Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
The southern tip of Mindoro has been under my radar for quite sometime. I have been to the famous Puerto Galera and even reached Sablayan as a jump off to the wonderful reefs of Apo Reef, but I have a nagging curiosity on what’s beyond these places. With a recent photo and writing assignment to San Jose Mindoro, the region’s hidden splendor was unveiled.
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.
It was a few days before our Camiguin travel when I saw a Howie Severino feature on Mantigue Island on TV. The island has a controversial issue regarding long time island residences who refuses to leave the island since the local government and tourism wanted to convert the whole island into a protected area. Since we were in Camiguin, we decided to check this out on ourselves. Things fell easily on place as our habal-habal driver, Jun, is a neighbor to a relative of a residence on the island. We easily secured a boat and a place to stay there for the night.
The early morning downpour have deterred our original plan to visit White Island just off the cost of Yumbing where we were staying. Since it was raining and there was nothing left to do, but catch back some sleep. There’s no use fighting the weather. But waking up mid-morning to a sunny day was surprising. So after a quick breakfast at the nearby eatery, we headed off to Camiguin’s White Island.
Getting into Camiguin was fairly easy, by mid-day we were already at Benoni Port. We got hold of a multi-cab who agreed to wait for us while we had lunch. We had a very satisfying lunch at J & A Lagoon at the nearby Tanguines Blue Lagoon. We had to pull ourselves from one of their huts lest we lull into sleep from the tranquil view of the lagoon and afternoon wind. Soon we were off to Yumbing.
There is more to Puerto Galera than its famed White Beach. Just around 15 minutes drive from Muelle Bay Port to Barangay Sto. Niño and going through the inner roads you find a nice scenic beach adjoining the mainland to the Boquete Island just in front. Its a place where you can enjoy both sunset and sunrise in one stretch of beach.
After shooting the impressive Cathedral in Boac, we just walked down the main street and bought some arrowroot pasalubong at Boac Hotel just across from the church. Hired a tricycle to take us back to Gasan. The mid-day ride seems long and I was dozing off through the ride. It took at least 40 minutes until we reached Barangay Pinggan. Finally, we arrived at Club Marinduque Resort.
