Catanduanes Forum

peeps, its official. i finally met the competition. i've been here in siargao island for more than a day now. this is just part of my 5-day trip to the CARAGA region which started in Butuan City last monday. as far as overall appeal (tourism, infra, etc) is concerned, i find siargao very similar to catanduanes. the only difference lies in the number of good...i mean REALLY good hotels and resorts here. im staying in Kalinaw hotel here in General Luna, Siargao island (the home of the Cloud 9 surfing site) and its a VERY well-designed hotel...very comfortable...simple elegance. it costs P6,500 a night (ata..we got a discount kasi so our sponsors only paid P5,000 kasi off-season na) for a spacious villa that can fit 4 people.

aside from this hotel, i also got a chance to go to Sagana Resort in Cloud 9...i didnt stay overnight but i spoke with Gerry Degan, the Aussie-born owner. i learned a lot from him. did you know that currently, there is no direct flight to siargao? yes, a matter of fact, it has been that way for a few years now since Asian Spirit, PAL, and Seair pulled out due to low traffic. when i heard that, it just clicked...catanduanes is in a better position than this "surfing capital." Gerry was telling me and other reporters that siargao actually lost a number of their japanese surfers this year due to this problem. he said that after the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy in June, not too many people were keen on traveling via pumpboat to siargao from surigao city. apart from that i learned about some concerns of surfers...this, unfortunately, will have to come in another installment...para suspense. hahaha.

anyway, what i saw in cloud 9 was just fantastic...in the sense that they actually built a viewing deck made of nothing but plywood to bring onlookers and surfers closer to the big waves. the mayor of general luna told me that it will cost the municipality only around P7 million to improve this existing structure ( i have photos but will upload later). i was thinking that what if something similar was done in Puraran? Hmmm. though i think plywood will not work for us, given the kind of weather we have but probably metal bars could. i think this could be good for us, even those who don't surf.

im just taking everything in and i am secretly hoping that our local leaders will take a look at what is happening in siargao. the province is not the richest there is but they probably draw in some 50,000 tourists every year (my own estimate since Surigao del norte attracts 115,00 to 120,000 tourists a year). if local leaders will probably forge a partnership with siargao officials, we could learn a lot on how to go about improving our facilities/amenities.

anyway, this blog is just a first. more insights to come. :)