Introducing Mindanao

Travel Alert: The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office recommends against all travel to some parts of this area and against all non-essential travel to the rest, please check with your relevant national government.

Mention Mindanao to most Filipinos not living in this island province and you will see a look of mild befuddlement which quickly turns to genuine surprise when foreigners say they want to travel there. Because of its now exaggerated reputation as the wild west of the Philippines, almost everywhere you go will feel as if it's 'off the beaten track', and the lack of other travellers means a better chance of experiencing Filipino culture and indigenous peoples unmediated by the tourism industry.

At 95,000 sq km, Mindanao is big and bulky. It's an island of contrasts, maybe most readily felt by journeying from the high-rise downtown of modern Davao to the nearby towering peak of Mt Apo and the surrounding primitive villages. Volcanic Camiguin Island is an adventurer's paradise, and the surf breaks around bucolic Siargao Island are some of the best in the country. Vast cattle ranches and pineapple and banana plantations on a scale that must be seen to be believed sit alongside tiny plots managed by struggling farmers. The eastern coastline is long and remote and the swamps around the Agusan River and Rio Grande de Mindanao (Pulangi River) valleys offer opportunities for animal and bird-viewing.

Muslims, who have been a minority in Mindanao since the 1950s, are the majority in only four of the 21 provinces and just 12 sq km of the 90,000 sq km of the island are given over to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an area that includes the mainland provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, and the hundreds of islands of the Sulu archipelago that stretches towards Malaysia and Indonesia. Predominantly Muslim areas include Marawi and the area around Lake Lanao, and Cotabato city.