Camiguin Tourist Spots @ Day 2: The Galapagos of the Philippines

For our 1st day, please click on this link:Camiguin: The Island Born of Fire(Day 1)

For our 2nd day in Camiguin, the ffg are the areas we visited:
1. White Island / Sandbar
2. Provincial Capitol & Tourism Office
3. Corrales Ancestral House
4. Centennial House
5. 1814 Rotunda
6. Taguines Lagoon
7. Provincial Breeding & Ostrich Production Center 
8. Mantigue Island (the best!) 

1. White Island / Sandbar

    Quite a distance and delving dark blue waters after, appeared the White Island. It was around 7:30 am when we arrived and the tide was getting high. We took some pictures of the beautiful scenery and swam in the clear waters for an hour or so. The bancas were provided by the LGU which can accommodate a maximum of 6 persons for a fee of 450 pesos. There is also an Island Usage Fee of 20 pesos per pax.

View of Mainland Camiguin

 Welcome to the White Island/ Sandbar!

 

Check out the Panoramic Shots of the White Island! :D

   It is really a common advice to tourists that the visit to the White Island be done early in the morning to escape the scorching heat of the sun since there are no trees nor any other structures that can provide shade on the island.

 

   And so after an hour or two, we decided to sail back to the mainland to go back to our lodge. Below are the pictures of the tourist outpost where you will pay the fees for the bancas and the island user's fee.

  Pabualan Cottages   

   Since our inn was just a walking distance away from the port, we opted to return to take a shower and change to dry clothes. It was drizzling at that time, and after waiting for the rain to stop, we decided to proceed to our nest destination which was the Corrales Family Ancestral House. 

The Motorela

     The mode of transportation in Camiguin is usually the "Motorela". It's a customized vehicle which is mainly a motorcyle with a built-in body to carry 8-10 (sometimes 12!) passengers. Two additional wheels are attached at the rear portion of the vehicle. Minimum fare is 8 pesos and increases along with the distance.In Mambajao, there are two routes for Motrelas, the WESTBOUND ROUTE & the EASTBOUND ROUTE. We took the Westbound Route from our inn towards our next destination.

    As one can observe, there is also the "front seat" portion which can accommodate up to three persons, with the driver in the middle. Some have even built-in seats where one can sit directly at the back of the driver.

3. Corrales Ancestral House

    And this is our April Fools' for the day (though it's already the 2nd week of June). We found this place in the listing of places to visit in Camiguin  that we downloaded from the internet. We thought it a kind of a museum that we were going into having read it somewhere that it was an ancestral house or something. But what the heck, even the drivers don't know about an existing ancestral house along Lakad St.

    

 It was only when we read to them the description about it being owned by the Corrales Family that they realized what were talking about and by then it was already too late since we already passed by the place. So we just stopped by the Provincial Capitol, and after checking it out, we then rode another tricycle towards the said ancestral house.

 It was just one of those many old houses leased for commercial purposes such as stores, of which Camiguin is bountiful. It's nothing extraordinary really, which we guessed was the reason why residents didn't really consider it as a tourist spot since in my own opinion, there's nothing unique about it. There are just so many old houses in Camiguin. The house was not even developed as an attraction. : (

 

2. Provincial Capitol & Tourism Office
        These are the panoramic shots of the capitol compound of the province. We also visited the Provincial Tourism Office and were hospitably accommodated by the employees.

Legislative Building

     This is the interior of the Provc'l Tourism Office.
4. Centennial House

    So after visiting the Capitol, and the Corrales Family's Ancestral House, we reviewed one of our lists, and then asked the Motorela Driver to bring us to the  Centennial house. Sadly, the gate was locked so we just viewed it from the outside and proceeded on our way to the terminal to get a ride towards the J&A Lagoon. The driver told us that there are also antiques inside, but we inferred that perhaps it was not really a very popular destination which is why the house is not regularly opened to the public, and so you can only go inside on  prior booking.

5. 1814 Rotunda
      Just in front of the Mambajao Terminal for vans and motorelas is the Rotunda Landmark built in 1814, and fortunately, is still standing until today. ^_^

     The fare from Mambajao to Benoni is 30 pesos for the van.This is the Benoni Port which is the port for vessels going to mainland Mindanao such as Cagayan de Oro.

Benoni Port

 6. Taguines Lagoon

    There are many activities that one can do within the circumference of the Taguines Lagoon.In fact, the Municipality of Mahinog presents the Taguines Lagoon Aqua Sport & Recreational Facility which is just 5-10 minutes away from the Benoni Port. The facility offers an array of boating adventures like kayak, pedal and paddleboats. There are facilities for your comfort needs and canteen for refreshment. From their brochure, tourists paddle or pedal their way inside the lagoon toward the different stations to view the aqua culture species in cages such as green mussels, milkfish breeding and commercial scale fry production. 

The rates are as follows:

Actual Rate Pedal Boat Kayak Tandem Kayak Single Paddle Boat Zorb Ball 30 mins 150.00 150.00 100.00      90.00 Rate after 30 mins   50.00 50.00   30.00      30.00 The Taguines Lagoon is an attraction itself. It has an existing zip line crossing the lagoon area and nestled at the top of its hills is the Que-obe Eco Park Restaurant. It is also just a few meters away from Katunggan Park where the boardwalk and full-grown mangrove trees are found. Near to it is also the Benoni Marine Park.

   However, since we didn't have much time, we just settled ourselves in the J &A Fishpen Resort and Restaurant. After touring the place, we also nestled in some of the cottages, relaxed ourselves, then proceeded to the restaurant to eat after observing the fishes in the pond, including the ducks. Nice place to chill out really had we had the liberty of time. 

J&A Fishpen Resort

 

From the lagoon, we proceeded to the Provincial Breeding & Ostrich Production Center. These are the views along the way of the Benoni Town. : )

7. Provincial Breeding & Ostrich Production Center
    From the lagoon, we contracted a motorela driver to drop us at the Provincial Breeding Center, wait for us a while, then bring us to the port of the bancas towards the Mantigue Island, all for 20 pesos per person for the whole package. We paid an entrance fee of 5 pesos.

From our observation, the place is quite underfunded (sorry!). But there are several huge pigs, some ducks, and of course, the reason for our visit, the ostriches! The entrance fee's really quite petty, and so if you're one of those wealthy-have-some-money-to-spare tourists, we really recommend that you donate.

    The ostrich just kept on following me whichever direction I went, I guess coz he was expecting that I would give him something to peck on. Too bad I didn't have any munchies with me though. I'm not sure if you can feed them, but I haven't notice any sign prohibiting it.

   We just stayed in the center for several minutes just enough to view the ostriches and take shots since the area has that usual barn smell from the wastes of the animals. Also, we were saving time since we still need to go to the MANTIGUE ISLAND, of which I will be narrating in a separate post.

   Below is an itemized schedule of expenses that we have incurred for our 2 days stay in Camiguin. Since there were only four of us, we were not able to maximize the 6-person max capacity of the boats. In other words, the total cost could be lower for a group of 6. The list is exclusive of meals, however.

For the rest of our Camiguin journey, just click on the ffg:

Camiguin: The Island Born of Fire (Day 1)  

Mantigue Island, Camiguin