A tropical experience in Bucas Grande Island

My colleagues in the office have been looking for new destinations where we could stay over the weekend as a post-valentine treat. After several attempts consulting google, we chanced upon an information of Bucas Grande Island, situated in the province of Surigao del Norte that has become very popular nowadays because of its prevailing tourism sites that are really worth-visiting. The internet information and several word-of-mouths we generated were tempting enough for us to go despite of the earthquake that hit the province a week before our scheduled trip.

  

We took a van from Sta. Cruz to Hayanggabon Port in Claver town on February 17 in the evening while the other group led by Cheryl travelled through their private vehicle. We arrived in Hayanggabon by 7:00 in the morning. The town of Claver is a first class municipality in Surigao del Norte and it is also the largest in terms of land area. Personally, I see Claver as having only two major sources of livelihood for its people, mining and tourism. A large part of the land area of Claver is a mining reservation because there are large deposit of nickel.

We chartered a boat from Hayanggabon to Bucas Grande and sailed for 45 minutes. After which, we settled to another registration area, the Tourism Center in Sohoton. It is a floating structure that accommodates needs of visitors. From here, we transferred to smaller boats which transported us to the Sohoton Cove.

The Sohoton cruise was way beyond an ordinary tour. After going through a small passage we all thought we were transported to a different world. It was a silent sanctuary only clattered by the serenity of the lagoon and surrounded by the green canopy that serves as armour of its enchantment. Our guides, perhaps one of the bests in the country, lured us to dive through Hakugan Cave and Magkukuob Cave. These caves led us again to an extremely different environment, this time to the underworld where the water is very cold and the cave formations are really beautiful. I suggest you do the dive when you get there, otherwise, you will miss a very memorable experience.

After series of diving and bathing, our boatmen took us out of the cove and returned us to our original big boats in the tourism center. We took our lunch there and afterwards we proceeded to another interesting site in the island, the Bulitas and Crystal Caves. Here, we entered into a huge cave with plenty of attractive chambers and stalactites and stalagmites. The cave is so big that all of us twenty persons entered altogether along with other visitors. Indeed, caving is another activity in Bucas Grande that everybody should do and enjoy.

Adjacent to Crystal cave is Tiktikan lagoon where we stayed for 30 minutes. My colleagues took time to dive (again) and bath, others paddled using a kayak boat while the rest just relaxed and enjoyed.

Our last destination before heading back to Hayanggabon was the jellyfish sanctuary. Our boatman might have known that this was the very destination I wanted to visit more than any other sites in the place. The best was saved for an epic ending then, because the sanctuary promises to be awesome. We did not have the better timing though because it was a breeding season of the stingless jellyfishes in the sanctuary. Nonetheless, we still were able to witness those wonderful creatures face to face.

With the number of tourists flocking to Bucas Grande Island every day, the challenge for authorities in Surigao del Norte should always be on the aspect of conservation and protection. I appreciate how they handled it now especially in regulating the erection of more structures like resorts. I do not want to see more investors being tempted to invest tourism-related establishments just because there is an opportunity brought by tourists from time to time. Much more than tourism is actually how to venture more in sustaining the natural state of the destination so that others, I am referring to those unborn population, would be able to enjoy the same.