The Beauty of Hundred Islands
“One island sounds boring. What if I tell you that there’s a place in the Northern Philippines that has hundreds of islands? One place but hundreds of islands to choose from."
In my recent blogs, I shared an overview of what happened to our North escapade, and how our travel went, and got amazed by the different infrastructure.
Today, I will continue the series. Initially, I intend to squeeze everything that happened during our vacation into a single article. However, if I will elaborate on it thoroughly, it might bore the reader because of the long reading time. On the other hand, if I will put it in one article and summarize it and make it short, I might miss some exciting parts. So, for me, the best approach is to break everything down into manageable portions. Is this a big brain move? I guess so.
This pandemic lockdown stopped us for 2 years from reuniting with our extended family. Well not totally stopped but it become more difficult because there are so many requirements needed before you are allowed to travel. For instance, you need to take a PCR test which cost around $20 or P1000. We are all aware that the COVID testing here in the Philippines is kinda pricey and not convenient. Thank you, Secretary Duque, for the ‘best’ pandemic response in the world. (insert sarcasm).
Last April 30 is kinda special because that’s the day when we left our house to start our travel in the North. We traveled around 8 hours to reach Pangasinan. You will definitely notice the difference between the city and this place. Though Alaminos was declared city years ago, they unbelievably preserved the province's ambiance.
2 days after our arrival, we start our preparation for our beach getaway! Oh God, two years is already enough for me to not experience swimming. I am excited to get my skin tan and I don’t care if will get a sunburn hahaha.
Around 8 am we rode the boat located on the river beside our grandfather’s house. This river is the fastest route all the way to Hundred Island. I remember that my father often says that when they need money, they just go straight to this river to go fishing, this is because when you travel straight you will immediately reach the sea. Until now I can’t comprehend how lucky enough to live in this place.
At around 5 minutes, we exited the river and reached the open sea. From there, we travel for around 15 to 30 minutes to reach the Virgin Islands, one of the well-known islands here in the Hundred Islands. Lol, the word island is too repetitive.
Here’s the short video that I have taken myself.
When we arrived at the island there were no other tourists aside from us. My uncle said that we are just lucky that we arrive early. He also added that the tourist is just starting to go out of their nest because of the pandemic, and maybe for the next few months it will be crowded again.
At that time It feels like we own the island hahaha.
Before soaking ourselves in the salty water, we wore our swimwear. My mother flexed her sleeveless clothes matched with her legging shorts. My sibling and I are a little bit shy to show our bodies so we wore rash guards partnered with boxer shorts. While my cousins confidently show their swimsuits. Sana ol diba hahaha.
After several hours of swimming, sunbathing, and marinating ourselves on the fine white sand of the island, one of our uncles ask us who is willing to accompany him to another island. My cousins invited me to join them. Who am I to refuse that? Of course, I immediately went up to the boat.
After another 5 minutes of boat riding, we reached Quezon Island, another famous island here. I can’t deny that there’s more crowd of people here compared to the island we were staying on right now. I can’t blame them because this island is more developed with different activities to choose from. Also, the scenery is great — the sandbar is in between the two bodies of water. We experienced staying there overnight a few years ago and bro I tell you that I was amazed when the sunrise came; on the east is the sunrise while on the west is where the moonset. You can see them happening at the same time!
I thought that we were just staying there and we will just soak our bodies again, but we are wrong. My uncle invited us for a banana boat ride and I immediately jumped in rejoice, lol.
I never tried this before so I am excited but nervous at the same time. To spice it up, we requested the speed boat driver, the one who will also pull the banana boat, to drop us in the middle of the ride. I don’t know how to swim but I am confident that nothing bad will happen because we are equipped with a life vest and a helmet for added protection.
We wandered around the island riding the banana boat for around 30 minutes. During the middle of the activity, someone at the speed boat told us to raise our hands so he can take some pictures. Upon raising our hands, he ramped up the speed of the engine causing us to lose our balance and drop into the water. I didn’t drown, thanks to the life vest hahaha.
After that, we went back to the island we’re currently staying in. We spend the remaining hours there and enjoyed the breeze of the sea.
At the end of the day, we got home with lots of sunburns. Despite that, at least we knew to ourselves that we satisfied our beach cravings.
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huhuh sanaol mare. I haven't been there nor have been outside Cebu HAHAHHUHU