Camotes Island

  As i browse pictures, I never fail to stare much at the recent summer I had with college friends in Camotes Island.

I arrived at Cebu around 9:45am with Chime and Doods but we had to wait for a friend who’ll be arriving in an hour from Davao also. The others were already in SM Cebu waiting for us.. Anne, Ching and Tong.  They came in earlier flights and decided that we eat at SM Cebu at a dimsum place where you have to make ur fingers sound to call a waiter. Tong and I was so hungry that we would take whatever is ready to be eaten.

               Thanks to Tata’s frend, Paul John, who bought tickets for us to Camotes Island. We had to buy even before coming to Cebu knowing that Holy Week might mean a lot of people also buying a lot of tickets. PJ was also kind enough to go with us to the port in Cebu. Pier 1 is located in the City to transport us to Camotes island by water in almost 3 hours. There’s a scheduled trip every day at 6am and 4pm for P300 (one way). Like any ports, the porters will swarm around you to carry your luggages for P10.00 .

                       We arrived there around 8pm and very hungry. We rode for 30 minutes. in a multicab going to the resort we reserved. The place was so dark since there were no electric posts along the roads. We just trusted the driver and laughed a lot to mask the fear a little.

               We stayed at Keshe Resort which has beautifully crafted native cottages for its guests. They were kind enough to prepare a delicious dinner for us. The food was so great considering we were so starved. The huts were so huge we could fit  in one hut or cottage. We were the only tenants, so we had the resort all to ourselves. The air was cold and we were approximately 50 steps away from the shoreline. If only we weren’t that tired, we could have dipped in the waters right after dinner.

From the moment we came until we ate, we were laughing at the funny things that went with our travel. We exchanged things we knew about the island . The rest of the night, we spent talking and of course, drinking. The island didn’t have corkage fees, so we bought a number of drinks for our 4 days stay at the island. For the first night, we drank Tequila Rose which was according to my friends, tasted like Calpol (a cough syrup for kids) and Arbor Mist (blackberry). The latter tasted like “tuba”, a local wine from coconut.

            Breakfast was great since we had it with the view of the peaceful beach. The water was so tempting, yet we had to stop ourselves since we have to be on tour first. Like all bakasyunista, we wanted to see the whole of the island first and what it’s know for. PJ hired a multicab to tour the island with Kuya Edward as our driver. We knew that we will be touring in beaches also, so we wore already our swimsuits.

                         Kuya Edward decided what places to take us to.We went to the Tumubo Cave which proved to be very scary and exciting at the same time and paid P10 for entrance fee. There are cemented steps to prevent tourists from slipping while going in and out of the cave. At the end of our trail, we found ourselves in a clear body of water. We couldn’t resist dipping in. We were already in our swimsuits by the way.

                We went to explore the rest of the island like Danao Lake and the other resorts. We had our lunch at Mangodlong Beach Resort. It’s one of the sought after beach in Camotes. Then, we also toured the rest of the beaches like Santiago White Beach and others.

                  The rest of the island proved to be so peaceful and very clean, even saw their garbage bins being color coded. And even the houses are labeled “Balay ni Rosa” which made me think, the place was so little that all that is there could actually be labeled. We even stayed awhile in their sentro which was as relaxing as the beach. We had also the chance to watch a local “rugby” tournament, a game i did not know much.

KESHE RESORT

We spent the rest of the days at this resort, well actually the rest of the vacation.  We had the whole resort for ourselves which was the best part of the vacation though we shared the beach with all of those who were on vacation.  The rate was affordable for an accommodation that seemed so luxurious.The staff are so friendly that they will always attend to your needs, anytime you need them. They will even offer buko or saging when you know you wanted to have it so bad.

                We slept and woke up when we wanted to and we plunged in the water each time it invited us in. We enjoyed the day in the sun and the darkness of the night. We unloaded burdens and re-crafted our dreams. We went back to the old days when we enjoyed even the mere sight of liquor.

                        There were still much of what the island offers but we had only 4 days there. We had to be picked up by Kuya Edward early 4’oclock in the morning. Yes, we woke up early with even an hour of sleep.We rode Ocean jet again back to Cebu mainland (but this time, the travel was disappointing due to disorganized ticketing and seating scheme of Ocean jet Liner).

                             It was the best get-away for me. For long , i haven’t been in trips with them, a pledge we made back at school. I knew i needed this. It was running away from all the pressures at work or even with personal matters. It didn’t solve problems but it did give me time to breathe and gather myself again.  The good thing about it is that i spent those days with the friends i knew i could breathe well with.