Camiguin Island

One past IJM Fellow, Crystal, and one current IJM Fellow, Amy, decided to initiate us new interns/fellows with a weekend trip to a nearby island called Camiguin. We had no idea what to expect, but we were game - even Riley (summer legal intern) who had only arrived the day before and had only gotten his luggage a few hours before... now that's what I call a trooper! So, after work on Friday, we packed our bags, grabbed some McDonalds for dinner, and headed to one of the 8 docks in Metro Cebu. We were taking an overnight 12-hour boat ride from Cebu to Camiguin from 8pm to 8am. We opted for the "open air" room which was literally one level on the boat filled with bunkbeds and foam/vinyl pads. It was so refreshing just to lie there, feel the cool ocean breeze, the boat sway, and watch the lightning storm that was going on in the distance. Trying to sleep, on the other hand, was not so easy. It turns out that they don't turn the florescent lights that are a few feet away from your head off at all during the night! But I was still able to get some sleep which was good. Saturday morning I woke up around 5am or so and was able to watch the sun rise over the ocean. So beautiful. As we approached Camiguin island, it was very green with tons of palm trees everywhere and multiple volcano's. As we tried to pull into the dock, the driver was having some problems parking and we ended up floating in a circle for about 45 minutes. When we finally got ashore, we met a motorella driver named Sunny who told us that he had a place we could stay that slept 8 and had aircon (which means "is air conditioned"). So the 6 of us climbed into his tiny motorella, which is essentially a tiny minivan that is put on top of a motorbike (see picture), and went to his place.

(sleeping area in overnight boat ride)

(This is the Motorella... we fit six people in this thing!)

(If you look at the front, that is our driver... he is pulling us all on a motorbike!)

The place we stayed was pretty simple... basically just bunkbeds and a bathroom. But the location was excellent! Our front door was about 20 feet from the ocean.

(Here is our place)

(Here is the view in front of our place - not bad at all)

In order to get around the island, we rented four motorbikes for the weekend. I was so excited... I didn't think I would get to ride in the Phils. The bikes are semi-automatic which means that you still have to shift through the gears, but there isn't a clutch. It took a little while to get used to, but I was soon a professional! It felt so good to ride again... there are a few things in life that make me feel alive (not to sound lame), and riding, especially through a gorgeous island in the Philippines, is one of them. It was pretty funny having the 8 of us ride around the island on these 4 motorbikes though... I felt like we were in a white person parade. Any time we would pass people, they would stare/call out to us/honk/wave. The guys on the island think its pretty funny to shout "Salad" which effectively means "look at the hot chicks" everywhere we went...

(This is the "gas station" where they bring out gas in empty coke bottles and pour it into your bike)

The rest of the weekend was filled with sightseeing and adventures which included the following:
-- Snorkeling on an all white sand beach in the middle of the ocean. We got dropped off by a little boat for a few hours. The water was so warm and clear (especially compared to CA beaches). One added bonus is that the water is so salty, it makes it impossible not to float right on top. I got to see some really cool sea creatures including colorful fish and several giant blue starfish that were about a foot wide.

-- We went to some natural hotsprings up in the mountains. There were several different pools at different levels with one pool flowing down into the next.

-- On Sunday, we woke up early and went to an adventure tour place for trekking and repelling (i.e. canyoneering). We had a guide who took us up the mountain for about 30 minutes... the hike wasn't that hard, but it was so hot. I don't think I have ever sweat that much in my life. But the scenery was incredible. You could see so much of the island from there... so much ocean! Unfortunately, my camera isn't waterproof so I wasn't able to bring it to take any pictures from the canyoneering portion of the weekend. After the hike, we dropped into the canyon and worked our way down. There were two repels over waterfalls, an assisted climb, one rock water slide, and several swims. I also learned that rocks covered in some sort of green substance are extremely slippery. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way by slipping on one and falling on my bum! Ouch! We ended up at the top of a 245 foot waterfall called Katibawasan Falls. They tied us to a tree so we could look over the edge. We then had to climb back out the canyon and up the ropes we repelled down. That was a new experience... I've never had to climb back out before. It was so much fun. Who knew that I could canyoneer in the Phils! When we got back, they had a full traditional Filipino meal prepared for us including pancit, eggplant salad, and some sort of chicken soup in coconut milk.

-- We had to take two of the girls who had met us there back to one of the island ports, so we decided to ride around the whole island (which only takes about 2 hours to do). We were almost back to the place we were staying (literally, about 5 minutes away) when we were going through an area where there was some construction and Matt (the other summer legal intern) hit some loose gravel and went down. Thankfully, we weren't going very fast and while he did get pretty scratched up, his injuries weren't too severe.

After that, we packed up and hopped back on the boat for another overnight boat ride back to Cebu. We got in around 6:45am and headed straight to work. What an amazing first weekend. I definitely want to go back to Camiguin before I leave.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures