Camotes Islands

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Camotes Islands are a group of four islands that are part of the province of Cebu. They are located east of Cebu Island, west and south of Leyte Island, and north of Bohol Island.

The Camotes is composed of the following four islands and municipalities:

Poro: the municipalities of Poro and Tudela.
Pacijan: the sole municipality of San Francisco.
Ponson: the sole municipality of Pilar.
Tulang: part of the barangay of Esperanza, which is part of San Francisco.

The islands of Pacijan and Poro are now joined together by a paved road. Ponson is separated by Camotes Sea, about four km northeast of Poro. Tulang is located to the north of Pacijan.

Camotes are low-lying islands. There is only one hill on Pacijan and another hill on Poro. These hills are used by a telecommunication company for relay stations. Pacijan has a fresh-water lake which is about two km long. Palm trees are the dominant plant on the islands. There are also other native varieties of fruit trees and other plants.

[edit] Origin

The word camotes is Spanish for sweet potatoes.

[edit] Languages

Porohanon or Camotes Visayan is spoken in the town of Poro only. The dialect is very similar to the dialect of Cebuano which is spoken in the rest of Camotes Islands and throughout the province of Cebu. 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.