sohoton lagoon
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sohoton lagoon印象
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feels like Palawan... glassy water perfect for some SUP and snorkel exploring. Best to enjoy if you join an organised trip, need a boat to get there.
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This was quite a long trip, about 2 1/2 hours each way. The lagoon is beautiful!! The tour to the jellyfish was very quick , only 15mins. You cannot swim or snorkel there, so I was a little sad about that. The cave trip was pretty quick too, but was beautiful and fun. I would recommend it to a friend, but make sure they know it's very expensive and time consuming to get there and only get to stay for about 1 1/2 hour.
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We were based in Surigao, as we had family there, borrowed an SUV and drove down to Sohoton, arranged a package tour with Cinnamon Island Resort which included the boat that will pick us up at Hayanggabon port and back, all inclusive of the fees at Sohoton Lagoon Center.I'm a fan of pitcherplants (Nepenthes) and my cousins told me I can see them in the wild in Sohoton, my dad would tell us stories about pitcherplants being so common along the side of the highway, so even on the drive to Claver I was hoping I can catch a glimpse of them, but I guess they do shy away from development. But as soon as we entered the hidden lagoon through the Cave that is not passable during high tide, the guide started pointing them to us. This was like their Jurrasic park, where they thrive and are protected by the national park status. Yes we also did have fun doing the popular attractions and caves. We visited the cave with water that glows in the dark, which was nice, though I imagined they were bioluminescent planktons when the guide described it, but realized that the Sunlight gets reflected by the white sand under the cave making the water glow. Our companions who didn't want to get wet, chose to stay at the mount of the cave though. The name of the cave "Hagukan cave" apparently came from the noise it makes when the wind and tide is just right, and you can hear the snoring sound. The next cave was renamed "Diving cave" though I know there is a more traditional name for it before. It was of course converted already so that people can climb inside and then up and onto a wooden ledge where you have to dive into the water. The Guide would actually warn people that if you are afraid of heights or to jump, better not go up, as it would be more difficult to climb down if you chicken out. I'm slightly acrophobic, but with just slippers (making it way harder to climb down) and with my brother and nephew jumping ahead of me and the rest ready to take photos, I had to jump. :) After you do it, of course it gives you a nice high! Oh and the diving cave does have some bats, which the guide said are one of the smallest bats in the world. Do not worry they will not get into your hair, you have helmets! :) It was actually the first time for me to go spelunking, meaning having to climb through with the need to wear a helmet. After we finished doing the caves, I had a special request that we go near one of the pitcher plants just to have a close up photo taken. I would not suggest this to everyone though coz you will need to stand on the Boat and even then I was just tall enough to have my picture taken with the pitchers in frame. For a fan of these plants, that was enough for me. Oh, and no picking of the plants or the pitchers.After we returned to the tourist center, we then boarded the smaller paddled banka to get to the jellyfish lake. They warned us that there were not so many this time, and they also mentioned they do not allow swimming with them as the chemicals from sunblock can probably affect them. It was just a short easy paddle by the boatman/guide and we were inside another cove. What most writeups and articles don't mention is that within the Jellyfish cove (lake) there are a lot of fruit bats! Yup flying foxes roosting on the trees, they make a nice eearie call. Again, remember my Juarrasic park analogy? :) Our boatmen then started pointing out the jellyfishes. There were moon jellies and brown ones, I think we saw maybe two or three species of jellyfishes, and they don't sting. I'd really recommend not picking them up out of the water though, I think they would be more in danger with people doing this than sunblock. They don't make for a good photo when they are out of the water anyway, trust me. Now if you want an excuse or reason not to go swimming with them aside from the Sunblock being bad for them? My Aunt's boatman said that some time ago (not sure when, it was lost in the story) they caught two juvenile crocodiles in the cove :) Could have been before I was born though. But apparently he was caught by the DENR when he tried to peddle the Crocs in Surigao, so that might be a bit recent! hehehe!After we had our fill looking for the few jellies, yes disappointing, but then we don't get to go there often, so we felt lucky we saw around 5 individuals, small and big. We then started going around the cliff face to enjoy the pitcherplants which are also present. Again difficult to stand up on the boat of course. Yes they do say there is a season for them, when they are quite numerous, but I am not sure when that is, for sure September isn't one of them, or then again they said that when it rains, they tend to stay deeper. An added bonus with the one boat per person for the jellyfish tour is that, the boatmen would have extra oars. So once we were out of the jellyfish cove (don't do this inside the cove) we stopped, lined up and ask the boatmen to not help us, we had a race to back to the tourist center. I came in 3rd, well technically last, but the ladies had help from their boatmen. :)We then went to Cinnamon Island Resort for Lunch, and of course they were all seafoods, which were great for City folks like us. After lunch, though we really wanted to relax on the hammocks of the resort, we decided to borrow a boat to go exploring. We didn't even have time to go snorkelling, as we were just wading around and found a Filefish and a few shrimpfishes. We also saw a small banded Sea Krait which was relatively friendly, allowing us to take it's picture before swimming off.We had so much fun exploring, that time passed so quickly, we knew we couldn't do the other activities like boating in an inland lake/lagoon, specially as it involved a bit of a trek and we only had slippers, so after saying bye to our host at the resort, we asked our boatman to just pass by Club Tara and Hidden Island resort, before going back to Hayanggabon port. We were so tired that even the sound of the aircooled engines couldn't prevent us from dozing off what with very flat seas all the way back.TIPS:1. I am a pack rat, I arrived surigao with a big dive bag full of snorkel gear and PFD for my Mom. Unfortunately Manila to Surigao flights use small aircrafts, you don't get much baggage allowance, in fact we didn't have any and had to buy 10kg for P700. BUT, at the tourist center in Sohoton, you can rent Snorkel gear for P100, PFD also is available for rent or I think included in boat fee for the Sohoton lagoon tour. But still I prefer to use my own gear anyway.2. If you plan to go inland like to Tiktikan lake, then bring beach shoes or some kind of waterproof footwear. Even just climbing the Diving cave is a bit hard with slippers. 3. Tip your guide, boatmen, etc. there is no requirement, but I imagine P50 to P100 for a job well done should be about right, right? I was told that many of the guides and boatmen are dynamite fishermen, who the Dept. of tourism and local government are trying to teach and help find a better, less destructive source of income. 4. Bring snacks and drinks, specially if you are renting a whole boat for your group, you can bring snacks and drinks as much as you want or can fit the boat. On the other hand the Tourist center does sell refreshments, and it is also sometimes nice to help the local economy.
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Not a first timer in this place but I always love to visit sohoton!The beauty of sohoton is irreplaceable... The glowing water inside the cave. The jellyfish. The rock formations (stalagmites and stalactites), very excellent!
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Swimming with stingless jellyfish, swimming into a cave glowing with neon green light, clambering up rocks with the only way down being jumping into the water from about 10 ft high--- what's there not to love about Sohoton?Although there were only a few jellyfish during this time of the year, the novelty of swimming in the lagoon with them was wonderful. You can hold them, but be careful not to lift them out of the water as they supposedly lose their tentacles.Tips-Bring cash. You will still have to pay for bancas to take you around once you get to the lagoon. Plus tips for the boatmen. We paid P2200 for a party of 7 to do both the lagoon and the caves.Bring food and water. Although some refreshments are sold at the loading area, best to have your own.Best to wear aqua shoes for climbing the rocks as it's slippery; however, most of us managed with flipflops.Waterproof bag is good to put all these things in.Best to visit in the morning. Tour takes approximately 4 hours. This leaves you with time to surf in Cloud 9 in the afternoon.
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we went here around 10 am last April, from Hayanggabon Pier in Claver, Surigao del Norte, as the local say its nearer and since we have children and most of our group are nervous of the choppy sea waves as Hayanggabon is nearer than in Surigao City. I been here in Sohoton Cove twice, the first one was during low tide. The 2nd time the water is still starting to ebb & that's the real adventure and thrill begin when going inside the Hagok Cove. The mouth of Hagok Cove still covered by sea so the guides told us swim deep, dont resurface or bob your head for 1 minute or you will be hit by the sharp stalactites. With this advice, and not really believing my swimming & taking long breath capacities I went inside anyway and never regret as the cove was beautiful, the water was luminous. very nice experience..
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I've been here a few times and Sohoton Lagoon (Bucas Grande Island) never fails to enchant me. The water around the island especially in the lagoons is clean and crystal clear you could see through it. Colorful sea creatures can be seen below. We visited a couple of caves; the Crystal cave and the Magkukuob ( kuob-to duck). Be prepared to jump off the side of Magkukuob cave (exit) into the water to return to your boat otherwise you'd have a hard time going back the way you entered as the way and up and out of the cave (also the way down) is a bit slippery and narrow and climbing down is harder than climbing up. There are beautiful stalactites and stalagmites inside so if the entrance to the cave is not submerged bring your camera with you to get plenty of photos of those and you of course. We wanted to swim with some jellyfish but swimming is not allowed but then again there weren't that many of them so the guide took us to another lagoon which was a bit open where we could swim with a couple of jellyfish.We visited different beaches around Bucas Grande Island and had a great time exploring,swimming and just taking in the views. During low tide pump/boats couldn't beach so our pumpboat operator anchored 20 meters away from the beach and like 15 meters away from a rock cliff where we could swim in the blue water safely. It was a great experience!We took a pumpboat ride from Hayanggabon, Claver. We hired a pumpboat from there for around 4,500 pesos for a day and a half. Another time, we hired one for 3,700 pesos for a day. Even if your group had hired a boat you still have to pay for the boat ride inside the lagoons as only small boats are allowed inside. There are other fees as well. Won't set you back that much.
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The trip was really great though twas a bit a long trip, like an hour, from General Luna. The boat was really great, credits to Outdoor Adventure Siargao as well as the food, credits to Romantic Beach Villas, they've been in great service. The boat rental costs 10k divided by number of people going, 6pax min and 9pax max. They also tie it up with food catered by the villa costing 950 per pax excluding drinks on the go. There were also crew from the villa to serve the guests on board.Anyhow, going back to the trip, when we reach the station in Bucas Grande, where we need to register and pay for the fees, since it is under government protected area, we need to ride small boat to go through the lagoon. Going to the lagoon itself was tricky because it has to be on a low tide to go across inside and out the entrance cave.Twas like passing through a secret gate.After passing through, we sailed across the bluegreen clear lagoon waters while the tour guide was introducing some land marks, some rare plants and some rock build ups. Taking note of what they call "the horse foot", if im not mistaken. It's like a rock build ups hanging on the edge of the cliff. It stands to be the landmark that would tell that the entrance is near, as what the tour guide said. the entrance will be our exit too.The next activity was the Snoring/Hagukan cave, where we jumped off the boat and swim through it since it's a bit low. There were stalactites that looked like snake heads and the structure of the cave explains why it is called the snoring cave since it's a closed cave. it vacuums the air inside and makes a snoring noise when water hits end part of the cave together with the water drops from the ceiling. The water was cold and refreshing anyways.The next activity was Magkukuob cave, we need to walk through it. Then when we reach inside like 10meters, we need to climb a narrow and stiff passage. I was really excited to go through that path but i felt a bit disappointed and hanged when we reached the top cause we're out and the next thing to do is jump off the cliff which is right beside the entrance of the cave. Twas a bit high and a bit painful upon hitting the water.After that we head back to the station and had lunch. We didn't go to the jellyfish sanctuary since twas not season for the jellyfish.Im trying to write up to my heart's content and might change people's expectations about the cave adventure, well, in the first place it's a lagoon behind a cave passage, the other caves are just the activities in the lagoon. It will not be your dreamed long inside cave adventure but more of a lagoon strolling adventure.Well, twas all in all a great trip specially going back to General Luna as the sunset was behind our back.It would be great if you'll try it too just don't expect too much on inside cave activity, it'll be brief for sure, just enjoy it all together.
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wow! it was such a paradise and probably world class attraction, everywhere you look was amazing and the stingless jellyfish sanctuary was one of the best for me because i was able to swim with them and even touch it with no sting at all. I was also able to experience jumping from a 15 foot platform and plunge into a 15-20 feet deep clear water even though i do not know how to swim and with no life jacket. it was really amazing and worth a nother trip back to this paradise
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BACKGROUND:I wasn't expecting much traveling with office friends to northern mindanao region. Being from Metro Manila, all I am exposed to are the "usual" local destinations like Palawan, Bohol, Baguio, Boracay, etc. So to put some context to my review... I wasn't expecting too much.Our first stop after landing in Butuan airport was here in Sohoton. I've been to the waters of palawan (underwater river), batangas (diving), bohol (panglao), and cebu. So i'm familiar being off the coast. THE GOODWell, what greeted us was a wonderful sight. An area of many islands that we visited by a small pump boat. There are a few destinations along the way which may or may not be accessible depending if it is low or high tide. Thus plan the time when you get there so that you can explore the caves who's entrances are only accessible when it is low tide. So i've asked... why haven't I heard this before! THE BADThere are a few other adventures that we decided not to do like jelly fish watching... there was an area there that was suppose to be full of jelly fish. But, unfortunately, due to the tourism activity... jelly fish numbers were dwindling... The main culprit, sunblock/sunscreen that gets into the water and ingredients of these lotions are toxic to jelly fish.BUT WAIT THERE'S MOREGo to the Hidden Island Resort to end your day. They accept day trip visitors where you can swim in the clear sea waters safely in the resort for a minimal fee. This is also a good place for taking pictures specially during sunset.