13th - 19th June 2012 (7 Days)
Living on my extremely shoestring budget and a craving to just get out of the country every few months, I travelled up with a couple of friends and their friends to Legazpi and Donsol with the intention to see whalesharks, manta rays and hike up the second most symmetrical volcano in the world.
Donsol's peak season is typically from January to late May, so we were a little late on the peak season, but this trip was rather impromptu (less than 2 months of planning) and we had teachers in the group, so school holidays it is. Actually, I just tagged along since I was really dying to get out. It's the wanderlust syndrome.
The Itinerary:
13th June: 1:30am flight (3.5hours) to Manila > rush for 7am flight (1 hour) to Legazpi > Van ride (3 hours) to a harbour at Donsol > 1 hour boat ride to Ticao Island.
We reached around 2pm to settle in.
At Legazpi Airport
Very bad photo taking by our guide. I'm looking somewhere at the floor and a rare shot with me in spectacles, and everyone else looks a little stunned.
We stopped by this little town centre for a toilet break and to buy some refreshments, after about 2 hours in the van and 5 hours on the plane before, kahcheng a bit the sng... totally needed to walk around.
Taking the boat out (not this one thought, but similar) to Ticao Island. There were 9 of us, so we had to split up and go in two different boats.
Enjoying the sea breeze before the storm up ahead. Luckily we had a cabin below, the rest on the other boat were soaked.
Finally at Ticao Island Resort. 9 Cabannas in total, the only other people there were this group from Hong Kong.
Really nice resort feel, had air-conditioning as well. One of the better places I've stayed this year.
We did our travel with Donsol Ecotours, there was a promotion at ADEX 2012 and they're pretty efficient I must say. However, they did warn us we may not get to see whalesharks so instead of doing the typical snorkel interaction, the lady we were in contact with suggested changing the snorkel to 2 dives instead.
So after lunch, we headed out to San Miguel for a couple of easy dives. North of Ticao Island. It's another 45 minutes or so boat ride out from where we were staying.
Map of Masbate Province (read it properly). Ticao Island and north of it is where most of the dive sites were.
Sunset at the dive site. Some nice walls and corals, lots of nudibranches too.
The subsequent days at Ticao Island, we headed to Manta Bowl where there was reasonable amount of current, about > 20 metres deep. We spent 3 dives in total on the second day and saw 2 manta rays on the first dive, but sadly, no photos for proof. It was actually mostly waiting around for the big stuff to appear. No whalesharks too. So a lot of the time we were just hooking ourselves in to the rocks and playing.
The third day, we did one dive at Manta Bowl, still no whalesharks, so did the remaining dives at San Miguel. Total of 8 dives this trip.
Making air bubbles while waiting to ascend
Waiting at Manta Bowl
Lionfish
Nudibranch
Dogfish puffer
Synaptid cucumber
At the "Flower Shop"
While the diving experience wasn't as spectacular as we had hoped, it was a rather worthwhile trip. I guess peak season would have still been the best option. The dive masters told us in April they saw a family of 12 whalesharks in a single trip. Oh well... till next time.
We didn't do any night dives, so at the resort, other than dive, there really isn't much else to do. There were some canoes to row around the beach at to the fishing village.
The fishing village
Out on the canoes...
Ikan bilis out to dry
Kids from the village posing for me.
Dining area. The food was great for the 3 nights there.
Some days there were beef, pork, pasta, fish... although we suspect the meat came from the animals we saw on the island. Especially the pigs.
After the diving part, we headed back to Legazpi where the group split up, I went on to do the hike, while some added an extra 2 days in the town before flying out.
Not much on Mount Mayon because my camera decided to commit suicide somewhere along the way and I had to depend the remainder of the trip on my Galaxy SII which wasn't too bad actually.
The plan was to do a 3D2N on the volcano, but due to bad weather, we landed up only going up to about 1400m instead of the crater. Also note to self, trail running shoes are a big NO NO for hiking. I should have stuck to my trusty hiking shoes instead. We did one night on the mountain instead, and headed back down to the town after.
Drenched after the first day of trekking at Campsite 1.
Escargot anyone? Resident Mount Mayon snails. Chewy.
It was really very very very windy up there even though it's only about 1200-1300m in this picture.
Our porters acting all cool here.
At the supposedly real Campsite 1 waiting for the only guy to make it up to the "last shrub" before the crater bit.
The first day's hike is quite easy, took about 3 -4 hours of walking, moderately steep, but beware. Mayon is really not like the other more popular places like Kota Kinabalu or Rinjani. The treks are relatively less commercialised and I would say to some extent, a very noob and amateur trekker, you may want to be careful. Don't expect safety ropes along the way. The second day's hike to the crater is basically crawling on all fours for a large amount of the distance, this is where gloves will come in handy.
Start/End of the trek
Only time we'll get to see the peak this trip.
Best time to travel: November - May
Budget: 7 Days - Dive & Hike set me back about S$1200 + $200 (own expenditure). 5/6 Days Dive less than about $1000 + own expenditure.
