Remembering the Best of Catanduanes

A friend of mine is so allured with Catanduanes Island and knowing that I have a bit of a knack for traveling, she asked if I knew of any attractions in it. I wished she could’ve been more specific but vague questions like that take me back to the years I had spent in the island – the days when everything seems as easy as the waves touching the old docks with that familiar ocean splash.

I did spend about a couple of years in Catanduanes somewhere from 2000 to 2001 when I joined a company called Health Network Incorporated. Our team was sent to the island to embark on the fresh ground for the marketing purposes of our reflexology machines to doctors and locals. There were four of us in the team, and we found a staff house just a few meters away from the Pacific Ocean on the left and equidistant to the right is the Catanduanes Town Market. There, a number of tricycles and jeeps can take you anywhere you wanna go on the island.

I can vividly remember the day I set my foot on the old pier of Catanduanes. It was lunchtime – because there are only two travel slots to choose from, one in the morning with ETA of lunchtime and one in the afternoon with ETA at early dinner time. Our first lunch was spent in one of the small stalls in the market, which is about 5 minutes ride from the pier. The food was yum, although most are cooked from carabao meat because that seems to be the island’s main meat source. Pork is rare and is usually imported from the ‘mainland’ which is the third district of Albay, hence its high cost.

Our work is to ‘zone’ our area, thereby allowing us to go from one place to the other. Young and energetic that we all are, we would always inject a side trip to some discovery-worthy places as recommended by the locals whom we get in contact with. Our very first few trips were spent in the city proper, learning where the important go-to places on the island which are almost city-centric. Catanduanes has a charming beauty with the combination of abundant nature and rich funds as exhibited by the huge government and church edifices. Everything seems to be huge in here but the malls which remain to be a one-floor type of establishments.

There are also important establishments we have visited like the Catanduanes Fortune, Catanduanes Hemp, Catanduanes Inn, and the Catanduanes Chicken House which transforms into the only disco house in the island at night. These are establishments are the longest in the trade and are owned by the richest locals on the island.

In our daily routes, we have seen the Maribina Falls, the Luyang Cave, the pinkish sand of Armenia Beach, and the Bato Church. Of course, we wouldn’t forget about the black sand on the shores of the town where we spent our breaks and weekends – swimming, playing, bickering, and/or shell picking.

At the time, there are just a few accommodations in the island. Among the most popular to salespeople are Marems, Catanduanes Inn, and Twin Rock.

There are no food chains in the island but there are few local food stops like the Chicken House.

Over the course of our stay in Catanduanes, I fell in love with its beauty and can say that it is a home far away from home.