Caluwayan Palm Island Resort: Island Hopping

I would have titled this "Buringot's Island Hopping Tour"! But "buringot" has a very negative meaning in Cebuano, compared to its Waray-waray definition. "Buringot" in Waray-waray usually refers to a person with a funnily dirty (messy) face due to food or other temporary and unintended stains. A toddler who attempted eating chocolates or ice-cream would be a good example! Sometimes, this applies to pets!

So.., who is Buringot? Alams na who.., right?! Kung makatitig o..,

He just looks like that, but he's a good dog that you may call a little weird because.., he loves the sea!

7AM as the manong boatmen prepared our 2 boats, Buringot was as if making sure all was ready..,

Then he sat at the boat 'entrance' as if waiting to greet each passenger with "welcome aboard"!

At 7:17AM, I think he got impatient and wondering where all the tourists were!

He started to move restlessly, a bit yelping, and kept glancing where passengers should come from!

But in no time, all my companions came and boarded.., so off the boats went with him at the helm!

Boatmen told me that is his usual preferred position as the boats go on the island tour. Feeling leader!

Note all the little limestone rock islands out in the open sea. The island hopping tour goes to them all.

Buringot was noticeably attentive.., looking out not only for us, but even to those on the other boat!

The rock islands look wonderful under the early morning sun. If you notice there are still a scattering of fog and mist amongst the vegetation. Not to mention the very calm sea surrounding all the islands.

This one is so grand a view. Specially that rather big house on stilts hemmed-in between the rocks.

A lovely rural setting by a beach with limestone rocks. There probably are caves there too!

Buringot took time looking at that 'village', as if he knows the place. Maybe he's originally from there! Note he is/was not owned by the resort. He's just always there, so he now somehow belongs to them!

Look! Many of these rock islands, even if small, are still unexplored. Because, how would you, right?

And that is our other boat. I could tell from the smiles of my companions, they were enjoying the tour!

Well, not all these rock islands are really that small. But how could you 'land' into this kind of terrain?

Nevertheless, they are fantastic places to skirt around and view from near or far. Selfie-selfie na lang!

On some with beaches on them, there are remnants of what may have been man-made structures..,

Boatmen will readily tell you though, that these areas were "private domain" of some logging company (or companies) until the 1970s. You'll be surprised to hear very prominent surname/s they remember!

Look! This felt like we were still roaming at the Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge Park of Basey..,

But this was already in Marabut, more than 20kms away from Basey, and we were at sea, not a river!

Yes, the terrain and topography are similar. We were heading to some cave-like opening on the rocks

I jokingly shouted "lets go through them"! And the dog looked at me as if to say "are you serious?"!

Hehe, buti the dog can't talk! Here's what I meant.., where the red arrows point are "gates" to a beach!

Boatmen told us those two "holes" are the only way in there, other than if you clamber up those rocks! And they intimated to us, that many folks including Buringot (yes, this dog) have already been in there by swimming through either of those openings at low tide. Because they are "closed" during high tide!

The rocks have other eerie-looking holes, but only those 2 are clearly open to get you to the other side.

On to more rock islands big and small.., there are too many of them than is seen from the shore!

I noticed Buringot isn't that enthusiastic looking at dark rock crevices when we approach them!

Hey the middle portions of those twin peaks out there already look like they are man-made buildings!

Unfortunately, no one would seem interested going down to that beach. It's a cemetery. Ayaw ko. Duu!

Here's another "shore" with remnants of what might have been man-made building/s of yesteryears.

Not only posts, but there are big wide concrete slabs! I itch to hear the stories or history of this place.

Hopping to more rocky islands. Yep, we're going to the farthest you can see in this picture..,

And the beauties on our other boat are radiantly shining with the early morning sun! Kagaganda ano?!

Oist, alam nyo ba, ha?! Hahaha.., you have already seen at least 1 of them, many times on national TV! But that's all I can say, since I did not even ask permission to post pictures with them in it. Mahirap na!

Let Buringot be the "notable" on this tour. I said that at the start of this story, right? Baka mahabla ako!

Look at those islands very intently. Would you believe if I told you that there are more than 10 of them just in this picture? Yes, though ironically, the 2 big lumps in the middle belong to just one island! Yes, but another BUT, behind them is another set of islands, one of them is even peeping-through at right!

Here's another shot of them little and big islands. Look at the group at right, there's many of them!

This is that thing I described as "2 big lumps", there are technically 4, but all of them is just one island!

Now look at the thing I said "peeping-through at right"! Madami pala, malayo pa! We're landing there.

Meanwhile, we made a "fly-by" at this little patch of white sandy beach. You can stay here if you want!

We chose not to land there.., just circling around instead.., we're going to islands behind this..,

Look at the two islets and this big one we are circling around. There is something we don't see yet..,

Here! Look at right, it's a little farther.., even the dog seems to be questioning where we were going!

And what if I told you that that island at right is not even really just an island but a group of islands?!

Here it is.., the "group of islands" hahaha! Not to mention that there are tinier islets far at left 'no?!

As we faced that "group of islands" (above), there was even this other group to my right..,

But for whatever reason (that I can't remember), we wanted to dock at this "group of islands" (rocks)

Getting nearer..,

And landed! Oh, now I remember why we docked here.., this was the farthest island where we could!

And that the beach is not really sand, but composed of (not yet too fine) broken pieces of corals, even coarser than gravel! But some shapes or forms my companions excitedly picked as collectibles. They come from the cities, okay?! Walang basagan ng trip! Of course everyone got into pictorial mode too!

As for Buringot.., he also enjoyed this beach by his own doggie ways! Walang basagan ng trip!

Then he sat all alert and waiting while we humans did whatever it was we did on this island!

By the way.., from the vantage of this 'fresh' beach, I could see many of the islands that we passed by.

See that pointed rock islet in the middle? If you go back to the previous pictures above, it looked like it was with some other islets. But seeing it from this island, it's actually far from all the others. Amazing!

Six pictures up, this rock looked like it had a vertical crack. But on closer look, it's not just a crack!

Anyway, when it was time to move on, Buringot waited for all of us, and he was last to board. Wow!

He even made a cursory look at the other boat, as if to check if all our companions were on board!

And he was back to his designated or self-proclaimed position! Feeling in-charge of everything!

We passed by all the islets as we cruised back to shore. This was the pointed rock we saw from afar.

It drizzled a bit and the water got a little shaky - just a little. But we called on the dog to come inside..,

Well what da! I just tapped on the seat in front of me, he came inside, but still wary of the other boat!

BUT, eto na ang scoop, when the light downpour was gone, Buringot went back to his position..,

Horribly enough, boat was swaying with the little waves (see the water at lower left corner of picture), and the boat's bow was wet with the light drizzle, thus, slippery even for a dog. See the arrows, AND..,

Splash!!! NAWALA! Buringot fell to the right! Look, one of our friends and their boatman even saw it!

OMG! We passengers got frantic, some shrieked, I was dumbfoundedly stunned! But the boatmen and even the dog himself did not seem to show any signs of agitation! As if just a mere hat fell to the sea!

Well, our boatman shut his engine off and paddled back towards Buringot as he swam towards us..,

The other boat circled to behind the dog, but the pesky doggie seemed to be just enjoying his swim!

I have seen dogs live and on TV, they swim frantically fast with some yelping when they're afraid..,

But this one acted like he/they had been doing this as part of their normal lives! Gosh ha? A routine?!

Look! Once on board, he immediately started running towards his "post" at the bow of the boat!

UNFORTUNATELY again, he slipped right there! Hmm, idinuso ga padama ada hityada nga daraga! 😁

So, dog scooping No. 2 ensued hahaha! See our other boat at the back? They were ready to assist!

Look! Not even a minute after being "rescued" from his double-fall.., here he was, back at his position!

I did notice (look at his hind area), I think he was now leaning a bit closely to that portion of the boat.

As if nothing happened, Buringot still sat there in front of the boat while we enjoyed the views..,

Until we were back in his turf familiar to us, the Caluwayan Palm Island Resort of Marabut!

The way he looked at everything there seemed to announce that he knows the place best. Well, I have noted.., white arrow points to our Beach Villas, dark blue arrow points to the open day-use cottages, orange arrow points to the swimming pool while the red one points to the hotel rooms. We were back!

Here's another trivia: you see that bare limestone rock on the left edge of the photo? Above Buringot's head, yes. There are resident wild monkeys up there. I saw the resort crews watching them earlier at about 6AM. They told me, two of those came down to scavenge for food near our cottage grounds!

Look, we were still some distance from shore and Buringot was already standing, ready to go down!

And 3 minutes after he stood up, we arrived on shore and he was first to jump to the beach!

And what better way to end the island hopping tour than savoring the breeze in this open cottage!

Enjoying not only the breeze actually. For those of us who went on the island hopping tour, we had our 'late' breakfast at that cottage - me with Coke of course haha! Not too late I think! It was only 820AM!

Well, what can I say? It was fun, made more memorable by Buringot!