Turtle Island, Surigao del Sur

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Don’t let yourself indulge in vain wishes. ” – Rabindranth Tagore

This is the second part of my story.
Here’s the first part:  Enchanted River Revisited: Surigao del Sur

This was the story of the tour that I previously posted.

All are set and ready for our next destination which was the Cabgan Island. It was 3:45 in the afternoon when we went to the boat docking area  located at the back of their public market. We are divided into three boats that brought us to the island for about 30 minutes sail. From the horizon, we can clearly see the islands which on the left is the Cabgan Island this one on the right that look like a turtle. Hence, called Turtle island.

In the boat...

Cabgan Island (Kabgan) is still part of  the Municipality of Barobo as well it’s neighboring islands.

Cabgan Island shoreline

Once landed, we then clear the flat area from wood debris (gapnod =) ) brought along by the waves of water to the shores and then proceeded to pitch our tent. I first noticed the 1.6++ Kilometers long pristine white powdery sand  beach curving along the shores. The water is so clear that you can visibly see what’s below. The island  was  raw and  not even developed to accommodate visitors in terms of comfort like a resort with cottages or comfort rooms and no water  and untouched by any man made alterations except for 3 houses I saw and one big patio with no nipa roof.

Sunset at Cabgan island

Good thing the event was organized and when it comes to dinner times, superb seafood’s served on the participants – it’s like a smorgasbord of seafoods.  Participants did the sunset shoot with camera’s and some  dipped into the  beach. Bonding on participants tightened after the dinner as everyone mingled just like an old friend. Some are playing cards, drinking spree – moderately. Hehehe

All we could hear is laughter and chit chats.

Participants stroll along the stretched of the shore later at night with only headlamps, flashlights for us to see what’s ahead. It was really fun!

Sunrise at Cabgan Island

Morning came and the participants with camera are the early birds who got up to glimpse and took a sunrise shoot as the Turtle Island and part of the Cabgan island stretch on the horizon.

Island hop

Disappointment is NOT an option here; we then have an island hopping and the participants’ onboard three boats. We took a round on the Cabgan Island with unique stone formations, on the famous Turtle Island, and the vanishing snake island with a skeleton of a house structure were it’s sand appears only when water level becomes very low. Other islands that was visited was the one with a Grotto.

As we are back at the Cabgan Island, we took our breakfast  which was a grilled fish ” Isda sa bato : mol-mol”  no idea what’s the name of that delicious fish.

Bogac Spring

Quarter to 11 in the morning and we departed from Cabgan Island, we then arrived at Barobo specially at Bogac Spring at around 11:40 where we took our bath  to cleanse our body from salt water. Although, the spring is still salty but much lesser since the buoyancy is much heavier compared to open sea.

Past almost 1 in the afternoon that all are refreshed and dressed, we stayed in one corner where there’s a store that subscribed to pay per view on Pacquiao – Cotto fight. =) We then took the opportunity  and watched the event. Imagine the old days as only one household in a sitio had a television with all the neighbors are clinging into the windows just to watch the event. The house was jumped packed with people outside specially on it’s windows. Typical Philippine scenery on rural and on crowded areas in the city.

The bus arrived at around 2:20 in the afternoon to pick-up the participants and brought to the new Barobo public market  where they bought fresh seafoods packed in styro boxes and dried fish like danggit! Yeah danggit. Hehehe

We departed from the public market around 3:30 in the afternoon and took a stop at one of the eateries along the highway of San Francisco for 40 minutes, still part of Surigao to have our meals.

Six forty five when we arrived at Nabunturan and took a stop for 15 minutes to buy ” Kakanin pasalubong”  before heading straight to Davao City. It was 7:30 when we arrived at the City and one by one participants were drop to locations where their house is near.

We would like to appreciate the generosity  and kindness of  Ma’am Mary Grace “Weng” Sanchez, Chairperson of Department of tourism in the area for the help.

Again, to all the participants. You saw and felt the nature’s beauty and let’s take our part to protect to fully enjoy it’s bounty. Thank you very much and until next nature escapade. Keep posted.

I would like to thank Anna Marie Tan Gonzales and Jem Sacapano for some of the images.

Kudos to the organizers who made the Event possible: Arthur Yap, Sarah Elizar, Elmer Abanid and the rest of the team.  Ciao!