Enhanted River

If you are still trying to figure out where to spend the remaining days of summer, why don’t you hit Surigao del Sur? About 30 minutes from the town of Hinatuan, in barangay Cambatong, there is a river that has become a tourist attraction.

Only discovered in recent years, Hinatuan River has also become known as the Enchanted River. It flows into the Philippine Sea—six hundred meters away is the coastline of Hinatuan Bay—but no one knows where the water comes from. Is it from a spring? Does some of the water come from the sea?

The shallow part of the Enchanted River is a clear aquamarine color.

The river looks Photoshopped; it reminds you of the movie "Blue Lagoon". The waters are so crystal-clear that you can see the riverbed even at the deepest part. A foreign tourist once plunged into the waters thinking he could reach the bottom, but found he couldn't.

Generally, most people swim in the area where the water's shade ranges from aquamarine to blue; where it is a darker blue, it means the water is already very deep.

One of the most magical moments when you visit Enchanted River is what they call "feeding time," usually at around 12 noon. A caretaker from the Enchanted River Management Office would ring the bell as a way of requesting everyone to get out from the water.

Then the "Hymn of Hinatuan" is played, and a spectacular school of fish comes out from nowhere. The fish gather around near the mouth of the river as the caretaker and tourists throw leftover rice, shrimp, bread and other food scraps into the water. As the fish swirl around trying to beat each other to the food, their silvery scales are exposed to the light, gleaming with a radiance that can momentarily blind you if it hits your eyes.

Once the feeding is over, the fish start to vanish—or at least become more inconspicuous. The wife of my friend can attest to that. She was enjoying swimming, but when she put on the goggles her son gave her she immediately came out from the water.