Surviving Caramoan Islands

The title really speaks for Caramoan since aside from it has always been the favorite site for International franchises of Survivor, going there you actually have to survive the long ass travel, and of course a chance of getting stuck if a typhoon comes like what happened to us. (insert crying emoticon here*)

So while we had a perfect weather in Caramoan last weekend,  Manila wasn't so lucky. The city was hit of typhoon that caused massive flooding and flights cancellation.  And since our flight got cancelled we had no choice but to stay for few more days in Naga. Luckily we are finally back home now.
We already know that going there is not that easy that's why we decided to just avail a package from Gota Village Resort. Gota Village Resort is the top end resort in Caramoan. It has its own beaches and since Gota Village is such a beautiful place it deserves a separate post. :D

The 3 days and 2 nights package cost 5k per person and includes:
1. One night stay at Camsur Watersports Complex or CWC - This is optional and has to be prior of stay in Gota Village because this place serves as the pick up point) From CWC the driver pick us up early in the morning to drive to Sabang Port for 2 hours.
And from Sabang Port we took a boat going to Guijalo Port. The boat ride takes 2 hours. I'm not really fond of boat trip especially if it takes longer than one hour but this is the only way we could get to Caramoan. From Guijalo Port another driver will pick you up and drive for 30 minutes to Gota Village Resort.
2. Wooden Cabana (small wood cabana 2 persons, medium 4 persons, large 5 persons)
3. One full day meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
4. 1 day island hopping
5. 15 minutes massage
 The 2 hours van ride was comfortable. But the boat ride was not.

On our way to Sabang Port

Sabang Port

Excuse my blurry photo but this is the only shot that shows best how you get to the boat. The people have to get on to the floating bridge (a load of oil drums with a flimsy rails)  and the porters will drag it going to the boat.  If you have a luggage it is best to just pay the porters to make sure it won't get wet. Pay is 10 pesos per person. :D

My look after 2 hours van ride, 2 hours on a boat and another 30 minutes on a run-down van. :D

After checking in we took a quick shower and headed to the restaurant since Ryan and I were both starving already. But to our surprise our meal is already set. Like we cant even pick what to eat. I wish i would have known this before availing the package since their ala cart menu is not that expensive anyway. At least it we can pick on our own and it will be freshly cooked. 

Our set meal, one bland fried fish that i don't even know what type of fish it was. Don't get me wrong i love fish, it is one of my favorite food but how i wish they've given us either Tilapia, Bangus or even Galunggong and at least seasoned it with salt. Other dish was Chicken adobo but it is mostly bones and since Ryan doesn't eat fish and the chicken didn't had much meat he had to order another dish.The Ensaladang talong was good, i actually ate all of it.

For the breakfast your only choice is filipino breakfast which is fried bangus, egg and garlic rice and for american breakfast is bacon, pancakes and egg. The problem is they cook all the food in one batch so even before you arrive the food is already cold. Again ordering on ala cart is the best choice since they will only cook it after you order it from them.

It was such a perfect weather the whole weekend but going back to the city on Monday was the complete opposite. The water was really choppy so we thought that it is best to just take the Roro but we found out that it takes longer than the boat plus they couldn't even dock yet because of the choppy water. Being impatient as always we decided to take the boat but it was dock far from the shore so we had to take the small boat first  to get there and i had to climb my way inside from the window carefully or i will end up on the sea.The choppy water made us sea sick  the entire time, luckily i didn't end up throwing up like the other passengers. Then at at some point we heard a loud crack. Turns out the support beam of the boat broke. Thank goodness the captain and other boat guy were able to fix it. I still couldn't believe it that we made it to Sabang Port safe. 

When we got to Naga Airport Cebu Pacific hasn't cancelled our flights yet but after 5 hours sitting and waiting for their update we decided to just re book it on Thursday. And good that we did because later that day we found out that they eventually cancelled it.