From Manila, we flew all the way to Butuan's
Bancasi airport and headed north via a rented van to Surigao del Norte airport.
Our Cebu friends booked a flight to Surigao instead of Butuan, so we had to fetch
them. Travel time from Butuan to Surigao del Norte is around three hours on a
smooth traffic, and around five hours from Surigao del Norte airport to
Britania Islands in San Agustin, Surigao del Sur, our first destination.
According to our driver, if you are coming from
Butuan and heading directly to San Agustin, it will take about 2 to 3 hours.
Our whole journey though took around 7 hours since we had to head north first.
The road is smooth and perfectly paved though, so we had no qualms about it.
We arrived quite late, around 7 in the evening to our resort in San Agustin. Our resort, La Entrada, is situated in a Bay facing the Pacific Ocean. We had to defer the planned island hopping since it is quite dark. We had a relaxing dinner in a pool, which is in reality a fenced part of the bay. The water in the pool is of course, seawater, and occasionally there are fishes that enter
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| (L) Headed North to Surigao del Norte and then South to San Agustin. (R) Seawater Pool in La Entrada   |
The port going to the Britania Islands in just
adjacent to the seawater pool, so by morning next day, we have started our
journey cruising through the islands. I love the view of mangrove forests, and
there are a lot of it in that place.
Britania is a group of islands in the Lianga
Bay, a bay contiguous with the Pacific Ocean. Waves are quite rough, but this
should not worry you as I am quite confident that boat men here are experts in
what they do, and besides, there are life jackets in case the worst case
happens. I am not sure of the exact count on the number of islands but
according to our boat man there are around 20 to 25 islands. We were supposed
to visit four islands but due to high tide, we were able to only visit three. I
think most of the islands here do not have flat surfaces hence walking along
those is impossible, but by just passing by through gives you a breathtaking
feeling.
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| Some Islands along the way |
We first visited Hagonoy Island. It has patches
of coconut trees, and I appreciate the fact that there are few visitors, we
virtually had the island ourselves.
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| Hagonoy Island |
The next island that we have visited is Boslon Island. This island
has more vegetation, there was even an Altar. I enjoyed the waves in this
place. The waves are rough even along the shore! I love the feeling of being
hit by the waves because by evening before going to sleep, I still have that
feeling. It is relaxing for me.
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| With Friends. Rough waves of Boslon Island. |
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| An Altar in Boslon Island |
The last island, Hiyor Hiyoran Island, is more
crowded during our visit. This seems to be the largest of the islands, hence,
it is logical that many people will choose to stay here. There were even people
selling steamed camote and a shellfish I forgot the name but I ate.
Overall, I enjoyed the tour around Britania. Now I can proudly say
that around ten (including those islands that we have just passed through) more
islands have been deducted from the 7,100+ islands of the Philippines that I
have to see.
Photos Courtesy of Tope Saquillo and Derek Vivares
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