Miro’s blog

Limasawa is famous as it is believed to be the site of the first mass in the philippine soil, officiated on Easter Sunday of March 31, 1521 by Father Pedro de Valderrama under the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan. The island is one of the early Pacific contact sites between the East and the West.

Limasawa, small island of historic importance near the island of Leyte, east-central Philippines. Located about 4 miles (6 km) off the southern tip of the island of Leyte just outside the mouth of Sogod Bay, Limasawa rises to about 700 feet (200 m).

It is the tallest bridge in the Philippines. With a length of about 350 meters (1,150 ft) and a height of 89 meters (292 ft) above ground, the center span of the structure measures 177 meters (581 ft) in length supported by two piers measuring 73 meters (240 ft) and 75 meters (246 ft) from the ground. Surprisingly, this is actually the most magnificent haven of the longest zipline in the flashy territorial boundaries of Eastern Visayas. 

Aside from these interesting facts about the Agas Agas Bridge in Southern Leyte, this very promising tourist destination has a spacious parking space, food kiosks and a marvelous tourist pavilion which have the intentions of welcoming countless voyagers from across the globe as they excitedly arrive in this par excellance tourist attraction of the Visayas.  Along this line, the Agas Agas Bridge has been deservingly dubbed by travelers as the “Playground of the Visayas Region”. This is the major reason why the well-motivated key players of this tourist wonderland in Southern Leyte, had originally planned to make this adrenalin-pumping point of interest to be the best place ever for these heart pumping recreational activities like downhill skateboarding, paramotor, zip lining and rappelling among others.

Next bus stop: Limasawa

From Hitoog Cave, a habal-habal driver offered to bring us to Karap-agan Falls in Sitio Mahayahay of Barangay Elevado. Being located in Mahayahay, some people started calling it Mahayahay Falls.

By the way, the falls is closer to the town proper compared to Hitoog Cave.

From the road, I crossed Esperanza River twice to get to Karap-agan Falls. Along the way was a stunning amalgamation of greens. The reflection of the foliage on the serene surface of Esperanza created a vision of an enchanting world.

Karap-Agan is a two-tiered waterfall. With safety in mind, I carefully searched my way up to the middle section of the falls. Up there is a deep pool created by the strong pressure of the upper tier. The powerful current and the slippery rocks limited my movements.

To Agas-agas Bridge

Hitoog Cave

From the highway, we traveled along a mix of paved and unpaved road. It was more of a rough ride though. Hitoog Cave is more than 4 kilometers away from the highway.

Hitoog Cave features a cave pool, which water source is a spring. Fronting it is an array of makeshift cottages and a man-made swimming pool. The swimming pool serves as a catch basin of the water overflow from the cave, channeled using PVC pipes. With the natural and man-made pools, guests to Hitoog can enjoy two swimming options.

However, despite being quite hard to reach, the cave goes jam-packed especially on long weekends.

Habal-habal to Kalap-agan Falls

Canigao Island is uninhabited, featuring a lighthouse as its only significant man-made structure. The beaches have white sand, with tropical sea creatures and extensive coral reef in the surrounding waters. The climate is tropical and similar to that found in other areas of the Philippine islands. These natural features often attract tourists and scuba divers, who arrive at the island by traveling from Matalom (in the province of Leyte).

The western and northern part of Canigao island is placed under nature protection as a sanctuary. Due to this, activities such as swimming, diving, fishing, snorkeling, and boating in the protected areas are limited by law.

Big outrigger boats transport up to 60 passengers from Matalom to Canigao and vice versa. The tourism office collect ₱105 per person, wherein ₱65 is the two-way fare and the remaining ₱40 is the environmental fee.

After boat ride: Hitoog Cave and Karap-agan Falls

Tacloban City is known now a days because of the historic landing of General Douglas MacArthur in Leyte Gulf at the start of the campaign to recapture and liberate the Philippines  from Japanese occupation on 20 October 1944.  Tacloban City is also known because of the tragedy that happened on 8 November 2013, the city was largely destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan(Bagyong Yolanda), having previously suffered similar destruction and loss of life but despite of the wrecks that happened they manage to stand up and made the wrecks a beauty and a memory. This is what I saw when I went there in Tacloban City, the  M/V Eva Jocelyn Shrine,  the memorial marker of the typhoon Yolanda’s blow in Tacloban City.The local government left this remnant of the ship as a reminder of the tragedy in this residential area. It’s been a while but I can still feel the peoples sadness. Also one of their tourist attraction was the San Juanico Bridge which is  longest bridge in the Philippines. It measures about 2200 meters long.

Next bus stop: Matalom, Leyte