How about seeing world’s most perfect cone volcano, zip-lining over rice terraces, hiking through emerald hills, delving into the depths of the earth, exploring the Pompeii of Asia and finally cooling off by swimming with the gentle giants of the sea (whale sharks)? Then the provinces of Albay and Sorsogon should be your go-to place whilst in Bicol, in fact this needs to be one of your go to places whilst in the Philippines.
Getting there
Getting there is pretty easy (relative to the Philippine standards of travel), you can fly direct into Legazpi – the provincial capital of Albay – from both Manila and Cebu, or fly into Naga City airport in Camarines Sur and take a 2hr drive into Albay (first visiting the wonderful Camarines Sur – see our blog here ). Legazpi is at the heart of many of the attractions of Albay.
Perfect Cone Volcano
Arriving there you will get your first sight of the stunning Mayon Volcano – unless you have already looked on the back of the 100 peso note (where you will find the image of the volcano), or you are not a virgin 😊…as local legend states that Mayon will not show itself to those who are not pure (at least for the first sighting). It is in fact often covered by cloud so you do need to be lucky, or at least very early in the day (i.e 5am) to see Mayon in its full glory, but it is totally worth it.
In 2017 the volcano started to erupt, and whilst the slopes of the mountain are closed to visitors, Legazpi and the surrounding countryside are still safe to visit. A prime spot to view the Volcano, and to sleep and wake up with it watching over you is the Oriental Legazpi, one of the higher end, but still very good value if you book in advance (~65 eur p/n) and well worth it for the view from its infinity pool and the chance to wake up early and see Mayon’s majestic beauty.
Food and dining
Whilst in Legazpi don’t leave without trying some of their great food at the numerous spots next to the water, the Embarcadero De Legazpi is more of a mall location but was were Matt got to try his first Kinilaw, Laaing and Bicol Express, no doubt Lyssa’s familly can cook it better…but you never forget your first kinilaw!
Along Legazpi Boulevard you’ll find numerous cosy places to stop and have a great lunch or dinner, we tried out the Rockport Cottage for buckets of San Mig lite and tasty Pusit, fortunately Lyssa left some beers for the rest of us, so it was a lovely respite in the heat of the day.
Adventure and fun
Just in front of the volcano you’ll find the adventure park of Lignon Hill, here you can get your adrenaline rush with a number of activities that are on offer.
For us it was a chance to jump off the side of the hill and zip line our way across the valley, trying to take in the views of Mayon and the rice terraces below…although somewhat difficult with all that screaming going on!
From here you can also do an ATV tour onto the lower slopes of the mountain, something that we still need to do on one of our next visits. Tucked at the base of the hill are some caves and tunnels that you can visit that will transport you back to World War II and the occupation of the Japanese, lots of crawling around and selfies with WWII mannequins in the dark!
Bicol’s (Matcha) Chocolate Hills
About an hour or so from Legazpi (depending on the state of the road) are the amazing Quitinday Green Hills, Bicol’s answer to the chocolate hills of Bohol (and Matt’s preferred…sorry Bohol!).
After some off-roading that needed passenger participation to push the van along the route you find yourself in a super tranquil spot where the carabaos laze in the rice fields surrounded by coconut trees. A short, but steep hike up will take you to the top of one of hundreds of small green hills that dot the countryside all around and framed in the background is the ever present Mayon.
For some reason that we can not fathom why this place has not been discovered as one of the Philippines’ most beautiful tourist spots, but all the better for us as we pretty much had it all to ourselves to enjoy the views and take all the jump shots we desired.
Coming back down the hill to the van you will welcome a cool buko (coconut juice) to refresh and prepare yourself to head on to the next stop.
Chasing Waterfalls
Just around the ‘corner’ (corners are very long in the Philippines) from the green hills is the cave and underground river of Jovellar.
Even getting here is an adventure as the road will suddenly turn into a forded river that needs delicate crossing, but lucky for us we had the steady driving of Lyssa’s nephew Gian who can tackle all terrains and roads. The cave and river look amazing…on the park leaflet that you are allowed to read when entering.
Unfortunately in reality, they suffer the vagaries of the Philippine climate and storms so when we arrived, a recent deluge had washed away the stairs to descend into the cave and so we had to make do with pictures at the cave entrance and its waterfalls (that are a pretty good second best).
The tour guides for the caves are also unique as they are teenage girls who look like they have just come from the mall, but have a great amount of stories to tell about the area, the falls and the caves…and they kept Lyssa’s nephews quite spellbound on the tour!
Whale Sharks in Donsol
If all this ziplining, hiking and caving has got you too hot and longing for the sea, then keep going south from here then you will cross into Sorsogon province and the home of the Butanding (whale shark) in Donsol. Finding whale shark here is not going to be the easy affair that you will have in Oslob, Cebu, rather you have to pick your time of the year correctly (January is peak shark, but April / May is when the water starts to clear up for
better visibility) and you need a bit of luck; but if you do come across a Shark then it will most probably be a huge one. We timed our trip in early January, went through our safety briefing (more for the safety of the butanding than us) and headed out on our boat.
Unlike Oslob where it is done by paddle power, here it is a motorised banca that gets you to the sharks (around 3500 php for a boat that fits around 8 passengers), what followed was a bit like the A-Team on water, a spotter spots what they think is the Shark, the boat goes racing off and then we launch ourselves from the moving boat into the water following the guide; it was all quite exhilarating if not tiring after several chases;
We recommend this for those who are comfortable in swimming in the open sea without life vest as the whale sharks are wild and tend to stay in the deep. On our visit we only got to see the tail of a shark descending into the deep, so the luck was not fully with us…but we do plan to go back in April sometime when visibility is better and hopefully our luck increases.
Beach and relaxation
Back up to Legazpi, and after all this aquatic action you will feel you need a bit of luxurious pampering, so head to Misibis Bay on Cagrayray island.
A chance to relax on the beach, enjoy some watersports and have a massage…or three!
Pompeii of Bicol
For those of you heading back to Naga City after your time in Albay, you should make a pit stop to see the haunting Cagsawa ruins – a 16th century church and village that was wiped out by an eruption from Mount Mayon in 1814, all that is left is the bell tower of the church.
Getting there today is still an adventure as you will have to cross the river on a rickety wooden bridge to come to the atmospheric, remains of the church, surrounded by the centuries old lahar.
Station of the Cross
The last sight to see on your way back to Naga is the Kawakawa Hill stations of the cross.
Now remember that you are in Asia’s (nearly the world’s) largest catholic country, so the sheer size and beauty of these stations will be really impressive, even more so after dark when they are all lit for your 2 hour pilgrimage up and down the hill, very much worth it even if you are not catholic. You may even see some audience participation in the religious scenes.
That about sums up our experiences in this part of Bicol, as with everywhere there are yet more places to see and hopefully we shall be back to experience them all. But for you dear blog reader these provinces are waiting for you, so get on the next Jeepney to Legazpi and enjoy!
