I love the beach. I don't care if I get sunburned, I just love frolicking in the sand and turquoise seawater. If only I can afford to buy a house by the beach, that would be great!
I was itching to go the beach once again. And one of the beach destinations I am dreaming to go to is Caramoan in Camarines Sur but reading blogs after blogs about how to get there, it turned me off. It took a while before I chanced upon one blog that says Caramoan can be reached by land travel. It says that one can drive all the way to Caramoan using the Lagonoy-Presentacion-Caramoan road. It's going to be around 4-5 hours land travel from Naga City to Caramoan using that road. So I started my research about the condition of the road. Most that I've read says that negotiating the road is not an easy task. It's going to be a bumpy, rough and dangerous drive with all the sharp curves, steep ascent/descent and mostly rough road. At first, I was hesitant to go on with the trip but the urge to see Caramoan forced me to do it. With my brother, niece and her daughter and Mimi, off we go to our ultimate landtrip to Survivor Island-Caramoan!
We left Manila at around 3am and reached Naga City before 1pm. Initial plan was to spend a night in Naga and will continue our trip to Caramoan the next morning. But we still had ample time to continue our trip to Caramoan so we decided to hit the road again and pray that we reach our destination before sunset. The road from Naga to Lagonoy is paved and didn't give us any problem. But the road from Lagonoy to Caramoan was a different story. Though approximately 85% of the road was paved, there were portions that were still unpaved and under construction and there were some muddy portions of the road that small vehicle will have a hard time passing through. We were lucky because the weather was good though it drizzled when we were nearing Caramoan. There were only few vehicles passing through that road and most of the time, we were alone on that lonely road. It's good that my brother was with us, we felt safe somehow. Along the way, we were treated with a beautiful view of the ocean on the right and lush rainforest on the left.
We reached Caramoan before 7 in the evening. We headed to Gota Village which is around 4.5km from the main road. We were accommodated though we didn't have any reservation prior to arrival. It was weekday after the long weekend so most of the guests might have gone home so only 3 cabins were occupied including ours. It was dark when we arrived in Gota so we didn't have the chance to see the surroundings. The cabin was small yet cozy with one bedroom good for 2 persons plus one bed outside for one person in the living area and one sofa. Lani and her daughter and Mimi occupied the bed in the room while my brother occupied the other bed in the living room while I volunteered to occupy the sofa. The cabin can accommodate up to 6 persons. It's good that we visited Caramoan without the Survivor shoots because during shootings, Gota Village is closed because it serves as accommodation for Survivor crew. Some of the islands cannot be accessed too during the shoots.
I woke up as early as 5am the next morning, too eager to see the surroundings and the beach and excited to go on island hopping. Since it was still dark outside, I decided to cook rice and heat water for coffee. We didn't spend a lot on food because we brought a lot of cooked meal and we brought rice cooker with rice, water heater and thermos for our coffee with two coolers full of drinks and fruits. After eating our breakfast, we packed some of the leftovers for our lunch in the island during the island hopping. We went to the beach and we were greeted with a great view of the surroundings. Gota Village is nestled in between mountains and its cabins were scattered in small circle formations. I can't believed that I am now in Gota Village. I remember when I was still abroad, I've seen a photo of this resort and I fell in love with the place but wasn't thinking that I will be able to see this in person. The beach was a bit disappointing though because of the seaweeds scattered everywhere. The sand is off white not as fine as that of Boracay's and the wave was a bit high. Nevertheless, the view was amazing.
We were told to wait for our boat on the other side of the island where the waves were calmer and easier for the boatmen to negotiate. At around 0700, our boat arrived. Lahos Island was our first destination. It has white sand and clear blue water. I was tempted to dip but changed my mind at the last minute. We headed to Matukad Island which is a few minutes away from Lahos. It has white sand too and the water was crystal clear. It has a small lagoon where a big fish which looks like a big milkfish is roaming. You have to climb the steep limestone formations before you can see the lagoon and the fish. My brother and I together with one of the boatmen climbed up the steep limestone formation to see the lagoon and the fish. We were about to go to one of the most beautiful islands (I forgot the name) but according to our boatmen, it will take us almost an hour to get there and since it's an open sea, the waves were big and rough and we had a small baby with us so we decided to just go to the safest beach to swim. We went to a small beach opposite Honungan Cove. It's a cute and beautiful white sand beach. There was a shaded portion so we enjoyed swimming without worrying of sunburn. We headed to Honungan Cove to eat our packed lunch afterwards. We were heading back to Gota before noon and decided to check out and leave for Legazpi City to see the Mayon Volcano. It was a wrong decision we realized afterwards. We could have stayed another night in Gota and explored Caramoan more. Anyway, the trip was really tiring especially for me because I was the lone driver for the entire trip but it was all worth it!
