food for us…it was delicious…LAMI!!! Of course this “restaurant” also had a Videoke machine! Wonderful…wherever you go..go videokooo! We couldn’t escape…so again we sang the whole evening! Great…sitting on the beach…singing (or at least trying)…having fun…!







The next morning we were able to rent a car…well a little pick-up. It was great..I sat in the back…hair in the wind…waving to people…enjoying the view…getting some tan (although it was quite cloudy)…aaah we felt so free.. we could go from one place to another without worrying about how to get there!

Suddenly no more gasoline…as there are no gas stations (or at least not in the neighborhood) we had to buy gasoline along the road..bottles of coke filled with gasoline! So funny…just ask how many liters you want and they poor it in your car! Wonderful..such an easy solution…no need for a gas station!



With enough gasoline in our tank…we drove to a lake…huge…surrounded by forest. We wandered around the lake. And of course again children playing in the water…laughing with us…shouting at us…hihi. A bit further a women washing her cloths and a still a bit further…three men doing the laundry and a women watching them (as if she was controlling whether they did it right!). :)



Next stop a little town with again some nice beaches. We stopped to have a little swim…cooling down. After swimming you get hungry so we drove into the pineapple area…bought a fresh pineapple…delicious…very juicy…very good taste!



Finally we went to a cave…a walk downstairs…and then a little lake inside the cave…wonderful clean and cool water…more cooling down! It was so nice! The fresh water felt so nice…we almost had the impression it was healing water :). It was just an amazing place.










After the swim, back to the harbor to catch our boat.
Arriving on Cebu Island we still had to catch a jeepney to get back to Cebu-city. Again with the policy…”there is always room for more”…so squeezing time! An hour drive in an overloaded jeepney…and the driver playing wonderful melodramatic music! Aaaaah yes we are in the Philippines!