“Adjust your seat higher. It would help.” Our bike-tour guide Rene told me as he saw me struggle on our uphill ride towards our last stop for the day, the Vayang Rolling Hills. With my armpit at level with my bike saddle, I stretched my arm towards the crank center to determine the proper height for my saddle. I adjusted my saddle accordingly to let my legs fully extend on pedal. We continued our ride and I felt more at ease to somehow find my right cadence. Wow! They could have told me this earlier when we were trekking from Tukon Hills to Valugan Boulder beach. As we near the day’s end of our bike trek in Batan Island, I thought biking in Batanes is the most fun I had on the island on wheels.
Tag: Batan Island
Batanes Backpack Photography and Itbayat Chronicles 2010
I have written plenty about Batanes on this blog and I’m sure when I go back there, I’ll find more things to write about again. It just shows how I love the place. It’s like being in a foreign land yet with the familiar warmth and hospitality the Filipinos are known for. For the mean time, here’s the chronicles summary from my recent visit to Batanes in conjunction to the Backpack Photography Workshops to cap off this series. I also hope you enjoy the Batanes Islands video I put together.
Batanes: Backpack Photography Post-Workshop June 2010
I can’t believe it’s almost over. I woke up Sunday morning to see the group already up and ready to leave for the airport. Munching on their breakfast of tuna sandwich and a cup of coffee in hand, I also noticed their baggage clumped together at the reception area. I greeted them good morning. Everyone’s already prepared. I brought down the Selphy Printer for a last minute request to print. And as soon as we heard the Seair plane started to land, we hopped in our jeep and sped to the airport only a few minutes away.
Batanes: Backpack Photography Workshop June 2010 Day 3
Ever since the workshop started we’ve been waking up earlier than the sun. We were joking most of the time that we’ve managed to accomplish a lot before 9am (when one of the participant’s alarm would start ringing) than on a usual day. Even on the last day of our workshop, we had to wake up a tad earlier. We noticed that the days are longer here in Batanes, by 5am we could already see the sky light up. So by 4:40am, our jeep was already rolling towards Valugan Bay.
Batanes: Backpack Photography Workshop June 2010 Day 1
“Batanes in June!? You gotta be kidding? You might get stranded when a storm comes.” Was some of the common reactions I get when I say we’ll be holding a Travel and Outdoor Workshop at the end of June. I couldn’t blame them since Batanes do have a reputation as a stormy region but that was true a few years ago. These last couple of years we noticed the change in weather patterns. Even Ivatan locals there say “Official storm season now starts sometime October” So early morning 24th of June, 2010. I along with 16 other people flew from Manila, braving whatever weather yet eager to set foot on the northern-most region of the Philippines – Batanes.
Batanes: Deep Sea Fishing at Bagong Tuklas
I’ve always thought that Batanes is rich in underwater life but it has never been really exploited. It’s remoteness (and pricey flights) really prevented a lot of people for coming here to gamefish. It’s really fortunate that on one of my assignments on Seair Inflight, I was able to observe what it’s like to fish here. Here are some excerpts from writer Chip Childers.
Batanes in Mono: My favorite walking spots from Basco
Aside from finding the range of accommodations in Basco and also discovering places to eat, I spent a lot of my time in Batan Island just chilling out and wandering around. It was after a 4 day of assignment so I didn’t really want to pressure myself to produce as many photos as I needed. I decided to be experimental this time and set my camera to monotone mode and capture Batanes in monochrome hues. At different times of the day, I go to these places walking distances from Basco center and just sit there for at least an hour and just be amazed at this wondrous creation.
