Travel with the WANDER GIRLS: SOCCORO, MINDANAO: THE BEACH THAT STARTED IT ALL (PART 1 of 2)

THE BEACH THAT STARTED IT ALL

By Ysabel Villaflor

PART I

Click HERE for PART 2

This isn’t the first time I wrote about this place. I can’t help it. This is a place that I feel deserve its own write up. - :)

Up until 2006, I can count on my two hands just how many places I have been around the Philippines. I did have to make certain qualifications in my statement though: Baguio didn’t count since it was just an hour away from where I’m from, and the sandy beaches of Ilocos and La Union didn’t either because it was just like going to another town. Let’s just say that I never really travelled much around the Philippines up until then and never even considered travelling locally during summer vacations. Summer vacations were usually spent somewhere out of the country and it really wasn’t an option to travel locally…..BEFORE.

It all started when my family had an invitation from Dr. Bon Malvar to travel to Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines. Like very much of the population up North, we all consider Mindanao to be so far away and so dangerous that we wouldn’t even consider of going there (that was me being the misinformed girl back then). And that, despite the rumors about the South, we were for some reason, lured to this mysterious little place they were calling Sohoton.

To be honest, I really didn’t know what to expect. There was very little literature about where we're going and we never really had any idea what we were going to encounter once we were there. (this was such a new experience for me because I seldom travel without first researching about my intended destination.)

The FIRST BATCH arriving at Butuan Airport - our starting point of our little adventure.

So, blurry eyed and a little bit confused, we found ourselves at our jump off point in Butuan City, arriving via Cebu Pacific that fateful day. We boarded our welcome van and had a glimpse of Butuan City on the way to the hotel. The city was rural with a bit of development with cemented roads and a couple of buildings here and there. It was very much the province we were expecting. We checked in at Balanghai Convention Center, and waited for the rest of our group to be complete (the other half traveled on a later flight).

our home in Butuan

Welcome to Balanghai Hotel!

Taking a dip while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.

I was about to write off Butuan as a typical town up until the point when we started going around and visiting the many museums this little town has. I was dumbfounded. This place reeks of so much HISTORY. Other provinces can learn a thing or two about preserving heritage and our ancient relics from this little town. The town has restored the oldest balanggay boats ever found in the Philippines and preserved antiques dated way before the Spaniards came. The boats are particularly significant to the Filipino Race, which is evidence of the Malay ancestry which, through these boats, reached Philippine shores. The Balanggays are proof that such migration did happen and that Malays did settle in this part of the world.

goofing around the Butuan Museum Garden

many religious artifacts in the church

Lagot kayo kay FATHER!!! (Fooling around with the relics)

one of the original Balanghai boats

Resting on our 3rd Museum visit that day

Butuan was said to be the place where the first mass was celebrated and continue to dispute that which the Cebuanos have particularly claimed first. So apart from historical significance, Butuan also has a religious history. Judging from the reactions we got from this theory, it is still to be settled by historians.

After the first day in Butuan, I was very much impressed with the preservation of historical data and evidence. Not all provinces in the Philippines, sadly, prioritize our heritage or our historical sites. Most of them, end up being demolished or deteriorated. However, some of the confusion was dispelled and a few questions about this little adventure were answered. This wonderful little town loves it's history and heritage and this trip was finally forming some shape in my mind. However, there were still a couple of unanswered questions lingering.

The very next day after our Butuan cultural excursion, we left on a bus for the ports of Agusan to catch a yacht and to venture off to more undeveloped territory. Apparently, we were going to a very isolated island in Soccoro in Bucas Grande group of islands called Sohoton - which can only be accessed by boat. I got a bit nervous when I heard of the word “isolated”. Judging from the development in Butuan, I was expecting more sparse treatment on lodging on this island.