I was holding a hard-boiled egg over a bubbling sand crater. A local kid yelled, “Five minutes!” and dropped his own egg in. The volcanic heat cooked it perfectly. No stove. No pot. Just the earth deciding to be a kitchen. That was my first hour on Camiguin Island, and I had already forgotten the name “El Nido.”
We landed at Camiguin's tiny airport from Cebu ($28 flight). The baggage carousel was a wooden table. A man with a cart asked if we needed a ride to Mambajao town – $1.50 per person. My friend Jenna looked suspicious. “Where are all the touts?” she whispered. They weren't there. Because Camiguin doesn't have a tourist industry. It has a volcano, seven hot springs, and a whole lot of nothing in between.
Our room at a hillside pension had a view of Mount Hibok-Hibok. Two beds, a private bath, and a balcony where a cat named Ginger slept every afternoon. $20 per night total. Split between us, that's $10 each. The owner, Manong Rico, brought us fresh bananas from his backyard. “Breakfast,” he said. “No charge.” Jenna asked about pool access. Manong Rico laughed. “The sea is your pool. Walk 50 meters.”
Sunken Cemetery at sunrise is the postcard shot. We showed up at 6 AM. The giant cross in the water was backlit by orange clouds. No entrance fee. No photographer offering “professional shots” for $5. Just an old guy selling coffee from a thermos – $0.40 a cup. Jenna took fifty photos. Then she said, “Wait, is that a volcano in the background?” Yes. The same volcano that erupted in the 1950s and buried a church. You can still see the bell tower sticking out of lava rock.
Most tourists rent a scooter ($6 per day, helmet included, no license check) and follow the “circumferential road.” They stop at Tuasan Falls – crowded and loud. Skip it. Instead, take the dirt path to Katibawasan Falls. It's a 250-foot drop into a cold pool. We arrived at 9 AM on a Tuesday. Two other people were there. A father teaching his son to swim. No souvenir stalls. No “changing rooms for rent.” Just the sound of water hitting rocks and a dragonfly landing on my knee.
The real hidden gem is the White Island sandbar. Every guidebook mentions it. But they don't tell you to go at 5:30 AM before the first boat. We paid a fisherman $5 total (not per person, total) to row us there. The sandbar was completely empty. Just white sand, turquoise water, and Mount Hibok-Hibok smoking gently in the distance. Jenna spun in a circle. “This is what El Nido looked like ten years ago,” she said. Then she sat down and didn't speak for twenty minutes.
Food shocked us the most. At the night market in Mambajao, we ate grilled pork belly, rice, and atchara (pickled papaya) – $1.80 per plate. Jenna ordered a second plate. Then a third. The vendor, a woman named Ate Nelia, said, “You eat like my daughter.” For dessert, we bought budbud kabog (a local millet sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves) – $0.30 each. We sat on a concrete curb eating them while a dog watched. The dog got the last bite.
One afternoon we hiked to the cold springs of Sto. Niño. It's free. Locals go there on Sundays with entire families and picnic baskets. A group of teenage girls dared each other to jump off a small ledge. One of them splashed Jenna by accident. Instead of apologizing, she handed Jenna a piece of mango. “Forgive me,” she said. Jenna ate the mango. The girl smiled. No ticket, no “must-buy” anything. Just mango and forgiveness.
Season warning: We went in February – peak dry season. Perfect weather. But the ferry from Camiguin to Bohol? Unpredictable. One day it leaves at noon. Next day at 2 PM. The ticket seller just shrugged and said, “Filipino time.” Bring snacks and a book. Also, the island has no ride-hailing apps. None. The only taxis are tricycles. A ride anywhere costs $0.80 to $1.50. Just agree on the price before sitting down.
Jenna almost slipped on a wet rock near Ardent Hot Springs. A local woman grabbed her arm and said, “Slow. This volcano is still angry.” The hot springs were $1.20 entry. You sit in pools fed by geothermal water, surrounded by jungle. A monitor lizard crossed the path near us. The woman smiled. “He lives here. Don't worry. He pays entrance too.”
I checked my spending on the last morning. Five days: flight ($28), room ($50 total, $25 each), scooter ($24 total), food ($45 total), ferries and tours ($20 total). My all-in cost? Around $120. For five days. In El Nido, that barely covers three nights in a dorm.
Camiguin won't give you a party scene. It won't give you an Instagram famous “lagoon.” It gives you a volcano that cooks eggs, a sandbar you can have to yourself, and a whole lot of locals who wave at you because they're genuinely curious, not because they want to sell you a bracelet. I left with volcanic ash on my sandals and zero regrets. The only queue I stood in was for the public toilet at the airport. Two people ahead of me. Wait time: ninety seconds.
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