Camiguin

Camiguin's recorded history begins with Spanish settlement in the late sixteenth century, when missionaries and soldiers established themselves on an island already inhabited by Manobo and Kamigin people and raided from the sea. Small towns grew at Guinsiliban, Sagay, Catarman and later Mambajao around coral-stone churches and watchtowers, living on coconut, abaca and fishing while remaining a remote dependency of Misamis on the Mindanao mainland.

The island's defining events were volcanic. An eruption recorded in 1871 opened a new vent close to the old capital at Catarman: over the following years the mountain now known as Mount Vulcan built itself up, the town was destroyed and abandoned, and part of the coast subsided far enough to take the cemetery below sea level, leaving the church a roofless shell and the graves under the water. Survivors moved inland and along the coast, and Mambajao, on the northern shore, grew into the island's main port and eventually its capital, prosperous enough in the early twentieth century to leave a stock of wooden houses with wide eaves.

Hibok-Hibok erupted repeatedly in the late 1940s and, in December 1951, sent a searing flow down its northern slopes; more than three thousand people were killed in the sequence of eruptions from 1948, and thousands more left the island. An observatory run by the national volcanology institute has watched the mountain since. Camiguin was separated from Misamis Oriental and made a province in its own right in 1966, and tourism has grown steadily since the 1990s alongside farming and fishing.

Camiguin is Cebuano-speaking and overwhelmingly Catholic, and the parish calendar sets the rhythm of island life. The best-known expression of this is the Holy Week pilgrimage in which people walk the full circuit of the ring road overnight, praying at stations set along the coast — a devotion that draws returning islanders from Cagayan de Oro, Manila and abroad. Each of the five municipalities also keeps its own patronal fiesta, with a Mass, a procession, brass bands, basketball and tables of food in family houses.

The island's other great communal occasion is the Lanzones Festival in October, a harvest celebration for the small sweet fruit that grows well on volcanic soil. Dancers wear costumes made from leaves and fruit, and contingents from the towns compete in street dancing through Mambajao. Both events reflect a culture that is family-centred and outward-looking at once: many households depend on relatives working in the cities or overseas, and returns for fiesta and Christmas are a fixed part of the year.

Manners follow the wider Philippine pattern — indirect speech, the mano gesture of touching an elder's hand to one's forehead, titles rather than first names for older people, and an assumption that a visitor will be fed. Because the island is small and everyone is known, the informal social controls are strong, and visitors are noticed and greeted rather than ignored.

About 95,000 people live in Camiguin, making it the second-least populous province in the Philippines after Batanes, spread over five municipalities on an island of roughly 240 square kilometres. Mambajao holds the provincial capitol, the hospital, the banks, the schools and about a third of the population; the rest live in coastal barangays along the ring road, with a scatter of inland settlements on the volcanic slopes.

The economy rests on farming, fishing and tourism. Coconut, lanzones and other fruit, rice and vegetables grow on rich volcanic ground, and the lanzones crop is a significant part of the annual household income for many families. Fishermen work the Bohol Sea in outriggers, and the lagoon at Benoni supports fish pens. Tourism, concentrated on the resort strip west of Mambajao and on boat trips to the sandbar and Mantigue, now employs a large share of young islanders as guides, boat crew and resort staff, though it is seasonal and weather-dependent. Many families also live partly on money sent home from Cagayan de Oro, Manila or abroad.

The day starts early, with the market and the school run before the heat. Power and water supply, the reliability of ferry crossings, and pressure on reefs and beaches from growing visitor numbers are the recurring local issues, alongside the permanent business of living beside an active volcano on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Camiguin eats what the sea and the volcanic soil give it. Fish dominates: grilled over coals, simmered in a sour broth as sinigang, or served raw as kinilaw, cured in vinegar with onion, ginger and chilli. Squid, crab and shellfish appear alongside, and chicken or pork adobo, braised in vinegar, soy and garlic, is the standard alternative. Rice comes with everything, and cheap canteens known as carinderia serve several dishes from trays at the market and along the main road.

A local speciality is pastel, a soft bun filled with yema — a thick custard of egg yolk and condensed milk — baked in Mambajao and sold in boxes to take home. It is the usual gift brought back from the island, and the bakeries make versions with other fillings as well. The other export is lanzones, a small translucent fruit in clusters that is widely held to be sweeter here than elsewhere in the country; the harvest in September and October is celebrated with its own festival.

Sweet and starchy snacks fill the gaps between meals: rice cakes steamed in banana leaf, cassava and coconut puddings, halo-halo shaved ice with beans and fruit, and strong sweet coffee. Tuba, fermented coconut sap, is still drunk in the villages, while the resort strip pours beer and rum.