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| On our way to the next island. |
We we're still exhausted from our activities from the previous day but our excitement gave us the energy to wake up early, get our breakfast and discover more islands.
While waiting for our breakfast, I went around and explored our surroundings. The town we stayed in didn't only cater to tourists like us, they also had fishermen among them. However, unlike most fishing towns, the shore didn't smell of fish and was kept very clean.
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| Motorboats parked along the shoreline ready for island-hopping. The flags were similar to the ones on the island where Survivor New Zealand was filming at the time. |
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| The shore was clean and only had some plants and firewood left to dry in the sun. |
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| One of the bigger boats which I think is used for fishing as it had layers of fish nets stored on it. |
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| Lazy island morning to start our day. |
A little bit of relaxation accompanied our breakfast and then it was time to go on the motorboat and feel the sea breeze once more.
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| Leaving behind our comfy inn. |
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| So many islands, which of them is our destination? |
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| One of the islands we passed by on our way to our destination. |
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| The shore to Manlawi Sandbar still further away. |
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| One of the floating cottages at Manlawi Sandbar where we had a very unique lunch. |
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| Vendors peddling seashells and coconuts. |
We had a very unique and satisfying lunch at Manlawi Sandbar. We we're so satisfied we even begged our tour guides to let us stay longer. It was very tempting to just sleep the afternoon away but we had islands to explore so we didn't succumb to temptation. I must say that this experience was the highlight of our day.
The other islands we visited after this were Bugtong island and Cotivas island.
At the time of our visit, one of the islands we passed by was the site of Survivor New Zealand. When we went back from our island adventure, we saw the contestants climbing back unto speedboats. They were then whisked away to go back to the filming site. We were told later that the contestants regularly went ashore to get their meals at the same carinderia (the only one, really) where we took our meals.
Our tour guide tried to get us closer to the island where they were filming but a patrol boat came along and we we're told that the island was off-limits to tourists for the time being. So we only saw the colorful flags and wooden houses from afar.
Our last destination was on land near where our inn was. The Crystal Cave where we had to crawl through a whole in the ground, in single file, grope around in the dark as our eyes adjusted and then had to endure the warm air inside as we took pictures.
Unfortunately, my camera had run out of batteries at this point and both my cellphones were also out of juice. My friends do have pictures of our sweaty, dirty and weary-looking faces which I don't think I'm ready to share to the rest of the world. So let me just give you a brief description of the cave.
The cave was named so because the walls and ceiling had small, glittering minerals which glowed like crystals in the dark. The cave walls and ceiling also had rock formations which seemed to be dripping down from the ceiling and the ones on the ground seemed like huge, melted candles. The walls of the cave looked like lava cascading down a hill. The cave was also dry although the crystals made it look like the walls and ceilings were wet. It was also very hot as it was a small cave and the small passage that we went through was the only opening. Thank goodness there were no bats to scare us when we got inside.
We concluded that perhaps our 2-day adventuring and our sweaty efforts to crawl through the short but narrow opening had made us shed a lot of flab that's why we all got through without getting stuck. It was also an effort to get out. Thus, the order for the night was to get ourselves a bath and enjoy a leisurely candle-lit dinner at the carinderia.
For more stories on our Caramoan adventure, check out these posts:
- Sun, Sea and Sand in Caramoan - Day 1
- Lunch in the Middle of the Sea at Manlawi Sandbar, Caramoan
- St. Michael Archangel Church and Naga CWC - Day 3
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