Whenever I think of
Siargao Island I imagine myself waiting for a decent swell to come and when it
does, I follow through by padding my way to meet the forming waves head on. The
first step in a series of difficult process culminating with trying to stand on
my surf board prior to crashing hard and being swallowed by the waves. A
failure of catastrophic embarrassment ending with my head emerging from the
water almost short of breathe and struggling to swim back to safety.
As my surfing shame don’t
end there, I visualize countless veteran surfers laughing hard at me. While my
vision of Siargao may seem daunting and frightening - akin to going inside a
lion’s den. In this instance, a beach littered with watchful eyes of the who’s who
of the surfing community, a surfer poser like me have nowhere to hide.
That’s
Alright Brother
But that’s not the case in
real life as I found out. While taking photographs of the beach on our first
morning, a local surfer sleeping on a hammock at the Cloud Nine view deck asked
me if I am going surfing. I answered him in Tagalog with “I’m just a newbie, maybe next time”. He replied back with “Okay lang yon kuya, lahat nag-sisimula sa
hindi marunong” (that’s alright
brother, everyone starts from scratch when learning to surf).
I realized the local
surfers aren’t the type who’d make fun of wannabe surfers like me. Nobody was
born an expert of something anyway. As much as I wanted to give it a shot, I
know I still needed to accumulate countless hours of practice in a more laid
back surfing location such as La Union or Baler – before I take up space in the
lineup with the surf board riding sharks of Siargao.
This is the reason why I
eagerly welcomed this chill journey to Siargao as part of Cebu Pacific Air’s
media trip. A big part of it was because I saw the itinerary only mentioning “Surfing” on the last day – and it came
with a note that says “if we have time”.
The pressure of visiting
Siargao and showing off my non-existent surfing skills and not embarrass myself
somehow disappeared. I know that I’ve to someday return to this island with an
advanced ability in riding the waves. But until then, I would love to explore
the non-surfing attractions of Siargao first.
Plotting a simple Siargao itinerary other than hitting the many surfing spots of Siargao? here's a brief rundown of the places we visited.
Plotting a simple Siargao itinerary other than hitting the many surfing spots of Siargao? here's a brief rundown of the places we visited.
Sugba Blue Lagoon
Situated right smack in a
protected area of a 4,000-hectare nature sanctuary which also boasts the second
largest Mangrove forest in the Philippines, the sight of the clear waters of
Sugba Blue Lagoon sliced through my consciousness like a Zen knife. A state of
calmness quickly got a hold of me. I was amazed at how magnificent Mother
Nature formed these azure colored waters as it snaked around the scattered
islets off the coast of Del Carmen.
A 40 minute drive from
General Luna to Del Carmen and another hour and half of boat ride completed our
morning journey to Sugba Blue Lagoon. As we cruised inside the mouth of the
mangrove forest, I saw small fishing houses built on stilts surrounded by the
islets thick vegetation.
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| Photo credit: Miss Backpacker |
Inching nearer, the waters
became greener and the first thing I noticed as we approached the makeshift
wooden jetty is the lone pontoon house, casing the dining and receiving area where
visitors are advised to proceed and hang out.
This is also where you can
rent stand-up paddle-boards, kayaks and other inflatable flotation. After
renting a table where we put our things, our group went on our own separate
agendas. I started off with the paddle-board before shifting to the kayak.
There were more than 50
people that day, but the sheer size of the lagoon means you can still enjoy the
isolation sense of the place surrounded by various kinds of shrubbery.
An 8-feet wooden diving
board built adjacent at the walking platform became our playground after we had
lunch consisting of adobo squids, liempo, steamed shrimps and crabs. Everyone
just egged others to jump and when someone exhibited apprehensions, as if right
on cue two little girls’ displaying bravado, showed the way. They took turns in
jumping into the water more than a dozen times, to the astonishment of
everybody including their mom. “Mommy,
we’re going to jump again”, the older girl would declare the moment they
swam back to the dais.
Magpupungko Natural Rock Pools
We took our sweet time at
Sugba Blue Lagoon knowing we don’t have to rush going to Magpupungko, which is
located an hour away. The best time to visit this place is during low tide, so
the tidal
pool will emerge from underwater.
We arrived ahead of the
crowd at around 4:30 pm, and while the tides aren’t that low, the sheen of the
setting sun kissing the rock formations provided a surreal scene. Seeing the clear
waters shining like crystals I wasted no time and quickly waded into it.
Not long after, our whole
group are all plunged neck deep in the tidal pool, all enjoying an afternoon
dip to cap a beautiful day exploring Siagao sans a surf board.
Naked Island
The next day, after coming
from Bucas Grande – which is located 2 hours away by boat from the island of
Siargao, we passed by Naked Island.
Naked Island is one of
three widely visited white sand islands located off the coast of General Luna
in Siargao. Since we pressed for time, we only managed to drop by Naked Island.
Good thing or a bad thing, depending on your preference, the island isn't a
nudist beach. It is similar to many sandbar islands in the Philippines such as
the White
Island in Camiguin, bare and beautiful, and I am hoping it remains that way
forever.
Despite of the heavy downpour
and cloudy skies, we still made the most of our short time here and whatever “wish I could stay longer” thoughts I
had, quickly morphed into a planned return trip to Siargao soon.
Time’s a bummer so we
missed out on the two other islands: Guyam and Daku Islands. We made up for it
though by spending the rest of our short 4-days trip in Siargao by going on a
food-trip feast checking out some of the island’s best
places to eat.
And yes, next time I head
back to Siargao I better take up surfing and never miss out Guyam and Daku
islands again.
********************
Since
December 17, 2017, the Philippines’ leading carrier Cebu Pacific Air have
started flying direct between Manila and Siargao, six times a week.
