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Navasero’s Bicol hands-on photo safari

04/27/2008

A month ago, Mandy Navasero researched for her next destination in the Bicol region and experienced it first hand. It is the spirit of adventure and the inherent desire to journey and explore that drove her to expand her photo workshop in different destinations in the Philippines.

Scheduled on May 23-26 and May 30 to June 2, its first stopover is Donsol. The Association of Boatmen and the Department of Tourism work hand-in-hand in the tourists’ whale sharks interaction. On an early day, the whale sharks are easy to spot. Interaction with whale sharks takes about 10 minutes per encounter. The Butanding officer in-charge will give you a “scooter ride,” means they pull your vest and swim fast ahead of the whale shark and you can watch its big, wide mouth four feet below from the ocean’s surface. You breathe through the snorkel. At night in Donsol, ride the catarman for firefly watching from 7:30-9:00 p.m. The fireflies illuminate the dark at a distance. Sleep over in Donsol.

Second day, is driving through the lush forest in Bulusan covered with wild trees. Traveling to the area of Bulusan Lake is advantageous as it offers good road and has a mountain path to follow. The participants trek for an hour. And drive around Bulusan Volcano through idyllic sceneries of ricefields, it is a delightful, simple back-to-basics. The swim at Masacrot Spring with the cold water is a reward after the exhilarating trek. They said if you go to Lake Bulusan in the early morning, you will see it covered with mist, it is almost like the “Switzerland of the Orient.”

Mount Bulusan is Sorsogon’s main attraction.

An overnight stopover at CWP to try the skateboarding and get the excitement of a lifetime.

Visit old churches in Barcelona, the 122-year-old St. Joseph’s Cathedral. The outer edifice is made from anapog, sea corals hewn by hand and patched by molasses. The church faces the Pacific Ocean so on typhoon season, it is lashed by turbulent waves. Inside the church, the walls are moist and mossy and believed that the walls made of corals are dripping water. There is so much landscape to cover in Bicol and many churches built with colonial architecture in the early 1800s. At the Cagsaua Ruins, with the majestic Mayon Volcano as a backdrop, a young boy pedlling photographs fill you up with its history in that brief encounter.

More sites and churches like the Daraga Church, St. Michael de Archangel and the National Museum. Seafoods are in abundance most of the time. View the area covered with lahar from Mayon Volcano and Padang rock fields. Explore a tunnel with statues of Japanese soldiers and boxes of “ammunition” before viewing Mayon Volcano from Lignon Hills.

Bicol is a dream destination, offers a stunningly beautiful coastline with mountains and scenic fields. The best thing is you don’t have to spend a fortune in this voyage.

E-mail mandynavasero@yahoo.com or call 899-1767 or drop by her studio at Rm. 227, LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo), Bel Air II, Makati City for inquiries.