Bucas Grande is an island in the province of

Surigao del Norte Surigao del Norte ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Norte''; ; Tagalog: ''Hilagang Surigao''), officially the Province of Surigao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region of Mindanao. The province was fo ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. The island is contiguous with the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte. Its area is . Its name means "large mouth" or "large opening" in

Philippine Spanish Philippine Spanish ( or ) is the variety of standard Spanish spoken in the Philippines, used primarily by Spanish Filipinos. Spanish as spoken in the Philippines contains a number of features that distinguishes it from other varieties of ...

in reference to the wide

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

in between Bucas Grande and Socorro Island. Bucas Grande Island is situated on the far eastern part of mainland Surigao del Norte. The lone island municipality of Socorro is the only one of its kind in the entire province of Surigao del Norte. Bucas Grande Island lies within the breadth of the Pacific and is physically located at coordinates 9° 37′ 17″ North, 125° 58′ 0″ East. It has a total land area of 12,445 hectares and had a population of 25,942 inhabitants at the 2020 Census, and a voting population of over 13,000. People have settled in 14 barangays of the municipality namely: Barangays Don Albino Taruc, Navarro, Rizal, Del Pilar, Dona Helene, Honrado, Nueva Estrella, Pamosaingan, Salog, San Roque, Sudlon, Santa Cruz, Songkoy and N. Sering. Bucas Grande is also the site of Sohoton Cove, a cluster of small islets with lagoons, natural limestone caves, and rock formations. The name means "narrow opening" in Visayan, referring to the narrow gaps between the small islands. It is commonly mistaken as being a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

, due to the confusion with the similarly named Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge Park in

Samar Island Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

to the north.

References

Islands of Surigao del Norte Tourist attractions in Surigao del Norte {{Caraga-geo-stub