Loading ...Siargao Mindanao
After several days of either riding the waves or simply watching others take them on, your mission to decompress and take it easy accomplished, it’s still difficult to pack up and leave. Siargao (shar-gao) is the kind of place that seems to give off a magnetic force, transforming weekend-long stays into weeks or for the handful of foreign surfing lifers now calling the island home, forever. Time spent here makes you ask the existential question, ‘Why can’t I do this every day for the rest of my life?’
Until recently, when Siargao was plucked from relative obscurity by officials hoping to make it one of the shining stars in the Philippines’ tourism firmament, the only visitors were Filipino day-trippers and seriously laid-back and committed Aussie and American surfers. Land values have gone up tenfold in the last ten years and the Cloud Nine surf break is now on the international surfing trail map. Siargao has plenty of natural attractions for nonsurfers too: beaches and rock pools, extensive mangrove swamps, inland forest and waterfalls. Wildlife includes tarsiers, flying lemurs and monitor lizards. Attractive islands are nearby, especially Bucas Grande with Sohoton Cave. This is not the island for people seeking an active nightlife, but the resorts are enough for a quiet sunset drink or two.
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