Potipot Island Camping Adventure

This travelogue is a continuation of my previous Potipot blog post. For all posts about the island, please click the link below:

POTIPOT ISLAND

~~~oOo~~~

Finally, at past 3 in the afternoon on April 11, we arrived at Potipot island. We were both surprised by the number of people camping and swimming in the area. We didn't expect this and it made us both feel a bit down. It was only later in the aftenoon that we found out about Potipot Island having recently been featured on TV, no wonder people were so gung ho to explore it.

We surveyed the beach for a little while hoping to find a nice place to set up our tent. Unfortunately, there was no better spot than the first one we saw, which was between a big group of friends lounging under the tree on our right, and another huge group of friends camping on our left. So that's that. As cramped as it felt, I didn't allow it to ruin our weekend together.

We didn't waste any time. After we set up our tent, we got our snorkeling gear intending to survey the island some more. Potipot Island is quite small and we figured, it would be easy to explore it on foot (we've explored much bigger islands before like Balicasag Island in Cebu on 2005). But since it's almost 4 pm then, we just decided to do the full tour early the next day.

For that afternoon, we visited the tree house in the middle of Potipot Island instead, hoping we could come see what's inside. To our surprise, it was not open to guests. Oh well. It was worth a try.

So... with nothing else left to do, we hit the waters instead! The moment my goggled face was able to breathe underwater, and the moment my skin felt its refreshing coolness, all my earlier misgivings about the island suddenly dissolved.

The water was clear and it wasn't itchy at all... not even one tiny bit (unlike let's say the water in Dungaree beach in Subic when we went there last February). It's quite comparable to the waters of Boracay even if the sand is not super duper white.

When we had enough of the water, we walked a bit around the island, looking for other snorkeling spots before the sun sets...

That's me in the distance, snorkeling my way into the sunset.

As soon as the evening fell, we headed to the bathroom area to clean up. There was no running water so we had to fetch from a manual water pump (poso). Because there were other people waiting in line, eventually, we all had to share the water and share the pumping duty. It was dark anyway (there's no electricity on the island). We had to use our flash light just so I can grab my soap and shampoo. It was pretty "rural". No civilization whatsoever.

We ate under the moon and the stars that night. I read my Archie comics until the candle we brought was consumed. Then it was time to go to bed inside our tent, wondering what tomorrow will hold.

To be continued...

For more photos, please click the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49083&id=1619903650&l=c97c1e941f