Category: Southeast Luzon

The southern Luzon peninsula of Bicol is home to two of the Philippines’ emblematic tourist attractions: the whale sharks of Donsol and the regal – and deadly – Mt Mayon volcano.

Naga, in Camarines Sur, is one of Luzon’s hipper commercial centres. Its wide streets meander instead of sticking to a conventional grid pattern, while the use of podyak – push tricycles – reigns in the tricycle madness just a little. University students abound, and many of them have sports like mountain biking and rock climbing on their résumés. An abundance of Western-style coffee shops and snazzy, upmarket eateries only enhance the cosmopolitan feel.

This gritty provincial capital sits right at the foot of Mt Mayon (2462m), justifiably dubbed the world’s most perfect volcano.

Until the ‘discovery’ of whale sharks off the coast here in 1998, Donsol, about 45km southwest of Legaspi, was an obscure, sleepy fishing village in one of Sorsogon’s more remote areas. In 1998 a local diver shot a video of the whale sharks and a newspaper carried a story about Donsol’s gentle butanding. Since then Donsol has become one of the Philippines’ most popular tourist locations.