Escape to Santiago Bay

Never been to Camotes, until last weekend. Always wondered what it was like on Camotes as I have heard a lot of how beautiful the island is.

So last weekend, we headed for Camotes, ahead of the Holy Week when it is peak season for the beach resorts. I was so excited to be finally heading to these group of islands near the island of Cebu.

The journey started by getting on a public utility jeepney (PUJ) from Cebu City to Danao City. The trip was about 30 minutes and we alighted right in front of Danao port. We were trying to catch the 630am trip to Consuelo port, however the trips from Danao are 530 am and 830am. We arrived at 6 am and had to wait for another 2 hours, oh bugger.

I was also expecting to ride a pump boat going to Camotes, however it was since been discontinued. Now, you will go to Camotes via a ferry or RORO (Roll on, roll off). The sea trip lasted about two (2) hours. We docked at Consuelo port at around 11 in the morning.

Once there, expect to be greeted by waiting multicabs and habal-habal (scooters) wanting to drive you all the way to the resort.

The fare is 50 pesos, either on the mutlicab or on habal-habal, so we decided to take the multicab for a safer ride and since it was already noon.


We arrived at Santiago Bay Garden Resorts after 15 to 20 minutes ride from Consuelo port.
The driver was courteous and kind enough to give us directions where the resort's front desk was. The staff at the resort were friendly and accommodating and since we already have a reservation and booking in advance, we were given our keys to the room right away.

After settling with our room, we decided to try out their restaurant since we were starving. The restaurant has the best view to the bay.

However, I find the prices were not reasonable, but since we were hungry we went ahead and tried what they had to offer. I tried their pork adobo and mixed vegetables. While waiting for the food to be served, I realized that my phone has no signal reception. So we asked the staff, and they said that only Globe Telecom has cellular signal in the area. How unfortunate, I was using Sun Cellular, while my friends were on Smart Communications. The only use for our phones now is to surf the internet via the resort's wifi. But wifi was only available at their restaurant. geez!

Finally the food was served and I was a bit disappointed. The pork adobo looks nothing at all to the pork adobo I was expecting. It looked like it was a chicken pineapple recipe or sweet and sour pork. The mixed vegetables looked like it was overcooked. Although the "pork adobo" tasted good, it was just not pork adobo for me with the pineapple chunks and sweet and sour kind of sauce. The mixed vegetables on the other hand, was, really overcooked. The carrots were soft and no longer crunchy and it tasted bland too. It costs 400+ pesos already for just the adobo, vegetables and a serving of rice. Wow!

Since it was still too sunny to hit the pool or the beach, we headed to our room instead and took a nap to recover our energies lost during our early and long trip. At around 4 in the afternoon, we hit the beach and enjoyed the cool waters of Santiago bay.

Boy, it was relaxing and after enjoying the cool waters, at dusk, we moved to their infinity pool for a warmer water and more relaxing mode.

At night, we headed down the beach for dinner. Along the beach coast, there are about 3 decent eateries (carenderia). The food prices are very reasonable, and there are a lot of choices to choose from. A bottle of beer is priced at 30 pesos! No wonder, there were a lot of familiar faces, most of the resort guests were dining at the beach area. For the remaining of our 2 nights and 3 days stay, we dined only at the beach side "carenderias". Note though that these were no ordinary eateries, in fact the place is quite cozy and there are lots of seafood and western food to choose from. They also have breakfast combos. Nice, right?

Not only were the beach restos cozy, and with plenty of food choices, but also, the food actually tasted really good. You get your money's worth with their cooking.

Beef with mushrooms in oyster sauce

Calamari

 Crab in hot sauce

 Grilled Tuna

 Pork Sisig

Well, the bay was really the scene in Santiago. It is as if you are directly looking at paradise.
We did not venture anymore around the island with their guided tour. Two and a half day at the beach was not even enough for me. I could sit whole day or lay on the white sand beach and enjoy the sea breeze blowing directly at me. What a life, wish I could do this everyday.

But if you really want to trek around the island, the resort has scooters you can rent for 500 pesos good for 1 day. I was not really enticed to tour the island, but maybe next time.

The resort has two infinity pools, unfortunately I was able to try only one, the pool near our room.
The other pool was at the far end of the resort and when we attempt to try it, it was being cleaned. We did not have a chance to go back.

On our last night, we dined again at the beach side eateries, and to our delight there was a live reggae band playing. It was really a treat, you can actually feel the summer fun all around the beach. Everyone was enjoying and dancing to the music, to me, it was even more fun than my stay at Boracay. Just pure summer beach fun, priceless!

We ordered grilled tuna, calamari and sizzling sisig. The grilled tuna was not what I expected, it was rather dry and bland. The calamari however was delicious, it was just cooked right.

With a tropical depression looming over the horizon, it was also time for us to bid farewell to this small paradise. Took an early and last lunch at the beach side resto, and checked out from the resort at around 12 noon. We arrived at Consuelo port via scooters (habal-habal) with the winds getting stronger. The ferry was scheduled to leave port at 1 pm, but it was only until 130pm that we were finally on our way to Danao City. It was one "bumpy" ride home and I have to endure watching again "Man of Steel" (unfortunately it was the movie being played on the ship) since I cannot sleep on the return trip. To make it worse, we arrived at Danao port at around 330, but for unknown reasons, we were not able to dock right away. It was only after 25 mins or more that we finally alighted from the ship. Foreigners were even commenting that the skipper does not seem to know what he is doing. Grins.

Being exhausted from our "bumpy" boat ride, we decided to take a GT Express (vhire) back to Cebu City for 50 pesos. It was a vacation indeed, and I am already looking forward to my next visit to the beautiful island of Camotes.

Summer 2014 has been so far, a lot of fun!