Camotes Islands is a group of islands in the Camotes Sea, Philippines. Combined area is . The island group is located east of Cebu Island, southwest of Leyte Island, and north of Bohol Island. It is from Cebu City and is part of Cebu. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 109,278. Population has grown % since 1990, equivalent to an annual growth rate of .
Nearest landfall, from north end of Ponson island to southern Leyte, is about . From Consuelo port to Danao is as the crow flies. From south of Pacijan to Bohol is about .
Sometimes known as the "Lost Horizon of the south", within recent years Camotes has seen increased visitors and tourism and a growing expatriate community. Apart from natural attractions on land, there is also a score of dive sites around the islands.
Geography
Camotes Islands comprises three major islands and one minor islet, divided between four municipalities. On Poro Island are the municipalities of Poro and Tudela. Pacijan Island's sole municipality is San Francisco. Ponson Island's sole municipality is Pilar. Tulang Island is an islet and part of San Francisco. The main islands of Pacijan and Poro are connected by a causeway. Ponson lies about northeast of Poro, across the Kawit Strait. Tulang is located a short distance north of Pacijan.
The Camotes are low-lying with several hills, some used for telecommunications relay stations. The highest point is Altavista, above sea level, on Poro. Pacijan has a large lake, Lake Danao, which at is the largest freshwater lake in the province.
Demographics
Languages
Cebuano is the primary language, then English and Filipino. School children are taught all three languages.
Porohanon or Camotes Visayan is spoken in the town of Poro only, and is one of the most endangered languages in the Visayas. The language is classified as distinct from Sebwano (Bisaya) by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino and is vital to the culture and arts of the Porohanon people.
The dialect is very similar to the language spoken in the rest of Camotes Islands and throughout the province of Cebu, Northern Mindanao and other parts of the Visayas. Porohanon is distinguished by the way the locals substitute the /y/ sound for /z/. Example: maayong buntag (good morning) in Cebuano would be changed to maazong buntag in Porohanon, na-a diha (in Cebuano), ara dira (in Porohanon)
Transport
Environment
Climate
Tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification category "Am"), with rainfall more or less evenly distributed throughout the year – Coronas climate type IV.
Biota
By Presidential Proclamation 2152 of 1981, the islands of Ponson, Poro and Pacihan were declared Mangrove swamp forest reserves.
Exemplars of the rare, critically endangered tree species Cebu Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cebuense) have been discovered on the Camotes Islands.
Palm trees are the dominant plant on the islands. There are also numerous native varieties of fruit including banana, mango and pineapple.
History
Protohistory
Little is known of the islands' early history. The twentieth century saw a number of archaeological studies, but nothing of major significance emerged.
An early visitor was Carl Guthe, who led an expedition from the University of Michigan which spent three years 1923–1925 investigating and exploring many sites across the archipelago. He conducted an archaeological dig in a cave site on Tulang. Located on the southeastern coast of the island, the cave measures about . Guthe reported it to contain bone fragments and teeth of about 60 individuals. Associated grave goods included earthenware pottery, shell bracelets, bronze and iron artefacts (iron tang, bronze chisel, iron blade), glass and stone beads, hammerstone and pestle. Filed teeth were also recovered from this site.
Otley Beyer (Philippine's "Father of Anthropology") never visited, although he is reported to have described Camotes as a "basket of interesting archaeological finds."
In the early 1970s, residents unearthed a variety of artefacts dating back to the 16th century. An excavation at Mactang, a purok within Esperanza, Poro, revealed spears, daggers, swords, crosses, iron pendants and a skull pierced with an arrowhead. This heavily disturbed and looted site located along the shoreline of sitio Mactang was excavated by Bailen and Cabanilla of UP Diliman in the early 1990s and explored by Bersales and USC in 2001. Porcelain and earthenware sherds are strewn on the surface of what would otherwise have been a 13th- or 14th-century CE burial site.
