Cebu pacific

This morning I flew from Camiguin to Cebu.  They have a single flight each day that departs at 7:30am.  Since there is only one flight, I do wonder why they could not of made it at a more reasonable time but I guess it’s a scheduling issue with the airline.

It was a small ATR turboprop.  As usual in the Philippines, we walked across the runway to the aircraft.
There was no cargo hold, the luggage went in at the front of the plane. They also weighed the passengers so they could balance the weight on the plane.
What made me laugh though were the safety announcements!  They announced that in the event of a decompression there were oxygen masks above some of the seats!  While I looked up to see if I was one of the lucky ones (unfortunately not) they announced that a tool was required to open the panel and a flight attendent would assist if necessary.
This seems to be a good example of how Cebu pacific follows most of IATA safety regulations, but not all.  This aircraft never exceeded 15,000ft anyway so it didn’t seem to be a major concern, but it still made me laugh.
The schedule was interesting.  Once the aircraft was full we left.  The actually landed in Cebu just after we were supposed to leave Camiguin! It was just a 40 minute hop with great views of the islands.
Yesterday I took a small boat across to another island with a marine sanctuary with some pretty good snorkeling.
Now these boats are interesting.  They are balanced by bamboo on each side so they don’t topple over.  There is not much to protect you from the ocean though, so you usually get soaked!

Giant Clams

At the very southern tip of Camiguin is a giant clam sanctuary. Now, I’ve eaten clams before, but I never knew how big they can grow to.
When you walk in there is a small area where they have some tanks to show you some of the smaller ones.
Even some of the smaller ones are much bigger than I had seen before.
You can then go on a one hour snorkeling tour with a guide which was really awesome.  Out in the ocean he pointed out some clams that were almost 2 meters long!  Apparently they can live to over 100 years and can grow over 2 meters long.
I are lunch there too, but they didn’t serve clams! They did serve fish that was caught that morning though so it was really fresh and very cheap.

Hiking Mount Hibok-Hibok

It was a very early morning when I woke up at 5am.  The hike started at 6:00.

The reason for the early start was to hike before it got too hot.  Even so, the climb to the summit took a lot of work.  I hiked with a Filipino guide and two Australians and we were all pretty sweaty by the time we got to the top.
I decided to take a #selfie about halfway up and I think I already looked pretty rough!
I’m still pretty white, but I am starting to get a bit of a tan 🙂

There was a pretty good view even at the halfway point.  You can get a good view of White Island.

White Island is not actually an island at all, but a sand bar. Depending on the tides it changes shape and more or less of it appears.  You can take a short ferry ride across to visit it.  There are no trees and no shade though, so it’s pretty easy to get sunburned.
The hike up was mostly canopy covered so there was lots of shade. It’s easy to see why you need a guide when you see the “trail”.
There is in fact a small path through there, but it’s hard to find.  The view from the top was great, and we got there just before the clouds rolled in.
Looking down, you can see the crater from the last eruption in 1950. I’m told in the wet season it fills with water and you can swim.
It took 7 hours in total, 4 up and 3 down.  Overall it was a good but tiring hike.