camiguin adventure, the next level (photos from the oct6-8 visit)

Note: Camera is a disposable instamatic with 27 shots, and like all the instamatic ones, it cannot be zoomed in nor out. Hence, the photos are not as vivid as I'd like them to be. We'll hopefully have a better one next time. Manulis sa tah!

Ladies and gentlemen, ako, err, the island's SUNKEN CEMETERY!

The cross. One of the few pieces left intact after over 100 years since the eruption of Mt. Vulcan Daan. Even before seeing Quija I was already obsessed by the sunken cemetery, and it escalated after watching the film. The film was largely shot in Camiguin, and exposed a good part of this cemetery. That underwater scene of Judy Ann Santos where she is seen retrieving a sack that contains the remains of a dead girl that has been left there by her twin sister to rot intensified it all. And this part here, as I was told by my dive buddy, is actually where that scene was shot. But, I was still disappointed. I bought a disposable camera to be used for this site (I did not even care then if this was our only stopover for the entire trip) thinking there was more to it than just rubbles and this cross. Gadako man lang ang huna-huna gud! Pfft!

A photo frame. This is what I was talking about in my previous post (camiguin adventure vol. 1). One of the few left standing, after the 1871 blast. The owner of this marker could still be underneath...The harshness of the sea has spared this one, so it’s possible that the dead—if it is really buried down under—could still be there. And if it was interred near the time when this place was sunk—it is also possible that it still appears like it just died. The salty seawater could do tricks like that, and this one, our supposed example here, could well prove it, but we need to unearth it first. So, shall we?

Nitso. All covered with corals and weeds now. But still, it is spooky. The darkness that surrounds it might be causing it, or when you realize that although it does not resemble the regular grave anymore it is very possible that the owner’s remains are still inside it. There were only two of us venturing in this part—my dive buddy and I--while the rest were doing their own thing several meters away. The buddy, who is about 14, I think, is a quick swimmer, that on more than one occasion he left me to get to the next site, while I was still taking snaps (or being consumed by my disappointment…). When I realized I was already alone, and could see my own two feet still dangling near the very area where there could still be bones down there for all I know, I almost did a somersault. I just don’t have the proper bones for it, so I just killed the boy. Well, almost.
That rectangular-shaped object on the bottom is another grave.

This one too.

There's not much on this part. But several meters away, I gathered from our boatmen-friends, have more nice sights to offer. There's even the big cross there, the one that used to mark the cemetery. But that one was destroyed by a typhoon sometime in the past. If you are standing at a platfom where the new cross marker is you can see 10-15 meters away the old cross lying in a shallow portion of the sea. What prevented me from going there is the fact that we had to cross a deep part for us to get there, plus, more coral-decorated graves could be along the way. And they could be scarier than the ones I've already seen, I don't know, and there was no life vest to hang on to basin unya makuyapan ko. LOL!

The ruins near the new cross. Slabs of gravestones, broken pieces of the cross, et cetera.

Nipahuway sa kalinaw. We are actually standing on the ruins.

***The Mantigue Island now

The drop-off part of Mantigue Island’s marine sanctuary. I just don’t know though if the local government of Camigiun is protecting the area as what should be done to every reef declared as a marine protected area. It is actually evident here, and even in the sunken cemetery, that dynamite fishing is still being practiced. According to the locals I’ve talked to, the sea that surrounds the Camigiun island is considered an “aquarium” because of its schools of fishes that live here. It is just so sad to see pieces of broken corals being washed off to the shores when it should have been great to see them alive and being inhabited by these schools of fishes, not where they are now, and definitely not in some resort’s concrete floors being made as decoration, like what Paras Resort has done.

There are so many fishes in this part, the cam just did not see them. I really need to rob a bank soon. See those little creatures? The big ones are already gone. The locals' main livelihood is fishing, and they don't care where they do it.

The deep blue sea...

...and me!

End of report.