THESE days, it’s hard to believe that Caramoan still hosts the “Survivor” series—a show that depicts contestants as castaways displaced on the far ends of the world—when in “reality,” the tourists were actually everywhere in the Camarines Sur peninsula when we got there over one long weekend.
This irony of being “remote” vs. “accessible” cannot escape us as observers. That while we want a taste of being in an unchartered territory as what the reality TV presents, it is also the same show that turned the remote and little-known group of islands into a world destination. It effectively turns the showbiz-crazy Filipino into a traveling curioso to come visit Caramoan and see why the producers chose this place.
Actually, we were not spared from this. Hehe. 🙂 The 14-hour travel initially made us question what have we signed up for. But the first sight of the big blue sea into Camarines Sur’s southernmost tip offered us a rewarding reprieve: Yes, it was worth it!
It was a fitting getaway for us— college friends who met at UP Kalayaan dorm during our freshman year—to come out here during Independence Day. It was a first for the group to be together after 8 years—and in an out-of-town trip no less! I am thankful for friends like them. Thank you Osang, Kristy, Denise, Rhea, Cha, as well as new travel friends Robby and Fritz from Cebu!
Fortunately for us, we had a good excuse for being there to join our friend who hails from Caramoan. She recalled the time how island hopping was a need for them as residents than what it was for us as leisure. She also noted the they are thankful for the developments that freed residents and tourists alike from all the difficulties in reaching the place.
She reminded us, however, that the price of progress is slowly making itself felt at the expense of the environment. Now, this brings us to a dilemma. I could only imagine what every islander must feel. It must be a difficult task to keep this balance. Every tourist has a responsibility to do their share to leave the place as they have found it. Some islands are said to be leased to the Survivor series for 25 years and many countries have had their versions here. But we’re there for the same reason they chose the place: THE ISLANDS.
Sabitang Laya. Lahuy. Cotivas. Gota. Lahus. Matukad. Minalahos. Hunongan. Tinazo. Basod. Haponan. Manlawig sandbar.
There is indeed much to see but the names of all the islands are admittedly too hard to remember, thus a challenge on its own. The good thing, however, is that no island is the same here in Caramoan. There was no need for names, only what part of the island held our breaths. There was no need to label our multisyllabic confusion when we could describe each island according to the rock formations we saw. There was no challenge in which island has the clearest waters, when the real task was to name as many shades of blue that we could muster.
In the end, this trip has proven to us that we were more like weekend warriors than the “survivors” we thought ourselves to be. Island after island, we revisited a familiar sense of awe just hours apart, one that perhaps only Caramoan’s islands could bring out of us. Here, every island is different. The happiness it brings, however, is thankfully more familiar.
So much so, that I want to visit it again. ###