Survivor Caramoan - our Camsur Adventure (Day 1)

This is the first time I was away from my family since I got married. Consider this A Girls Only weekend (except for Lani who can't go without Jeric who turned out to be our photographer). Survivor Caramoan because of the many challenges we have gone thru and going there is already a challenge. After we land in Naga Airport via Cebu Pacific, we looked for a cheap ride going to the terminal of passenger vans going to Sabang port. We found Kuya Jun's tricycle and we were able to haggle. Our van left in Naga at past 8:00 am. We arrived in Sabang port at 10:00 am and the boat going to Guijalo port was about to leave and just waiting for us before we headed towards the sea. It was another 2-hour boat ride, sometimes there are rough waves but it was tolerable. Good thing, the scenes (mountain ranges and islets) were refreshing. While in the boat, we met Mang Anton who shared tips where to go, stay and eat in Caramoan. We were surprised because he asked the boatman to give us discount because we were seated at the rear end of the boat so our original boatride fee of 120 became 100 pesos. Mang Anton also looked for a tricycle going to Centro, he even brought us to Lutong Bahay where we took our lunch. Bicolanos are really warm people. The tricycle driver - Mang Islaw who took us to Paniman Bay also recommended a boatman to take us to the islands.





We arrived in La Playa Resort and Camping Grounds and we were happy with what we saw - our tiny Bahay Kubo. We checked in, fix our things, rested for a while then we're off again to the islands. This is the start of our adventure. Our itinerary didn't include Gota Beach because Survivor Israel is still ongoing but we were surprised that Tayak Island and Sabitang Laya were off limits too. We got excited when Lani found out we can go to Pitogo. We were too eager to go, some of us were not able to put on sunblock hahaha. We were awestruck at the sight of rock islands and the rock formations going to the Gota area. But we were more amazed at the sight of the two islands - Matukad and Lajos. We first went to Lajos Island because it was deserted that time. We took great photo opportunities before we soak ourselves into the cool water. We love the rock formation and white sand beach. I've read somewhere that this was 2 islands joined together and later became a great island. This was sometimes called Bichara Island because the Bichara family owns the island. We enjoyed the sea, sand and sun. Our first stop was already a hit.

GOTA COVE
LAHOS ISLAND

LAHOS ROCK

LAHOS on the other side

MATUKAD and LAHOS

MATUKAD ISLAND





When boats started arriving, we decided to transfer to the other island - Matukad. This was another big hit. I love the sand here, mala-espasol-fine. This is where you can view a lagoon after rock climbing - another adventure which I thought I could muster but I failed after the first try, my younger and stronger companions braved the rocks and succeeded. The lagoon with one fish was considered to be enchanted. We lingered a little longer in this island because we had one side to ourselves. We climbed the other rock and posed. Ivy couldn't help but bring a handful of the espasol sand. It was already 4:30 pm and so we told the boatman to take us to the next island - Pitogo. We were disappointed because he said we cannot go there anymore because it's too far and it will be dark soon. We mentioned other islands and he declined all our requests because according to him, it's either too far, or off limits because Survivor is shooting there. I was already getting pissed good thing he took us to the neighboring island - Kabonotan. Nothing spectacular here but I love these rock formations here:

KABONOTAN BEACH

On our way back, we passed by Honongan Cove. There are high-end Cabanas here where celebrities stay. We missed the following islands - Sabitang Laya, Pitogo, Tayak with Talib Lagoon, Tinago on this trip which was recommended by other blogs but it's okay since we started late and some of this islands are exclusively for Survivor. We had dinner at the resort and stayed in our kubo until we ran out of girl talk. I felt like I'm a teenager attending a Slumber Party hahaha.