Philippines, Camiguin Island

After a few days on Cebu, we took the ferry to the small island of Camiguin, the last safe island before the rebellious and pirate-threatened islands in the south of the Philippines. Perhaps the proximity to the "unsafe" islands is the reason why Camiguin is visited by so few tourists - completely unjustifiably, as we believe!

Right after arriving on the island, we grabbed a scooter, stowed our backpacks in the, honestly pretty shabby, hostel, and took off, crisscrossing the island! Riding around the island on a scooter was our mission during our three-day stay. We went from waterfall to waterfall, to cold springs, through small villages, mostly consisting of bamboo huts, a well, a basketball hoop, and bamboo benches where the locals gather for a chat. As a break, we stopped at basketball courts to watch the kids play or by the sea for a quick cool down.

In addition to visiting the tiny island of Mantigue, whose beautiful sandy beach we enjoyed from the hammock, we also tried a small mountain tour, to the "Old Volcano" - which turned out to be a bad idea in temperatures over 40 degrees and under the scorching sun, so we were almost relieved when, after about two hours uphill, we found the path becoming more and more overgrown, forcing us to turn back... once we were back down, completely drenched in sweat, we immediately plunged into the sea to snorkel to the sunken cemetery of the island. The cemetery, along with the entire stretch of land, sank into the sea during the last volcanic eruption of Hibok-Hibok in 1951 and is now the new home of corals, giant seastars, colorful fish, and (attention pearl divers!) giant clams. A few gravestones can still be found among the corals, and the huge cross of the sunken cemetery is clearly visible just below the surface.

After the fun and exciting days on Camiguin, it was time to move on to Bohol...