Billed
as the “Island Born of Fire”, Camiguin, which I’ve re-visited recently along
with my friends, is said to have been formed through centuries of volcanic
activity and tectonic movements. Volcanoes—a total of seven compared to only
five towns!—are its most distinct geological features. Of the seven, however,
only one is considered active, Mt. Hibok-Hibok, which last erupted in 1951.
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Island of Volcanoes
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Call me ambitious but the thought of scaling
the volcano crossed my mind, if only to experience a different level of calm
and confidence that comes from conquering an active volcano. I’m no mountaineer
but I’ve scaled a few peaks before with Mt. Apo, the country’s tallest, as my
first climb and Mt. Musuan as my latest conquest. Both are found in South
Central Mindanao.
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Mt. Hibok-Hibok as seen from Mambajao
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Rising 1,332 m (4,370 ft) above sea level,
Camiguin’s only active volcano dominates the entire island’s rugged landscape.
I’ve heard from friends that it only takes a day to ascend and descend
Hibok-Hibok, whose treacherous trail is a challenge to mountaineers. Some of my
colleagues in Team Camiguin also considered the adrenaline-pumping activity but
had to scrap it for lack of time.
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| Hibok-Hibok as seen from White Island |
While climbing it elicited so much
excitement, the idea struck a twinge of fear in my heart, too. Geez, what if this sleeping dragon suddenly
awakens from its slumber while we’re scaling it? What if Hibok-Hibok suddenly
goes mad while we’re in the island? It felt creepy thinking about the
horror and destruction it caused when it last erupted more than half a century
ago.
I’m
no volcanologist or a doomsayer but volcanoes are capricious geographical
peculiarities that seem to lose their temper when people least expect them.
They’re like time bombs just lurking in our midst, waiting for the time to
explode and wreak irreparable damage and destruction. Thank God, Hibok-Hibok
acted on its best behavior while we were there!
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Remnant of Mt. Vulcan (Old Volcano) as seen from White Island
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Probably it’s the Camiguingnons faith that must
have done wonders to keep the active stratovolcano from going berserk these
past 60 years. In such a tiny island where volcanoes outnumber the towns, you’d
certainly need a great deal of faith and devotion for you to keep on living
there without fear.
The locals’ devotion to a power far mightier
than any volcano is best displayed in the island’s main attractions–the Walkway
to the Old Volcano, the Sunken Cemetery and the Gui-ob Church Ruins–all
vestiges of Mt. Vulcan’s violent eruption that wiped out the old town of
Catarman in 1871.
Ironic
but these grim reminders of Camiguin’s tragic past have been successfully
turned by its people into some of the island’s tourist magnets! Altogether,
these vestiges of Vulcan’s wrath provide visitors a picture-perfect peek into
the catastrophic chapter of the island’s history.
They say a good way to begin a day tour of
the island’s socio-religious attractions is to scale the 300-step Walkway to
the Old Volcano (Mt. Vulcan). I saw the said walkway for the first time way
back in 2009 when my colleagues and I stopped over a row of souvenir shops on
our way back to Mambajao.
Strangely, the once cruel volcano has now
become the island’s Calvary-like shrine, attracting pilgrims from different
parts of the country and even abroad. From what I’ve gathered, the walkway
crawls with devotees during the annual Panaad Festival, a walk of penance
participated in by both local pilgrims as well as those from other places
during the Holy Week.
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Site of the Sunken Cemetery
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Devotees take part by treading Camiguin’s
64-km circumferential road while offering prayers—all the way to the peak of
Mt. Vulcan. Along the pathway, the participants also make occasional stops to
say their prayers in each of the 14 Stations of the Cross dotting the trail to
the old volcano’s summit, each featuring life-size statues depicting the
passion of Christ.
Team Camiguin didn’t climb the peak. Pressed
for time, we only pulled over for the obligatory groupfie and bought lanzones, the island’s famous sweet
tropical fruit, before heading for the Sunken Cemetery.
Eerie
yet enthralling—that’s how the Sunken Cemetery struck most of us, a grim
reminder of Vulcan’s fury when it erupted nearly 150 years ago. Yet throngs of
tourists flock to the historical must-see in the town of Catarman, which I
first laid eyes on many summers ago. Together with my travel companions then, I
rode one of the boats that ferry tourists to the white cross.
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Boats taking visitors to the memorial cross of the Sunken Cemetery
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The old cemetery is not visible to the naked
eye; what visitors see is a large white cross floating on top of a stone
platform, which the local government had erected in memory of the sunken graves
of the islanders’ ancestors. The submerged tombstones themselves are said to be
conspicuous when the tide is low. Some scenes from a local Pinoy movie were partly
shot there.
Only a few of members of Team Camiguin took
the boat to get to the white cross.
Sadly,
Mt. Vulcan’s eruption not only claimed lives and sunk a cemetery —it also
destroyed an old church in Catarman. Now known as the ruins of Gui-ob Church,
these are found several kilometers away from the center of the present-day
coastal town, the last among the historic sites we visited that day.
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Remnants of old Gui-ob Church
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Only the church's moss-covered thick walls
and remnants of its belfry and convent have remained to remind today’s
generation about the horror that Vulcan wrought to Camiguin in 1871. Even if
it’s laying in ruins, I still found the church, or what has remained of it,
awe-inspiring as I revisited its hallowed grounds.
If I can recall it right, there was once a
chapel where people used to pray right inside the ruins but it’s already gone.
So far, the local government has managed to preserve the place partly through
donations coming from benevolent patrons. 
At
the end of the long but fulfilling day, there’s no better way to calm yourself
than to hang out with friends while sipping your favorite drink or nibbling a
late afternoon snack. That’s exactly how we wrapped up the second day of our
stay in the island.
For the team, the best venue for worshiping
the sun as it goes down the horizon is none other than in one of the island’s sought-after
destinations, Paras Beach Resort, where Team Camiguin was treated to one of
nature’s best gifts to the tiny island—Camiguin’s famed sunset. Whew, what a spectacular
view! 
If only to catch a glimpse of that sunset
once again on top of Mt. Hibok-Hibok or along the shores of Mantigue Island,
I’m looking forward to a third coming to Camiguin in the near future. Here’s
wishing the team would consider that option in our must-return list. :-D
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