As Lyssa is a born and bred Bicolana it should be no surprise that we often make trips back to Bicol from the Netherlands. Luckily for us as well as getting looked after like royalty by Lyssa’s family we also get spoiled with the Philippines’ best cuisine and get to explore some of the unsung tourist destinations of this area. Whilst Boracay suffers closures you’ll always find a tropical paradise ready and waiting for your visit in Bicol.
Reserved for Out of Office Explorers
Bicol itself is made up into 6 provinces with Camarines Sur as our starting point for this collection of blogs.  I have to come clean that we did not visit all these places on the same trip, so what you’ll find is a bit of an amalgam per region that will help you pick and choose your own best of.  Time of year also plays an important part to the visit, typically September to October is the typhoon period with high risk of rain, tropical storms and even typhoons. ‘Dry’ season is from November to May and will  typically be dryer and much, much hotter. A lot of our visits tend to be over the Christmas / New Year period where the weather should be starting to get better, however there is a reason that Lyssa’s family call me Matt Malas… basically as it will always rain when I visit; so do try to be there when I am not! For those of you that like to snorkel and Dive, then the summer period is also going to give you more of that crystal clear water and picture perfect vistas; but saying that a New year trip to one of the nearby islands will really give you your own personal beach all to yourself.
Getting there is easiest by flying to either Pili or to Legazpi (PAL/ Cebu Pacific)…a short 50 minute hop in the plane. You can go overland with an 8hr (to Naga City), overnight bus journey…an excessive duration for a distance of 400km (in the Netherlands we’ll have already gotten halfway down France in that sort of time)…but what you’ll realise in taking the bus is that there are no autobahns on this route and it goes over the mountains that splits Luzon island in half. The temperature that is maintained in the bus also feels as though you are going over a high mountain pass, so be sure to pack some warm clothes/ blanket for the journey or you’ll get to experience the whole 8 hrs cold and awake! Whatever route you take, if you are going to meet friends or family don’t forget to make a stop at the airport duty free to pick up that last minute pasalubong!
Naga City – the heart of Bicol and it’s commercial hub, also known as ‘”An maogmang lugar” (The Happy Place} – is where we always start, it’s 
Lyssa’s home town, plus it’s a good base to explore the region and above all Lyssa’s family will always make sure we are greeted like movie stars… with brass bands and parading majorettes. Truth be told it is probably not the tourist mecca of the Philippines, but it’s home for us and if you find yourself here you can easily find yourself some nice things to keep yourself occupied. The best hotels are located along Magsaysay boulevard, you’ll find a couple of decent malls (SM and Robinsons) for those rainy days and a beautiful cathedral to enjoy your christening duties as Ninong or Ninang. The rest of your time here will be devoted to the great food and lots of eating!
So once you have shopped, eaten and christened all you can then it’s time to start moving and see some of the sights of the surrounds. Dominating the doorstep of Naga is Mt Isaraog, a dormant volcano; not the perfect cone of world-famous Mayon Volano, but still very impressive on a clear day and makes a great day trip to trek through the jungle to the Malabsay Falls. We had Lyssa’s brothers as our guides and a fresh dip into the mountain pool and getting showered by the waterfall is quite invigorating on a hot day. If you are really keen you can also bike up to the forest but I would recommend driving up and leave the cycle for the way back as its all downhill! Close-by to Mt Isarog are the hot springs of Panicuason, now it sounds a bit bizarre to head to a hot spring when its 28 degrees outside, but the waters feel great after a long hike and it is properly nature (but not naturist!).
Naga City is also the gateway to the internationally acclaimed CWC (CamSur Watersports Complex) here, for 180 pesos (like 3 eur!) you can shred the water with your wakeboarding
 moves or, like my brother-in-law enjoy endless plunges into the water like an aquatic superman. Lyssa shows us all up by getting straight on the board and showing us how it’s done; between her and the international professionals doing their tricks the day normally ends up with me and the family enjoying a tasty sisig and Laing pizza and some nice cold San Mig Lights. But if you want to nail wakeboarding get yourself a cabin here and spend a solid few days circling the lake and perfecting your monkey spins and stargazers!
From reading the guidebooks on the Philippines and speaking with other Filipinos not from this part of the country you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bicol isn’t the place you go to for paradise beaches…but Bicol has some beautiful hidden places that even Lyssa and her family are just starting to discover as roads open up and people start to explore what there is.  Prime 
among these places in Camarines Sur is the peninsula of Caramoan; think of scenes from James Bond’s The man with the golden gun and you’ll be picturing the hidden beaches, limestone cliffs and caves of Caramoan National park. Such is the feeling of adventurous paradise that Gota beach has been a location for many of the TV franchise “Survivor” where the tropical dire straits of many a contestant from around the globe has been filmed here. As with many a hidden paradise getting here is an adventure in itself; for us it was a 2hr van (that we upgraded to aircon) from Naga to Sabang port, from there another 2hrs by pump boat to the port of Guijalo; these days you can catch a bus direct from 
Naga bus terminal – also around 4 hours,  but you don’t get to laze in the sun with your feet dangling over the side of the boat getting cooled by splashes from the sea. We stayed at Gota Village resort, a further 30 mins tricycle from the port – a village in the sense of self contained resort with a collection of cute wooden huts spread out in the valley leading to our white Christmas beach. For sure this is not a high-end luxury resort, but you are also not paying backpacker prices, so be prepared to pay a bit over the odds for what you get…but coming here in the winter season gets you a private resort and it feels a bit back to nature with some creature comforts. When we arrived, the resort, lagoon and beach all needed a bit of TLC, it seemed at the time that the state of the place was dictated on whether the TV crews were going to be turning up to shoot another show…in-between shows the place was let to return to a more natural state. What to do in paradise?
Survivor!
Lazing about and doing nothing keeps us occupied for about 30 mins, so after all this relaxation we are ready to get moving – Gota beach has a boardwalk through the mangroves that is nice to explore, the beach, naturally is worth a dip in the sea; but as mentioned above, this is not 6 star resort to spend the day sipping your SanMig and reading the latest Times best seller book. There is a hike up above the resort… in hindsight I would say it is best to wear some hiking shoes and not, like Lyssa and I, a pair of flip flops – the path gets somewhat rocky, muddy and shared with rather large millipedes on the way up! But for the views you get after 30 mins it is well worth it, flip flops or no flip flops. The other main to do is a bit of island hopping, we organized our boat at the resort, pick up from our own beach and a private boat for the day for a couple of thousand pesos. Our first stop to Caglago Mountain in Baranggay Tabgon to take a few (…errr over 500) steps up to the a 26-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and some of the most spectacular 
views that you will get to share with her over the Caramoan peninsula and islands. Back on the boat and there are plenty more islands to see –  Lahos, where the beach, between 2 rock clusters, disappears during high tide.  Matukad Island has a tropical forest and hidden lagoon.  Where to have lunch on a day like today? Take your pick, tell your boatman and pull up to shore for your tropical packed lunch. There is only so much you can squeeze into one day, but next time we plan a bit farther offshore, to Bagieng Island and its two long sand banks.
A few more spots in CamSur that need to be on your list – Atulayan island – skirt around Mt. Isarog and on the coast you’ll find Nato port…sleepy is what best describes it in the winter where you’ll have to entice the boatmen out of their weekend Karaoke sessions to start up the boat and get you out to the island – we luckily had Lyssa’s brother-in-law Jun with us and he commandeered a couple of boys to find us a boat and a captain to get us out to the 
island. Suited up in our most orange of life preservers (although I’m not sure how much they would help us to float) and aided by the prayers of Lyssa’s sister Wilma we crossed to the island. It’s not as dangerous as it sounds, but in winter even the smallest of waves up against a little banca seems a daunting prospect. What awaited us was our own private beach – on the sheltered southwesterm side a kilometer of
One…two…threeeeee
white sand, warm, calm waters and our own beach cottage to base ourselves for our stay – we brought all our supplies, as you probably won’t find a restaurant at this time of year. After some snorkeling , body surfing and the national past-time of the ‘jump shot’ photo we loaded up the banca and headed back to the mainland – the day had started with rain, but our own bit of paradise kept us in the sunshine. The waves weren’t nearly as choppy on the way back and our captain ploughed through to get us back to the mainland in one piece… perhaps (as we found out later) because he had fortified himself with a bit of local gin before our return!
One last spot that we want to give a shout out to in CamSur is the humble Pasacao, now with the selection that they have, it is understandable that most Filipinos are beach snobs… if there is no white sand then it is not a beach worth going to. Us Europeans however have a whole different standard for beaches and the dark sand of Pasacao is
 still an attraction when you couple it with calm, warm waters, a lack of crowds and plenty to do and see. Again a Christmas trek with the family, on a day when we were being hit by sudden downpours of  rain, but nonetheless we had the pick of the beach cottages to set ourselves up in…and when you are in the warm water who cares whether it is raining or not?! Pasacao is also fronted by the picturesque Daruanak Island (above), where we recommend just grabbing a 500p banca to cross the small straight and clamber up this rocky outcrop with the most magnificent panoramic views of the surrounds. An additional treat on this small boat tour is a stop at the simple hot springs
just up the coast, where a pipe gushes water (that comes from the volcanic thermals from Mt Isarog, into the rocky beach – have a “tabo” shower in the water or just dig your own bath in the sand of the beach   and wash away your worries.
Pasacao is also a local scuba diving spot, and on a previous trip I met up with a diving outfit from Naga – Steady Eddie – to take a few dives around Daruanak island. The dives are pretty straight forward and you’ll get to see a lot of the usual, smaller characters underwater; what makes this dive special is just having it to yourself and launching off your small banca to explore the depths below.
Found Nemo!
So that’s CamSur for the time being, we are going to be having plenty more trips in the future, so expect this blog to expand even further in the future as we find more and more hidden treasures of this part of Bicol.