Caramoan 2016 – Where and How to go there?

View of the Caramoan Peninsula from the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Mother of Peace Grotto

Where is Caramoan?

Located at the lower eastern part of Camarines Sur in Bicol region. Little was known about this town until it was featured in the famous reality game show “Survivor”. 

How to go there? 

A. Direct Bus from Manila / Cubao

1. Ride a bus from Cubao to Naga. There are several bus company like Isarog Bus lines, Penafrancia Travel and Tours bus, RSL Bus or Philtranco/Amihan Bus. Fare is between 650 – 850 pesos, depends on the bus line. It leaves between 8-9 pm and travel usually takes 8 hours.

2. From Naga, choose either Option C or D to go to Caramoan.

B. Fly from Manila

1. Take a plane from Manila airport terminal 4. Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines have flights going to Naga.

2. From Naga Airport, take a van or taxi going to the bus and van terminal going to Caramoan. 

3. You choose either Option C or D to go to Caramoan

C. Van or bus

1. From the city center, go to the bus or van terminal, you may ride a tricycle going there. Fare for a special tricycle (solo) ride is 50 pesos while ordinary (with other passengers) is 8 pesos per person. If from the airport, ride a taxi or van going to Naga City Van or bus terminal.
2. Ride a van or bus going to Caramoan or (you may ride a tricycle going to the bus station or van terminal). Bus leaves on a fixed schedule (6:30 am, 11 am). Make sure to be there early or on time. Van, on the other hand needs all the seats to be completed before leaving. Sometimes, they will leave ASAP if you or your van-mates will share the payment for the remaining empty seats so it can leave without waiting for other passengers. 

D. Van and boat (Faster route)

1. From the city center, go to the bus or van terminal, you may ride a tricycle going there. Fare for a special tricycle (solo) ride is 50 pesos while ordinary (with other passengers) is 8 pesos per person. If from the airport, ride a taxi or van going to Naga City Van or bus terminal.

2. Ride a van going to Sabang port. Van fare is 150 pesos.

3. From Sabang port, ride the boat going to Guijalo Port (Caramoan). This boat leaves at 5:30 am, 8 am, 11 am and last trip would be 2 pm. Fare on this boat is 120 pesos per person. Speed of travel by boat depends on sea condition but usually takes 2 hours. In case you will arrive later than 2 pm. You can still rent a private boat and just arrange the price with the operator in Sabang.

Note:

Cebu Pacific flights from Manila to Naga is usually between 9am to 1 pm. In this case, you will miss the scheduled bus and boat. You may try taking the van going to Caramoan or staying 1 night in Naga. There are plenty of stuff to do in this city like trying their delicacies and visiting their church and parks.


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Bukidnon - wait for my return ! The CDO - Camiguin - Bukidnon Tour 2014 (Part 3)

Forest Park in Bukidnon

I didn't expect that Bukidnon have this kind of place. I thought that it is only about mountains and farms. Along the road going to this beautiful forest park is the plantation of pineapples. It's just so sad that it was a rainy day and we were not able to tour around. I was only able to get few shots and they are below.

  

I hope you had great fun in following our CDO - Camiguin - Bukidnon Tour. I will post our itenerary soon !

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Paddle Forward ! Exploring Northern Mindanao, The CDO - Camiguin - Bukidnon Tour 2014

We bought the airplane ticket going to Cagayan de Oro (CDO) eight months before our trip. Too far from the actual trip but who would say no to a ticket sale of a local airline. 

The experience in the NAIA Terminal 3 was not so good for us. The plane has left us since we arrived late, 10 minutes after last call for boarding. So guys !!!! guys ! guys ! always arrive on time. Arrive 2 hours before the boarding so you still have time for any last minute things to do. Moving on, we don't want to waste the money that we paid for the tour so we bought new plane tickets.

While waiting for our flight (the second one :p)

Laguindingan Airport

Laguindingan Airport is the new airport in CDO since the old one is now used for other purposes. I like this airport because it has a great ambiance and nice landscape. The scenery is really cool, those trees, that cove and the wind that will blow upon arrival. 

Shuttle is already waiting for just outside the exit of the terminal. We get in the car going to the hotel to check in and rest a bit since we don't have enough sleep the night before.

We were booked in Victoria Suite in the Divisoria Area of CDO. The hotel is just ok, the lobby, reception and dining is just ok. I am not impressed of our room, maybe it's their room for group backpackers. I am not quite sure of their rooms upstairs, if they look nice or just ok. We have tried the complementary breakfast on the last day of our stay and I did not like it :(. But this will do for a place to stay during the night. I will rate it 2 out of 5 since I am not impressed.

After checking in, we looked for a place where we can have brunch. It turns out that we were in the least restaurant studded area of CDO. We were all hungry so as much as we would like to walk a little bit farther to look for a local restaurant, Jollibee called our attention and there we had brunch.

12:30 in the afternoon, the guys from CDO Kagay has arrived. With the rafting boat loaded on top of the jeepney. This will be our service going to the famous CDO river. Kagay is a company facilitating the whitewater rafting in CDO. Kagay means river, it's their local dialect in the region. The team is very friendly and accommodating. They shared jokes during the trip going to the starting area of the rafting. Starting area is called the "Put in" because here, you put in the safety helmet and life jacket. There is a short lesson on how will the rafting be. The guides will teach you the precautionary measures and "what to dos" during the entire water adventure. Feel free to ask them because they are all friendly and ready to answer all your questions and address your whereabouts. I do not feel any hesitation in doing the water rafting because they seem to be professional in doing this. 

What to wear and bring? Light material clothing, aqua shoes or durable slippers or rubber or sports sandals for the feet. Put sunblock as well especially during hot days. You can bring personal dry bags for the things that you want to bring during the adventure. You can get hungry during the rafting so you can also bring snacks that you can eat during the calm water parts. Put them inside the dry bags.

Us before the real adventure :D

Floating lesson before the actual rafting

Below are some pictures of our rafting adventure.

 This concludes the adventure. This area is called the "Take out", where you take out the gears and wash.

You should try water rafting when you visit CDO. I strongly recommend Kagay for the whitewater rafting. We were insisting to treat them for a snack after rafting but they seem to be shy to accept our offer and they look busy for the next hours, maybe work related stuff for them. If I would rate them, I would give five out of five plus some extra points for the great water experience and taking good care of us during the entire time.

Kagay took us back to the hotel. We freshen ourselves and rest a little while waiting for our rafting pictures from Kagay to be delivered. When we got our pictures and videos clips in a CD, head out for dinner at Panagatan in the nearby mall. Panagatan is quite a famous region in the city as the locals told us. We had Pork Sisig, Shrimp in butter and garlic, Halaan, Kare-kare and rice. The food is great and just right for the exhaustive day that we had. We head back to the hotel after having some dessert in their mall as we need to wake up early the next day.

So why Paddle Forward? Go to CDO whitewater rafting to know :) Paddle forward !!! one, two ... 

p.s. most rafting pictures are from Kagay, others were taken using my phone and my friends' phone.
Stay tuned for my next post about Mindanao.

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Ilocos Adventure 2014

Hello Guys !

So I have finally decided to create my own blog about the places that I have visited. My first post will be about my Ilocos Trip with my friends. We settled for a tour trip after many days of customizing and setting up our own "gala". Since we cannot accomplish this personalized gala, My friend suggested to just buy a tour package. The tour guide is a complete stranger to us, well like they all used to be to every first time customer :p.

We bought a tour package from Ken-U-Tour worth 3000+. The tour is inclusive of the transportation, entrance fees, accommodation and tour guide of course. It was pretty cheap and a friend from Europe commented that it was insanely cheap. What kind of tour will that be ! :) Well, we have just experienced a nice and smooth trip. You know, when you purchased a service or a product that is way cheaper than the usual and cheaper from what you are expecting, it is becoming more and more worth it or what we call "sulit".

Below is the picture of the passengers of the van that we were in. The weather is so nice and rain has gone away. Indeed a perfect summer trip ! Kuya Ken (the tour guide) is the guy in black sando with a wrist watch. My friends the other 2 guys in black near me (the cute girl in black shirt and maong short :p kidding) and one of my best friends, girl in that gown :p

(Photo c/o Kuya Ken)

We started the travel during the Friday night. This is the time when the most tours like Ken-U-Tours is hitting the road to go to their destination. The meeting place was on a parking lot of a mall in Quezon City. After few hours of waiting for other passengers, we started our exciting trip. It was my first Ilocos Adventure and I am very excited to visit the 2 famous Spanish-invaded provinces up north, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. I am not sure if I was able to sleep in the van, well maybe just a nap. The travel going there was fast and peaceful. We stopped on a bridge to watch the sunrise but it was too early so we just proceed to the next stop, breakfast ! I am not quite sure of what I ordered but it was a nice breakfast with friends. After breakfast, we proceed to the place in the picture below.

Bantay Bell Tower

After the Bantay Bell Tower exploration, we went to Baluarte, a place owned by Mr. Chavit Singson. What I like about this place is the free entrance and the different kind of animals inside. I have seen the tigers but in cage, some ostrich, camel and many more.

After Baluarte, we visited Paoay Church, Marcos Mausoleum, Malacañang of the North, Cape Bojeador Lighthouse, Sand Dunes and Bangui Windmills.

Paoay Church
(photo c/o Ji)

Lake view in the vicinity of the Malacañang of the North

Sand Dunes ! Very exciting and heart exploding experience and everyone visiting Ilocos should try!!!

After the Sand Dunes experience, We head to our place to stay for the night. It was a 'small house-like apartment for renting' for visitors like us. It is located in the Saud area. After putting our things and making our selves home, our tour guide came back to pick us up for dinner. 

We ate in a local restaurant within Saud. The food was ok and again, I can't remember what I ate.:p After dinner and few drinks, we enjoyed the peaceful night and had a good sleep in our place.

We all have to be early the next morning. All my friends are ready and having a very nice aura. Kuya Ken, is very much ready as well. He came early to pick us up for breakfast. 

We ate breakfast in the same restaurant that we've been the night before. After the simple but delicious breakfast, we now head to the main part of the trip ! :)

The path going to the Kabigan Falls

Kabigan Falls

After the mini hiking experience in Kabigan falls, we went to Bantay Abot Cave and then Blue Lagoon where we experienced the nice beach and the zip line. 

You can experience the zip line by inquiring at Hannah's Resort. They will make sure you have all the safety gears needed and a service car going up to the hill.

We spend the rest of the afternoon at the Blue Lagoon. We made sure we experienced the fierce waves, clean air and good ambiance away from the noisy city. 

We asked Kuya Ken to just drop us off in the market as we planned to cook our own dinner. One of my friends is a great cook and everyone is ready to taste his special Sisig. In the market, we bought some things that we will use for the night. Playing cards, clean water and some chips are the only things that I can remember. (I promise that I will blog my next right after trip so I won't forget every single detail :p). So there, after buying things that we need, we rode the tricycle going back to our place. My friend made us dinner and we really enjoyed the food. We had "some" drinks and stayed late so the result is... BAM !!!! we were late for the next day.

So yeah, we were having little hangover and we have to be quick to prepare for the day. There, we are finally on the last day of the trip and then soon, we will be going back to Manila, back to the real world. I think I had a nap in the van and same for my friends. We are leaving Ilocos but before that, we are visiting The Kapurpurawan Rock Formation and then the famous Vigan for the Calle Crisologo exploration. I do advise all of you to please bring your sun glasses and put sun block especially if going on a hot sunny day. When we went there, I think the sun was angry and wanted us to be burnt, lol just kidding :)

So there guys, We all have to go back to reality and go home. It was a nice experience especially if with friends. I'm so sorry for the pictures that I can't post. I promise to put a blog-special pictures of my next trip.

ps. here is the facebook page of our tour guide: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ken-U-tour/271194792920486

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