Ninth Stop: We Roam in Palompon (Leyte)

After our trip to Camiguin and a trip to Cagayan de Oro, we were set to visit another province closer to Cebu and close to Sheena’s heart. We visited, Palompon, Leyte!

Palompon is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Leyte, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 50,754 people in 10,790 households. Palompon is 124 Kilometer (road distance) from Tacloban City, the provincial capital of Leyte Province, 66 Kilometers from Ormoc City, the commercial growth center of the western coast of Leyte province and 72 nautical miles from Cebu City.


The land area of Palompon is 128.46 Kilometers, or 12,845.58 hectares. The municipality has fifty (50) barangays, ten (10) of which, are poblacion barangays of an area of approximately two square kilometers. The other (40) barangays are distributed along the coastline and the interior rural and mountainous areas.


more info here

Getting There:
To get to Palompon, there are slow boats that take about 6 hours direct from Cebu City to Palompon. Most days there is only one boat trip. That is the cheapest way.

There is also a roll on roll off ferry that travels once a day from Bogo in Northern Cebu to Palompon. So, you could catch a bus from Cebu to Bogo then catch the ferry.

My preferred method from Cebu City to Palompon is to travel on the Supercat to Ormoc City. It is the most comfortable and at about P800 all up to Palompon, the most expensive way.

The trip:
Palompon is the hometown of Sheena’s mom. Sheena spent most of her highschool life there after St. Joseph’s School Mandaue burned down. So she transferred to Palompon to finish highschool.

I had mixed emotions pursuing this trip. I was excited to visit a new place but I was all scared (I could pee my pants) to the thought that I will be meeting (informally) Sheena’s relatives. I was never comfortable meeting new people that way. Anyway, we still pushed through with the trip since I had all the time in my life after resigning from my previous work in a BPO company.

Sheena was supposed to write this article since she had all the information intact about the place but she did not want to be bias on her article so she mercilessly begged me to write about our trip in Palompon. I was the “newcomer”, so I had to write the article. So I willingly (no, I did not. We argued over it.) agreed to write the article and here is how the trip went.

We visited Palompon for a number of reasons. One was a house blessing. Second was a semi-homecoming of Sheena’s cousin who arrived from the United States. Third was just to spend the remaining days of summer 2010 and the fourth reason was to check out Kalanggaman Island as I’ve heard a lot about it and have seen some good pictures from it.

We started the trip with the house blessing. Not the most comfortable gathering I could be in as most people arriving know each other. My mouth was shut and that does not happen too often. 🙂 Anyway, I was just enjoying my food, beer and meeting some new people.

The next day, Sheena’s cousins decided to check out Baybayon ni Agalon in Albuera Leyte. You can read all about our trip to Baybayon ni Agalon in this link.

The day after that, one of Sheena’s friend dropped by their house to invite us to join a Mural Painting contest in Northern Leyte College. I don’t know what got into her mind but maybe she knew that I knew how to draw. When was that last time a drew a mural? It was year 2004 for a school project. Oh yes I did a piece for a graffiti contest just last March 2010 but that does not qualify as a mural. Anyway, we joined the contest but we did not win though but it was all for pure fun and bonding. I was not able to take pictures as I did not bother bringing my camera as I know I’m really messy when I work with paints and my precious camera would be soaked in paint if I bothered bringing it. If I can ask Sheena’s friend to take a picture of the mural we drew, we will post it here.

After spending the whole day painting the mural, Sheena’s friends decided to take a quick dip in San Juan, Beach Resort a public beach in Palompon. A couple bottles of beer here and there, coupled with barbeque and chips plus some small talks with Sheena’s friend was what I needed to relax a bit. As days passed, I was getting a bit comfortable in Palompon and getting my skin sun burnt to every space left in it.

Sunset in San Juan Beach

Summer of 2010 was really humid and we really felt it in Palompon. We were looking into take another dip in San Juan but Sheena’s friends had other plans. They decided to go to Jordan Spring in Villaba, Leyte (Villaba is roughly 10kms from Palompon). Who can refuse a cold spring on a humid summer? Definitely not me, so we tagged along! It was a long motorcycle ride but when we reached the place, all I wanted to do was soak myself in the cold spring. I fell in love with hot springs and cold springs in Camiguin and I was dying to take a dip in Jordan Spring’s waters to try it out and it did not disappoint.

We spent the whole afternoon in Jordan Spring and went home just in time for some photo opportunity with the sunset in Villaba.

Me and Sheena playing at Jordan Spring’s poolside

Villaba Leyte’s Sunset

Every day of our stay in Palompon was never spoiled any moment as every day we visited places every now and then.

As we are nearing our trip back to Cebu, I have been urging Sheena to ask her friends to come with us in going to Kalanggaman Island as that was my major reason why I joined her in Palompon. They loved the idea but Sheena’s family had other thoughts as there has been some bad stories about some mishaps on travel to the island, and they did not want us to take the risk. Actually, I did not bother about that thought but I just obliged.

After knowing that we are not allowed to go to Kalanggaman, I was down, but Sheena’s cousins had a better idea though. They planned to spend the afternoon in Tabuk Marine Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. It would be best if that I talk about Tabuk Marine Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in a separate post, so check out our short adventure at Tabuk Marine Park and Wildlife Sanctuary.

Days have passed since I have first set foot in Palompon, Leyte and as each day passed, I was loving the place. It may not have those white sand beaches that Cebu can offer but it has some unique aspects that you sure would love and friendly people to go along with it. Now, I understand why Sheena doesn’t get to shut her mouth about Palompon. Palompon may not be as beautiful as other places in the Philippines but sure it is beautiful in its own way.

We will be back in Palompon and hopefully we will get to visit Kalanggaman Island and visit Canigao Island too. 🙂