500-Peso Backpacking Challenge: OLANGO ISLAND

Travelling has been in the mainstream these days and we Cebuanos love it. There are agencies and airline companies that offer tour packages which are really affordable but can somehow be painful in our pockets for us thrift travelers. My friends and I have formulated an idea of promoting this 500-Peso Travel Challenge to help find solutions for Cebuano Thrift Travellers.

Our first stop is the peaceful island of OLANGO. Olango Island is just one of the populated island which are under the governance of Lapu-Lapu City and the Municipality of Cordova . Olango and its 2 satellite islets the Caohagan and Pangan-an is under the jurisdiction of Lapu-Lapu while Giluntongan and Nalusuan belongs to Cordova. Some geographers call the whole Lapu-Lapu – Cordova Territory as the Mactan Group of Islands.

The island has been known for its stunning wetlands where birds from Japan, China and Siberia migrate and seek refuge from winter. There are approximately 77 loyal migratory bird species that the area serves annually. This is the reason why the Olango Island Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary was established so as the Olango Island Marine Life Sanctuary.

Olango Island Port

So how are you gonna spend that P 500.00 for an Island that has been a tourist attraction? Are you gonna take a package tour for the whole island? By the way, the package tours that the agencies offer for this island goes around 1,000 – 2,000 per 4-5 in a group. That would exceed to our five hundred-peso budget.

Instead of taking those package tours, why not go there by yourselves and dare to take a day-trip with your friends or family. The whole chanllenge will begins from the heart of Visayas – Cebu City. You may start your trip from SM City Cebu for this is the only place which all Cebuanos are very familiar. From there you have two options whether to take a Van for Hire(V-Hire) or a Public Utility Jeepney(PUJ/JEEP).

For the V-hire you must take the one which route is Mepza-Opon or Mepza-Gaisano. Then the V-hire will drop you to Gaisano or sometimes they would really reach to MEPZA. From MEPZA or Gaisano, take another PUJ going to Punta Engaño and then tell the driver to take you to Movenpick or Hilton.

For those who will take the PUJ, you may take one going to MEPZA and follow the instructions from the previous paragraph or in any case that there will be scarcity with the PUJ going there, you may take one with 01K plate and then the driver will take you to the Parkmall Terminal. From Parkmall, you may wait for a jeepney going to Punta Engaño.

Once you have reached Movenpick, beside the resort is a port for pumpboats for Getafe, Bohol which you will recognize for its very long ticket lines and one for Olango Island. Purchase a ticket for Olango-Trans. It will only take 15-20 minutes water travel till you reach the port of the place. It is ok not to plan the whole thing since from the port, there are many people that could assist you with your itineraries especially the tricycle and habal-habal drivers.

From the port, you may take the habal-habal which will carry 2-3 people in one trip or the tricycle which is more comfortable and ideal for those in groups of 5-6 people. Tell the driver to take you to the Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary. Travelling time will only take 10-15 minutes depending on the drivers speed limits. You may also rent a bicycles which is very common in the area.

You will know that you are on track if you will see an arch that states “Welcome to San Vicente” and so you are en route to the Olango Marine Life Sanctuary. Once you have reached the gate of the Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary, from there you have to walk approximately 200 meters for you to get to the sanctuary itself which is a mangrove wetland with concrete platforms that are not visible during high tides and a cottage for site and bird viewing.

The reception will either ask someone to assist you and will provide binoculars but in our case, they just let us go there by ourselves which is fine with us to avoid pressure from the tourist guide. But the sad part is they did not provide binoculars to us but they provided the foreigners and the thing we know is that it is for free. Probably because we are just local tourists, discrimination in this way is tolerable though as we prefer to go there by ourselves.

                When we were there we haven’t seen migratory birds around the place, or they’re just probably behind the mangroves hiding or taking rest since it is low tide and fishes are not available for them.  We are expecting a lot though since it is winter season in the countries I have mentioned earlier. Then we decided to take pictures of the place and had a short funshoot.

                After our visit to the sanctuary, we went back to the holding area and took lunch into one of the tables they provided for the guests. There you can buy beverages preferably coconut which is very affordable. Then we went to the boat-wreck and took few pictures with it. Boat-wrecks are very common in the area but most of them were brought off-shore probably due to Typhoon Yoland(HAIYAN) and Typhoon Seniang.

               

 Then we took a walk going to the Marine Sanctuary which you will just walk approximately 150 meters till you reach the gate of the place. Then when you reach the gate you will take another walk to the boardwalk they have provided for the tourists to reach to the sanctuary. There we swam and snorkeled and saw fishes of different species. We haven’t seen huge breeds since it is low tide.

                

It was a spontaneous day-trip with my girls and is really worth-it for we have spent less than the budget we have set. So here is the breakdown of the amount we have spent given that the packed lunch is from our homes so we did not spend any for our consumption and brought our own snorkeling kit:

-          Jeepney (SM-Engaño)                                P 26.00

-          Olango-Trans ticket(round trip)                 P 30.00

-          Terminal Fee(round trip)                            P 6.00

-        Marine Sanctuary Entry                           P 75.00 (if you will snorkel) P 35.00 (for site viewing only)

-          Tricycle (going to bird sanctuary)              P 24.00 (P 120.00 for 5)

-          Bird Sanctuary Entry                                  P 30.00

-          Coconut                                                   P 25.00

-          Habal-Habal (back to the port)                P 30.00

-          Jeepney back to SM City Cebu                P 26.00

                                    TOTAL                   P 272.00

                                    DIFFERENCE       P 228.00              

Since we still have extra from our budget, we took sidetrip to the Cebu Yacht Club to see the beauty that mactan channel offers and had our dinner there in  the Bucket Shrimps and ordered buttered shrimps and spicy chicken wings in small buckets.

The view from the Cebu Yacht Club

Cebu Yacht Club

Concrete platforms going to the viewing deck

From the left my girlefriends Jackie, Janine, Myca of Alyssanity.com and Abbie

The boardwalk going to the Marine Life Sanctuary