If you haven’t heard of Camiguin Island, that’s okay… It’s not a popular tourist destination… yet, and that’s why I’d chosen to go there for my holiday.

Camiguin Island is a true blue paradise island in every sense. Blue sky with plenty of sun, clear ocean water, good beach… what more can you ask for? With its strategic location, the island s pretty much proteched from typhoons that other places in the Philippines might suffer. And as any paradise in this real world, there are threats that come with it: This pear-shaped island is within the Mindanao region, which is where Abu Sayyaf guerrillas operate, but the island does not pose any of that threat… With seven volcanoes on the island, Camiguin Island is the most concentrated place in the world with volcanoes in term of ratio to the land area. The last eruption was in 1951, where a cemetery sunk, and the site was eventually marked with a large cross.

With the volcanoes, Camiguin Island landscape is pretty unique; the island looks like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park! Mount Hibok-Hibok on the island is still an active volcano and a hike up to the mountain would be an amazing experience, which I would do when I next visit Camiguin Island again!

Camiguin Island offers pretty interesting young dive sites, such as the Old Volcano and the White Island dive site, as well as the Sunken Cemetery dive site. The Old Volcano offers lava landscapes, with corals fast populating the area. The White Island is a white sand bar, which appears when it is low tide. Though the Sunken Cemetery dive site may sound creepy, but you won’t be seeing much of graves or anything like that as the cemetery was pretty much destroyed and everything is buried and corals are fast covering the site.

As the White Island is one of the must-visit place of Camiguin Island, I suspected that dredging works have been carried out to ensure that the White Island remains even when it’s high tide.

Diving at the White Island may have some current, and it was mildly strong when I was there. But nevertheless, it was a pretty good dive site and the stopover at the White Island is worthy of great photography moments. You can sun tan on the White Island as well, but do take note that the sun is pretty strong and there isn’t much shelter on the sand bar.

I’ll be posting more photos, especially on the Lazones festival and Cebu Island, so watch out for next parts…