My seatmate from our PHILTOA media van excitedly told me how magnificent the view was from their room window as we tarried back down to Venezia Hotel’s swanky lobby. Dang, I was booked on the wrong side of the hotel and all I can see from our floor to ceiling sliding doors were treetops and the colorful residential roofs of Legazpi City.
Venezia Hotel’s facade is quite different from an ordinary fancy hotel’s architecture. In fact, it doesn’t look like a hotel at all. At first glance, I thought we’d be staying in a complex of townhouses inside a subdivision. And yes, the hotel is built inside a subdivision in Legazpi City.
The perfect cone of Mayon Volcano loomed on the horizon. It looked impossibly enormous. My co-driver revved our ATV and we zoomed towards the famous Philippine icon. This is probably the closest I’ll ever be to the deadly volcano.
I don’t know how to drive, be it a motorcycle or a car; so you can tell how hesitant I was to drive my own ATV. But the thrill of riding through a lava trail is simply more powerful than my hesitation. I listened carefully as the guys from Your Brother Mayon ATV Tour briefed us for the coming adventure. No racing and no overtaking; follow the marshals. Roger!
The person who can guess what Hoyop-Hoyopan means gets to win a t-shirt! Our travel guide jovially shouted through his mic as our van wended its way to Camalig, Albay for a bit of spelunking at Hoyop-Hoyopan Cave. Wind? I ventured. Nope. Blow! My seatmate answered. Correct! (Bigyan ng Jacket! Harhar)
Brgy. Cotmon, where the cave is located, is a bit far from Camalig’s town center and it took almost thirty minutes before we reached the area. An uphill climb to the cave’s mouth welcomed us, along with vendors selling raw crystals broken into small pieces and made as pendants.
I asked one of the vendors what would happen if the crystals they’re mining ran out. It won’t happen, she says, they’re too abundant. The local government should probably look into this and find an alternative and more sustainable livelihood for them.
Pans, spices and chopped chicken portions were rolled out at the 1st Colonial Grill’s al fresco dining area. Before having lunch, we’re gonna have a cooking demo of one of Legazpi City’s premiere restaurant’s bestseller, tinutungang manok.
The restaurant is located just a few blocks away from Legazpi’s city center. I remember checking this place out almost exactly a year ago to have a taste of their famous, or should I say infamous, sili ice cream. I’m not sure if it’s also included in our menu today, but I’m excited nonetheless.
It was the third day of PHILTOA’s Bicol media familiarization tour. We were not even on the our last leg of our trip yet but everyone was already scouring the side streets of Legazpi City for souvenirs and pasalubongs to bring back home.
To perk up the group, our van first headed to the city’s baywalk. The weather, however, remained sullen and where I once witnessed a splendid view of the great Mayon Volcano, now there were only thick gray clouds. We were halfway in the van when the rain started to pour.
I’ve seen photos of Albay’s perfect-coned Mayon Volcano from the window of a certain hilltop hotel in Legazpi City. The beautiful but deadly mountain exposed in almost its full glory except for wisps of rare lenticular clouds circling near its crater. I was expecting all that and more as we checked in for our second night in Bicol at the grandest hotel in the city, The Oriental Hotel.
Legazpi City sparkled under the darkness of early evening as we dropped our bags and lay our weary selves on The Oriental Hotel’s soft beds. After a few minutes of rest, I quickly got up and checked the view from our balcony. We were directly above the hotel’s pool area and just beyond that, the rest of the city lay in electric luminance.
It was a lovely evening and Mayon would’ve easily been seen from my vantage if not for the starless sky; rainclouds blanketed the night.
The initial image that impressed on my mind when I heard that we’re having dinner at a restaurant named Waway’s at Legazpi City is that of a tussled, long-haired Robin Padilla of Philippine Cinema wearing his signature Waway fisherman’s hat serving unlimited dishes of laings and pinangats.
Well, I got those Bicolano specialties right, but no gangly, strutting Robin Padilla in sight.
Waway’s Restaurant, which is located on one of Legazpi’s main thoroughfares, is named not after the character played by the bad boy of Philippine Cinema, but after the restaurant owner; Aling Laura Cristobal. How Laura translated to a nickname of Waway is anybody’s guess.
We were promised we would board yellow kayaks and glide through a placid lake where we can almost touch the clouds. We were promised Swiss mountainscapes for our backgrounds. But promises are meant to be broken; especially if the heavens doesn’t want to cooperate. Our visit to the Bulusan Volcano Natural Park was marred by incessant rains.
Exhausted from the island hopping adventure in Matnog, our van navigated the 360-meter uphill climb to Lake Bulusan without us knowing. The sound of our engine being turned off woke us from our afternoon siesta; the rain was pouring.
The sun failed to show up on the second day of PHILTOA’s Bicol media familiarization tour. I was eagerly awaiting this leg of the trip since the itinerary included an island hopping adventure off the coasts of Matnog in Sorsogon. Daring the heavens to pour, our group boarded the white outrigger boats docked near the town market and sailed to sea.
Matnog is hardly known for touristy destinations. When one mentions the town’s name, the thing that immediately comes to mind is its port that serves as a gateway to Visayas and Mindanao. A concrete arch even announced that we were about to leave the island of Luzon.
But wait just a minute, we’re staying put and we’re checking out what this small town at the southernmost edge of Sorsogon has to offer.
The latter half of our day one, Bicol Region escapade in Sorsogon City was spent checking hotel accommodations, drinking beer, tasting local delicacies and hanging out at hotel rooms. It can’t get any better than that, right? Right!
Since we were with the PHILTOA crew, we tagged along as they checked out resorts and lodgings for possible inclusion in their ALMASOR tour packages. One of these was the picturesque Sirangan Beach Resort in Bacon District, Sorsogon City.
We were all ready to jump in on their infinity pool overlooking the Gulf of Albay, unfortunately we were out of time for some swimming action. It was really too bad as their pool’s really very inviting.
ALBAY-SORSOGON | Nature Conservation at the BacMan Geothermal Plant
[TRAVELS] Friday, August 23, 2013
The gushing waters of the Botong Twin Falls welcomed us at one of the most unlikely places.
I was invited to join the Philippine Tour Operators Association (which by the way is hosting the upcoming 24th Philippine Travel Mart) media familiarization tour of the provinces of Albay and Sorsogon. And our first stop for our four-day jaunt was the BacMan Geothermal Power Plant.
Festive drumbeats, blaring horns and lively dancing greeted us as we exited Legazpi’s airport on our way to the the BacMan Geothermal Power Plant. Everyone was joking with the name of the plant since it resembled a famous DC superhero. Our guide explained that it’s a combination of two towns in Sorsogon and Albay; Bacon (now Sorsogon City) and Manito, where the geothermal plant is located. Aha.
To be honest, I wasn’t that excited in the prospect of visiting a power plant. I mean, what can we really see there? Besides, my tummy was already sending signals to my head that it was already hungry. It’s not the earth’s steamy rumble I’m hearing, it’s my stomach.
Good thing the guys at BacMan were all aware of this; as soon as we alighted at the power station, lunch, Bicol-style was automatically served. Laings, pangats and Bicol Express were mixed with all sorts of seafood. Yum!
After satiating our tummies, we were soon moving again. The BacMan Geothermal Production Field has something up its sleeve that we weren’t aware of. Besides producing power for the whole of the Philippines, it also hosts a bounty of flora and fauna in its 25,000 hectare land area.
The first of these we visited was their butterfly garden. Housed on a 254 square-meter netted dome, the sanctuary has a total of seven different butterfly species and is also used as a plant nursery. The butterfly garden actually acts as a pollution indicator in the area; the air is considered clean as long as the butterflies thrive.
Our group then proceeded to BacMan’s Wildlife Conservation and Rescue Center. Located in the middle of a heavily wooded hill, it houses bird species like the Philippine Eagle Owl and Brahminy Kite eagles to name a few. The difference between these and some rescue centers is that they actually really release the birds after re-conditioning them to the wild.
Besides recovering animals from poachers and those turned over by other agencies, the BacMan plant also tries to replenish two of our country’s most endangered species; the Philippine Brown Deer and the Philippine Warty Pig. A large pen holds these two species and visitors are allowed to see them at close range.
And then it was time to check out the Botong Twin Falls. I was actually dreading this visit since a waterfall usually equates trekking long distances; I just wasn’t in the condition for such. It came as a complete surprise then that the waterfalls was right beside the road!
The weird thing about this hundred fifty-footer twin falls is that while one of it gushes fresh spring water, the other pours sulfuric ones into its basins! Well, I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised since the Botong Twin Falls is sitting on a volcano.
And one can’t really deny that we are all sitting on a caldera of a magnanimous volcano. The huge powerful white steams rising from certain parts of the area proves just that.
Besides those we visited, the BacMan Geothermal Plant still boasts of other natural attractions that we weren’t able to check out due to time constraints. I would’ve loved to photograph the huge Golden-Crowned and Large Flying Fox bats that dot the treetops of the power plant, the Inang Maharang Mud Pool, the Naghaso Boiling Lake and the Parang Hot Spring.
The perfect cone of Mayon Volcano decided to grace our presence on our way out of the BacMan Geothermal Power Plant. It’s quite strange to witness smoke billowing out of the volcano’s mouth while steam also brews out of the geothermal grounds.
It was a good first few hours at Bicol’s Sorsogon and Albay provinces and I’m excited for more!
BacMan Geothermal Power Plant
Address: Mt. Pocdol, Palayan Bayan, Manito, Albay
Contact Number: (02) 893-6001 loc.2405
E-mail: edc@energy.com.ph
Open Hours: By Appointment
GPS Coordinates: +13° 3' 16.88", +123° 58' 2.65"
View Location on Google Maps: Click Here
For two days straight we planned to shoot the sunrise from Legazpi City’s seaside boulevard. And for one reason or another we always failed to wake up early.
For our last day in the city, we finally managed to get up on time. We hurried to the baywalk to witness the sun rise opposite the majestic Mayon Volcano. We were still a bit late for the golden colors but it was enough for us that the elusive volcano showed up under its usual blanket of clouds.
We had no idea that there were seven falls in Mt. Busay and we were told each of them is reachable with a guide. After sweating and grunting through narrow pathways and sheer cliffs we passed Busay’s first, second and third crashing waterfalls. The last three falls were too far so we opted to go back after reaching and taking a cool dip at the fourth one.
It started raining immediately after we went out of the mall in Legazpi City and rode a van to the island of Cagraray. Our destination, Albay’s famous and expensive Misibis Bay Resort. A room at the resort amounts to five figures, a price not really not fit for backpackers like us. So we decided to have a day tour of the resort instead.
The weather only turned sourer as we arrived at Misibis Bay. We were expecting a sunny vacation but instead got a gray and drizzly day. No matter, the resort still looked great despite the sullen weather. Sun or no sun, we tried our darnedest best to enjoy every minute of our stay at Albay’s premier resort.
A few hours later and we were weaving in and out of the colors of Ibalong Festival. We were sweating like stuck pigs under the sweltering midday heat, but we totally didn’t mind.
The days that were supposed to be my rest from my impromptu week-long sojourn through the northern parts of Luzon turned into another week of adventure at the opposite end of the island. The question that greeted me as I put down my bag: “We’re going off to Bicol in a few hours, wanna tag along?”
I could not say no. I was unpacking and repacking my bags, charging my cams, transferring photos, finishing odds and ends and before I knew it we were rolling towards Southern Luzon.
Five raging waterfalls, innumerable treks, a smoldering hot spring, one chilly cold spring resort, two beaches, a sprawling deer farm, one mountain, countless wakeboards, two awkward spills, and numerous local dishes; it was infinitely better than resting.
Three long bus rides, seven cramped jeeps, seven jumbled tricycles, ten boats through differing waters, uncountable bus stops, one rented van along with two comic Batangeño drivers, two bustling cities, five sleepy towns, five islands, two rugged mountains, five old and new churches, one rocking festival, five ref magnets, one shirt, three Starbucks City Mugs, three weighty cameras, a bagful of snorkeling gear, an officemate, three cousins, numerous uncles, one aunt, one brother, uncountable strangers, and me and my two ultra-bruised feet; finally, a sketch of my nine-day trip through Southern Luzon.
One reason I was so excited in revisiting Naga City was because of the (gasp) Starbucks City Icon mugs that I collect. It was gonna be my 8th mug in the series, and there were only 11 of them. Just three more mugs to completion and I can almost hear Tyler Durden say never be complete, haha.
So before going back to Manila, I, along with my cousins dropped by the local Starbucks Coffee in the city after filling our stomachs full of Kinalas (Bicol’s version of Mami) a hole in the wall near the Naga Cathedral.
The mug rack was the first thing my eye hunted for as I entered Naga’s Starbucks. And there it was, a rackfull of orange-colored coffee mugs printed with Naga’s delicacy, the pili nut. I grabbed three mugs like there was no tomorrow before heading to the counter to order some fraps.
Pili (Canarium Ovatum Engl.) is a tree indigenous to the Philippines and it is in Bicol where it is abundantly grown. Most of its produce, the pili nut, are made into snack delicacies and can usually be found in pasalubong (keepsake) shops in the city centers.
I was actually surprised at the icon showcased on the mug, as I thought it would showcase the Penafrancia Festival which is really what Naga is more known for (well, at least for me hehe). Nevertheless, the pili nut, is still a pretty good icon for the city, I guess.
Starbucks Coffee Naga City
Address: Magsaysay Avenue cor. Dayangdang Street
Naga City, Camarines Sur
Bicol Region
