Hundred Islands 2017
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
A quick blog post for this unplanned and sudden road trip. T'was a holiday weekend and having adventurous cousins, we were dragged to explore that is The Hundred Islands.
We had our waze and maps on driving our way to a new place. And as expected, the place are packed! Registrations and parking was a chaos and yeah, we didn't had a room we can rent.
We ended up renting one of a resident's hut for the night. We were told that they just built the hut and the people who owns the lot pretty much had connections there. We had managed to settle here overnight. It was one tricycle away to the town proper and we were assissted on how to register for an island hopping trip early morning tomorrow.
It was the unconventional way to register for the trip as told by the caretakers. We pretty much made a lot of talking to go about this trip. ^^'
Normally, it's the hotel's reponsibility to register their guests at the tourism office. It was pretty strict, there were lots of lines and papers that you need to hand out to people. So for the record, it is best to go there during OFF PEAK season to avoid confusion and enjoy the place more.
We finally had the time to explore Lucap Wharf after we had dinner at our small rented hut.
The next morning, the caretakers stopped by our hut so we can personally be in line for the registration. The guests should personally do this part - get in line, pay the corresponding fees and get an ID for your boat ride.
And so - our island hopping began!
During peak season like this, they have this policy of drop and pick to accomodate all the tourists. It means that we had to pick just one island to drop off at and our boat will come pick us up at a specific time.
On a normal day (not as crowded as today), they can drop off the tourist to every island they wish. In our case, we only get to see the islands from our boat and we chose to drop off at Governor's Island.
Governor's Island is one of the largest islands and is connected to Virgin Island with a floating bridge. They also have a zip line that connects these two islands. They have small cottages here and small carts that sell refreshments. It was also here where you can get a pretty good look of the rest of the islands by a view deck.
Some of the islands are named after former Presidents and are occupied with small houses that you can rent for the day. Some offers other activites like snorkeling too.
The Quezon Island and Lopez Island are the huge ones that pretty much looks like a private resort!
Here are some things I've learned from this trip:
- If you are wanting a daytrip, be there as early as 5AM.
- Payment transactions for boat hopping should only be made inside the tourism office.
- All fees are fixed. No haggling.
- There are no extra fees for dropping off on an island beside in-island activites and cottage rentals.
- Bring extra cash.
- Bring a huge bottle of drinking water.
- Make sure to bring your waterproof cases for your gadgets.
- It is always better to pre-book rooms.
I will surely want to come back and experience "island hopping" and explore the rest of the islands!
As for my usual reminder, if you are planning to visit the place make sure to "Leave NO Trace". There were people keeping the place clean, but it would be better to always clean up after yourself. Thanks for reading!
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**The photos used at this post are collectively taken with my Sony Xperia Z2. Applications used: Adobe Photoshop and Xperia Movie Creator.
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