There is something fascinating about living in a city that is just on the verge of growing up. You get to watch the buildings grow taller than the trees, the night lights grow brighter than those from the fireflies you used to watch as a kid.
The river that runs through Cagayan de Oro has always throbbed with the promise of the city's booming, but now, it glows, too, with the lights of the young bridges and the new parks. The soil that flanks it has turned to concrete -- an urban jungle where old meets new: motorelas sharing the road with SUVs, typewriter services at the street corner just across the computer store.
if you must do one thing in Camiguin...
To put it bluntly: get off your butt. J
Sure, you may be looking forward to unwinding in this little
piece of paradise. Or, as most tourists do, to hop in a van and go on a road
trip around the island, stopping by the usual attractions like the Old Church
ruins and the hot and cold and soda springs. Or, as most tourists also do, to
beach-bum on White Island or its more ecological sister, Mantigue Island.
But would you really rather be just another tourist when you
could see and do and experience so much more? As a born-and-raised
Camiguingnon, I commonly get people asking for advice for their planned trip to
the island. There are plenty of tips any islander could give you, but here’s my
biggest one:
Take your time to walk around, commute a bit, talk to
locals, and match the laidback-but-eager pace of the island. Just. Be. There.
Ready to soak it up? Here are my favorite non-conventional
Camiguin spots to visit… and then some.
notes to strangers
For Valentine’s Day, I'm going to give out a special note. Or 12 of them. And I'm not going to give them to my boyfriend, or to my crush(es), or even to my closest girl friends whom I love from the bottom of my heart.