Camiguin Arrival

As we got nearer the port of Benoni, the more that I got giddy excited! Was this the port we arrived at from Balingoan in that visit of decades ago? Ahm, I wasn't sure anymore. But checking on my travel book's illustration, this port seems to be where most passenger crafts arrive at and depart from. I just know that I am to head right (north) to find Mambajao. But no worries, this is a tiny island, everything is just a few minutes away, whether I go left or right!

Let’s do my arrival story…

Lovely day, clear day! At 10:24AM I could already see the island of Camiguin clearly. A few kilometers more probably. And when I asked a crew member, he told me we would still be about 30 minutes into docking at Benoni Port. Oh alright, I had to calm the overly excited self down hehe!


Wonderful view of the island born of fire. An island with more volcanoes than towns. Imagine that, there are only 5 towns and there are 7 Volcanoes! Whichever got more than one should really be born of fire! But we already know all too well, that where there is a volcano, the wondrous beauty of nature abound, right? Very!


10:53AM, we were already in front of the port, but oh how cute, the fastcraft does a semi-circular approach to it, like an inverted letter C. And the area being avoided is clearly marked by buoys. Maybe that area is a shallow coral bed or a protected marine sanctuary or both.


So, there is our destination, Benoni, titillating us the eager tourists!


These big boats are RORO vessels – Super Shuttle Ferry 1 and Super Shuttle Ferry 6, both of WG&A. These are where you load your cars if you insist on bringing them!


10:59AM, we were already piling out of Paras Sea Cat. Drivers, conductors, dispatchers were all over the place shouting barking that passengers take their jeeps, tricycles, habal-habal and whatever else. There are no buses on Camiguin by the way.
Well I had no intention of riding anyone of them yet. Not ASAP anyway, as I wanted to go around this place, get the feel, whatever.


The reason I took that picture above? Something hilarious! See that man in blue basketball jersey? (yellow arrow) His sign says “WELCOME Ms./Mr. BAE & BEI”!
The atrevida in me was grinning and I was thinking, if those two are a married couple, I wonder what the names of their children are/would be. Probably “Bay, Bai, Bee or Baa” or many other 3-letter combinations hehe. Wala lang!

The other flashcard (see left shoulder of long-haired girl) is a German name, while that one in the middle (front of yellow jeep) says “WELCOME PAGCOR & COMPANY”. Duh!

Anyway, I walked out to the highway (near those houses behind the fence) just to see places and get my headings.

Let’s do that next so we can get moving!


To read the chronology of stories on this trip, click the following article numbers:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
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