This is a continuation of my Throwback Travel to Surigao, read the first article to know more about where we went on our first day in Surigao.
Britania's La Entrada Resort
Our first day in Surigao ended at La Entrada Resort. This is a resort that floats in a body of water, we could even feel the room move when the water moves, I got a little dizzy the next morning though.
We were all tired that day that we decided to just go to bed and we also had a scheduled island hopping the next day which was the inclusion of our one-night stay at this resort.
As for our tour guide slash driver, I later found out that any tour guide who would bring their guests to this resort receives free accommodation too and meals so he was all good and comfortable inside his room. We were at first concerned that he might be sleeping inside the van but were relieved after talking to him the next day.
Britania's Group of Islands
The next day, it was raining again, the storm I guess had landed in the province and although the weather was not good, the island hopping still pushed through. We already had doubts if we could make it but the resort's staff assured us that the island hopping is not too dangerous as the islands are just visible from the mainland. True indeed, we could see the islands from where we were sitting while waiting for our boat to be ready.
The waves were huge and we felt like going back to the shore a few minutes after we departed from the shore. It seemed like our boat drivers were not worried at all which made us secured at least. They have life jackets too inside the boat though and most of us know how to swim so, I think it was not a bad idea to push this activity. We then headed to the different islands.
We toured Hagonoy Island, Naked Island, Boslon Island and had breakfast at Hiyorhiyoran Island where there were very affordable kinds of seafood available!
Perhaps what made a great impression on me was the Naked Island. I believe that the island looks really pretty if it was all sunny but due to the bad weather, it felt like it was a bit of a scary type of island for me. It has been called Naked island because there was nothing in it, no trees, no cottages, just a sand bar that goes away if it's high tide. In fact, we were lucky to get to the island even if the waves were big.
Off to Tandag and Flight Cancellations
Our lunch was at the La Entrada Resort's in-house restaurant. Our checkout time was at 11 AM but the resort allowed us to keep our bags inside the room until we finish lunch. The resort was anticipating the arrival of some Binbining Pilipinas candidates that day too! According to them, the candidates were still in Hinatuan, we hoped to meet the beautiful candidates but they arrived late and we were already on our way to Tandag Airport for our flight.
But, unfortunately, our flight to Cebu was canceled due to the poor weather so we had no option but to book a room in Tandag which was additional spending. Good thing that the room rates here are not too expensive! I booked three rooms for the seven of us and I did that all while on the road, thank goodness for the power of the web! If not for that, we might be hopping from one hostel to another.
Tandag and the Open Sea
That night, we toured around Tandag, this is a very simple city in Surigao Del Sur. But it has a huge river and there were houses on the riversides which made me feel like if there's a very heavy storm, the houses might be greatly affected because they were all sitting very close to each other.
For dinner, we went on a bay walk and saw the open sea from there. The wind was very strong, it rained and we had dinner next to the sea. We have nothing else to go so we had to go back to our hotel instead and sleep early.
Canceled Flight
By the next day which was our supposed day of travel back to Cebu, we discovered at the airport that there's no flight at all because the airport is a small one and the aircraft can't do a proper taxi for flying in this bad weather. It was a bummer and our companions were already stressed about it.
After talking over the phone with a customer service who was truly helpful, we were able to rebook and reroute our flight to Butuan the next day. Butuan was still around five to six hours away from Tandag but we have no option. We hired a van and paid extra for that. Since we also had to stay for a night, we booked two rooms in Butuan so we can rest and sleep until the next day.
It was exhausting, from the land travel to getting drenched finding our rented room but I learned a lot from this trip which I had surely been able to apply in all our other trips too.
From Butuan to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in One Day
Yes, going around the three island groups of the country is possible! There was no direct flight from Butuan to Cebu that day but the customer service was able to save our butts from another day of being stranded in Mindanao by booking us connecting flights from Butuan to Manila then to Cebu. We didn't have to pay any additional fees for this though but our companions who were still going to Bohol booked a different route instead and arranged their Manila to Cebu to Manila to Bohol instead.
Our flight started at five in the morning from Butuan to Manila. This was just an hour's flight. Then we had a few hours of waiting in Manila before our departure to Cebu.
By three in the afternoon, we arrived in Cebu safely. Phew! That was a joyride indeed and this trip had taught me a lot of lessons. It helped me to be agile and be calm when troubles arise during a group trip.
Thanks for reading! Do you have any unforgettable trips that you might want to share with me in the comments too?
xoxo,
mommy jean of momentswithmatti
Love harder than any pain you've ever felt.
It was indeed a very unforgettable trip. Siguro kung merong first time magplane at takot tapos ganun ang experience eh baka natrauma na sa daming flight.