Small Digyo Island With Its Amazing White Sandbar

DIGYO ISLAND

Photo from: https://shoestringdiary.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/digyo-island-bare-essentials/

Digyo Island is the smallest among the four islands of Cuatro Islas. Too small that one could circumnavigate or walk completely around the islet in less than half an hour. This is the obvious reason why the island is called Digyo, from the old Cebuano word digyot meaning “little.”

This islet is uninhabited by human and is a protected sanctuary of diverse marine lives thriving in coral reefs. It has been told that the whole islet is a private property of a well known family in Inopacan.

It remains undeveloped with a few number of dispersed coconut trees growing around. A huge mass of white sands was illegally hauled off in 1980’s by the quarrying business of an alleged contractor who delivered the sacks of white sand to a prestigious hotel in Cebu City for use in landscaping. Despite the considerable loss of white sands, the islet still has a magnificent view, a crystal clear pristine seawater, and white sandbar that glares on bright sunlight .

What is now missing is the what used to be a much longer and wider beachfront. Occasionally, a handful of local picnickers and their guests would come on-board a motorboat to spend a day of enjoying the delight of nature’s beauty. Read More: http://inopacan.blogspot.com/2010/02/digyo-island.html

Photo from: http://www.freedomwall.net/travel/cuatro-islas-travel-guide/

The island of Digyo measures 3.5 hectares, and one can explore the island from end to end in fifteen minutes. Digyo stands out from the other isles in the Cuatro Islas group because it is a tropical island on its own. Shimmering fine white sand wraps a lovely loop around the islet while clear aquamarine waters lap gently on the shores. Digyo’s sandy shore is a nesting ground for Green and Hawks-bill turtle. A few years ago some men came and collected Digyo’s sand to camouflage the shores of a big hotel in Cebu. Even to these days, the shifting sand bars are still collected for whatever purpose.

The island is solace and silence personified in nature. On the island, one feels fragile, naked, and even humbled, facing a vast expanse of cerulean waters. To the sides are the neighboring Apid, Himokilan, and Mahaba islands dotting the horizon, and a few bent coconut trees stand sentinel on the shores. Digyo paints your personal Robinson Crusoe dreams of being cast-away in some islands far away.

Snorkeling is a marvelous experience, the island’s shallow waters teem with vibrant marine life. The waters around Digyo contains a total of 287 species of reef building corals which comprise 55% percent of the total reef building species in the Philippines. Diving is ideal on the neighboring islands of Apid and Mahaba. It is best to dive always on the western side of the islands which features abundant coral growth. The eastern sides of the islands faces the usual typhoon patterns resulting to poor coral life. Read More: http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/74429/Secret-called-Digyo-Island-2

Photo from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g2100747-d2086810-i181616916-Digyo_Island-Inopacan_Leyte_Province_Leyte_Island_Visayas.html

We’d be nuts to keep going to places like this if we placed a high premium on convenience but one look at the beauty that is Digyo was enough to convince us that going to this island was well-worth the hassle. The lightly swaying coconut palms and the surrounding crystal clear waters in various shades of aquamarine, emerald and turquoise gently breaking on the creamy white sand beach easily lulled many in our group to sleep on this lazy afternoon.

Digyo is the smallest of the Cuatro Islas group of islands at 3.5 hectares. We could easily cover the length of the island from end to end in about 15 minutes but chose to walk slowly, enjoying the beauty of the place, taking a dip in the warm, glassy waters and taking snapshots here and there. Like Kalanggaman Island up north, Digyo has sandbars stretching out at its northwestern and southeastern extremities with the latter the more pronounced. The presence of these sandbars was perhaps the reason why sea turtles used to make Digyo a nesting ground. Read More: https://shoestringdiary.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/digyo-island-bare-essentials/