Surigao Adventure: Day 2 - Sohoton National Park / Bucas Grande Island

Whole day of Day 2 will be spent in Bucas Grande Island as per our initial itinerary.  This is located at the lower part of Siargao Island as you can see in the map from my previous blog but still these are part of Surigao del Norte.  Bucas Grande Island tour or also known as the Sohoton National Park tour is where you get to see various caves, lakes, lagoon and the one of a kind stingless jellyfish.

From Revlun Pension House, based from my research, we will just take a tricycle for about 30 minutes travel to reach Hayanggabon Port where boats are situated and the starting point for Bucas Grande Island tour.  Since it was a Good Friday, there were very limited transportation around.  We had difficulty in finding a tricycle.  There was even no any transportation in the Claver Terminal.  A few habal-habal were parked so we just asked them if they could take us to Hayanggabon port.  I know their rate will be expensive compared to tricycle but we are left with no choice.  This was my boyfriend's first habal-habal ride.  More details on transportation from Claver to Hayanggabon port here.

It was a Good Friday, almost no vehicles in sight

Once in Hayanggabon port, we met with our boatman, Kuya Vincent.  His rate was Php 3,500 for the tour for 2 pax with pick up and drop off at Hayanggabon Port and inclusive of all the fees.  Lunch was not included so we just packed some canned goods.  A day before, he advise us if another couple can join us in the tour, thinking the rate will be lowered since there will already be 4 of us, I agreed.  But when I confirmed, rate will still be the same.  I just let it pass, saying let it be our help on Surigao's tourism.  Besides, it is supposed to be a holiday (Good Friday), so it must be double pay work, we joked.

 

Kuya Vicent accompanied bigger group on a separate boat so he left us with Kuya Joxen as our tour guide (he does tours as well separately from Kuya Vincent but we wasn't able to ask how much his rate).  It took us about 45 minutes boat ride before we reach our destination.  Below are the tours we visited from Kuya Vincent's package, in order:

Tiktikan Lake
Crystal Cave
Bolitas Cave
Beach
Sohoton Cove - Horseshoe landmark
Hagukan Cove
Magkakuob Cove
Jellyfish Sanctuary
Coral Reefs Snorkeling
Island hopping: Club Tara, Cantiles Island (?), Hidden Resort

Please click each destination for my blog about it.

Here are our Day 2 expenses, good for 2:

Habal-habal to Hayanggabon port - Php 200 (20 minutes)
Water at Tiktikan Lake - Php 20
Tour - Php 3,500
Lunch - Php700
Tip to boatmen - Php 200
Lucky me - Php 40
Tinapay - Php 20
Water - Php 25
Balot - Php 17
Tinapay - Php 14

Total for Day 2:  Php 4,736

Day 1 expenses: Php 2,151

Total so far: Php 6,887

We brought some canned goods for our lunch but Kuya Vincent offers lunch to be cooked which was not included in the package.  So these canned goods were eaten for our dinner along with the breads we bought (there's no rice to be bought that night near our hotel since its a Good Friday, most stores are closed).

Here are the numbers of our boatmen:
Kuya Vincent -0930.802.8704
Kuya Joxen - 0909.204.4829

Other boatmen I inquired for the Sohoton tour:
Samy - 0907.715.7134 (rate Php 3,500 for 2, tours only)
Keni - 0939.438.0618 (rate Php 3,000 for 2, tours only)
Dodo (Sohoton Tourism Office) - 0939.904.7019 (rate Php 4,950 for 2, tours and fees)