Wanderworld

After our exhilaratingly fun Mayon ATV adventure, we headed straight to Donsol, Sorsogon for our firefly river watching tour.

Firefly river watching is a popular activity in Donsol, apart from the whale shark interaction. Aboard a small boat, you cruise through Ogod River in the dark and stop in front of the trees lining up the river and wait for the fireflies to appear. The tour costs Php 1,250 per boat and is available every day from 5 to 9 pm.

The Experience

Before the cruise, we were treated with a spectacular sunset view from our resort (Vitton Beach Resort) and at the firefly river watching site as well. We had to wait for our turn because there were actually a lot of people in line for the activity.

The boat can have a maximum of 5 passengers, but the three of us (Dee, Joseph and I) had the boat to ourselves. It was somehow scary to sail through the river in the dark; there was no light except for the moon and the stars and the lamp of the boatmen, which they only use when there’s an oncoming boat.

The darkness and stillness of the night can actually make you paranoid during the cruise; while I was thinking of ghost apparitions and crocodiles suddenly jumping out on us in the dark, Dee was terrified of anacondas and was actually mentally preparing her self-defense techniques when the boatman seemingly took us to a different route. Hahaha.

But the suspense of it all starts when the boat stops in front of the lined trees on the river and you wait for the spectacle to begin. In the quiet of the night, all the tourists waited with bated breath in their respective boats and watched out for the littlest hint of a glimmer from the trees.

After a few minutes, the spectacular display began: the fireflies started appearing one by one, above and around the trees, flickering in the dark like Christmas lights. One by one too, the tourists scrambled in their boats to get a shot of the extraordinary lights show, but only a few successfully captured the scene because of poor lightning (note: flash isn’t allowed).

As for us, after several not-so-good attempts of taking pictures, we just decided to content ourselves with the rare beauty of nature that’s right in front of us; after all, it’s not every day that we got to marvel at such wonderful creation up close.

**Notes:

The actual firefly watching takes less than 30 minutes; afterward, you’ll be taken back to the registration area.

Don’t expect to see an overwhelming amount of fireflies. Some say visibility is better if the moon can hardly be seen because the light from the moon makes the fireflies less visible.

How to Commute from Albay to Donsol, Sorsogon

If you wish to do a Mayon ATV adventure and Donsol firefly river watching in one day like we did, here are some tips to keep in mind:

• From Cagsawa in Daraga, Albay, hail a tricycle to take you to the van terminal going to Donsol.
• At the terminal, there are various vans bound for different areas in Sorsogon. When we arrived though, there wasn’t any heading straight to Donsol, so we were told to take the Pilar van then and alight at Putiao, which is around 20 minutes away from Donsol.

The van would normally wait for passengers first before leaving. Luckily for us, the driver decided to leave even if the van was only half-full.

• The van ride took less than two hours and we alighted at Putiao as instructed. From there, we were supposed to take a jeep to Donsol town proper. However, as we asked locals nearby, they said it’s best if we just take a tricycle straight to Vitton Beach Resort because the resort is still far from the town proper. We found this to be true as the resort’s located at the far end of the town. We actually passed the firefly river watching site going to the resort. It’s best therefore to book other resorts near the town proper if you’re just going to Donsol for firefly river watching.

*Travel date: April 2015

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