Carigara

Aerial view of Real St. with performers standing by

Last July 14, 2018, Carigara attempted to clinch Guinness World Records for the "Largest Participants in Philippine Folk Dance" by performing Kuratsa or Curacha.[6] The event was part of the town's 423rd fiesta celebration on July 16, it made the locals proud and hopeful that the said event will help to boost their town's economic and tourism activities. With nearly 5,000 participants mostly students and teachers from different schools, municipal workers, the private sector, and local residents have joined. Carigara had already submitted their bid, waiting for the official confirmation.

It is a town in the northern part of Leyte province located right on the shores of Carigara Bay, and surrounded by wide rice fields fanning out towards the mountains in the distance.

Carigara shares borders with Capoocan to the west, Ormoc to the south, Jaro to the southeast, Tunga to the east and Barugo to the northeast.

The climate and topographical features of the vast land, wide rice fields and hilly areas of Carigara make it ideal for the growing of fruit-bearing trees, vegetables and various crops. Among the fruit-bearing trees most fitting to be planted are bananas, coconuts, jackfruits, mangoes, guavas, rambutans, santol, and star apples. For vegetables, gabi, karubasa, pipino, kamalunggay, marigoso, munggos, sitaw, and upo are the most commonly produced by some farmers and local residents in which thrive best in the community. For crops, kamote and balanghoy are the root crops that mainly thrive and rice crops, plus more.

Carigara possesses vast forests especially near the highlands, its fauna is a mixture of domestic and non-domestic animals. Some of those domesticated are carabaos, horses, cats, dogs, chickens, and pigs. Non-domesticated or wild animals should include snakes, frogs, insects, various kinds of lizards, birds and many more.

Carigara is politically subdivided into 49 barangays. [7] Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

The Waray-waray language is predominantly spoken within the municipality. Other recognized minority languages are Cebuano and Tagalog.

English is the language used in official purposes and often mixed in with Waray in casual conversations. Spanish is also present and/or used in very few purposes, but never in speech and communication.

Carigara is a Christian municipality, and most of the population are Roman Catholics. There are also adherents of other Christian denominations and sects like the Iglesia ni Cristo, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventists (Sabadistas), Evangelicals or Born Again Christians, Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses (Mga Saksi ni Jehova) and some more.

Magara Festival

On January 25, 2019, Carigara had officially celebrated its first festival along with their 448th founding anniversary called the Magara Festival.[20] Magara locally means abundant, elegant, and vibrant. The first Magara Festival focuses mainly on the celebration of the abundance of the town's agriculture, local products, history, and its people.

Turugpo is a major public fight event between two male carabaos or two male horses held every Black Saturday. It is a popular event in the town attracting thousands of local and foreign tourists just to witness the famous fight.[21] [22]

Carigara New Public Terminal

• Pedicabs are the common mode of transportation within the town proper and the poblacións.
• Tricycles and habal-habals on the other hand are commonly used for travelling within the town, especially to the far-flung barangays.
• Vans, jeepneys and buses are the mode of transport when travelling to the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc or to the municipalities that are faraway from the town. There are few bus companies situated in Carigara.

There are new modernized PUVs that travel from Carigara to Tacloban and vice versa issued by its local government on 24 November 2021.

A photo of the very tip of the port with boats and a ship nearby as seen from the distance

The municipality owns a port that is located in Barangay Baybay where local boats and ships docks.

Carigara District Hospital, also abbreviated as CDH is the only public hospital in the town. Other residents of nearby towns also come here to bring their ill patients for admission and further medical service attention.

• Carigara National High School
• Carigara National Vocational School (formerly Carigara School of Fisheries)
• Jugaban National High School
• Sogod National High School
• Holy Cross College of Carigara (Private)
• Parag-um National High School (soon)

• Holy Cross College of Carigara
• Eastern Visayas State University (Carigara Campus)