One of the hurricanes that frequently devastates the eastern region of the great Philippine archipelago was up to its game.
It grew and intensified day by day, with a difficult-to-estimate predicted route. It agitated the last few days we spent in Manila.
It created uncertainty about how much and where we could fly and explore safely.
Legazpi, Albay and the vast eastern Philippines, which tend to suffer the first and worst impacts, are quickly out of the question.
On the opposite side of the territory, the islands of Panay, Guimaras and even black raised little concern, apart from a few hectic initial moments of flight leaving Manila.
Okay, let's go.
The time in Panay It is normal for a rainy season.
Tricycle crosses a bridge in Iloilo, Panay
Hot, muggy, towards the end of the afternoon, cooled by fulminating downpours. Western weather forecasts confirm that the hurricane's incursion would cover a good part of the Visayas with dense cloudiness.
It makes us question a plan that had been in place for some time to explore the coastline and beaches off Iloilo, the capital of Panay where we would have as our base.
It's past eight the next morning. While we have breakfast, we look at the sky from different sides of the hotel.
Contrary to what was expected, the sky is blue-blue.
The atmosphere is clear and calm. Only the last traces of indecision remain within us. They dissipate before nine o'clock.
Driver and passengers of a tricycle, on a road on the island of Guimaras
Board a Big Bangka, on the way to Guimaras
We hurried to get to a certain Ortiz pier. It is from there that the boats set sail for the neighboring island of Guimaras, located to the south of Iloilo.
When we got there, without much surprise, a fart, the traditional boat spread throughout most of the Philippines, from Batanes to Palawan and Camiguin.
It is more extensive than those in which we had become accustomed to enjoying the nation's seas. pinoy.
Was a fart superlative, with a cloth covering that protected a maximum of forty passengers from the tropical sun.
And two matching floats that, given the lack of stability of the main structure, guaranteed sustained navigation.
Crew members outside one of the ferries connecting Iloilo, Panay, to the neighboring island of Guimaras
At least, until a certain amount of sea agitation.
We settled down on one of the wooden benches. Moments later, we set sail for the Iloilo Strait.
We move faster than others bangkas colorful and exuberant, with different destinations, a little further away than ours.
A "Green Gold / Oro Verde", The "Inday", The "Kristine", The "Francis Ivan IV".
They all leave behind the port area of Iloilo, its aging warehouses, fuel depots poorly hidden behind hedges of young coconut trees, until now, resistant to the frequent gales.
Fuel depot on the outskirts of Iloilo
We move away from the houses and the towers of the colonial churches that make Iloilo one of the main Catholic cities in the Philippines.
Little by little, the urban view becomes blurred and foggy.
We exchange it for the tropical jungle green of the imminent coast of Guimaras, broken only by a few less abrupt coves, with generous sands:
Capitoguan, Morobuan fishing village, Cabaling, Casita Beach and Tatlong.
View of the west coast of Guimaras, from a higher point on the island
We disembarked at the Jordan pier, a town that precedes them.
Jeepney ride between Jordan and Raymen Beach Resort
There, we boarded a jeepney.
It's a sort of terrestrial equivalent of fart, for decades following the close of World War II.
The Philippines' prodigal communal transportation vehicle, fashioned from the thousands of Willies (and other) Jeeps the Americans abandoned.
Passenger of a jeepney looks at another
In the jeepney, we traveled along the Guimaras Circumferential Road until we turned off towards Nova Valência and the peninsula dotted with rice fields and lagoons to the west.
They await us at Raymen Beach Resort, a beach hotel imposed on Alibuhod.
In one of the outdoor rooms, four Pinoy boys play snooker at one of two large tables.
Workers at Raymen Beach Resort play snooker.
The Partly Portuguese-Spanish History of San Miguel Beer
The box that illuminates it holds an advertisement for San Miguel beer, established in 1890 in the homonymous neighborhood of Manila by Don Enrique Maria Barreto de Ycaza.
His family originated from a native of Goa who, upon converting to Catholicism, adopted the surname Barretto and, shortly afterwards, married the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman and merchant.
The Barrettos settled and invested in Bombay, Bengal and Macau. From Macau, the Portuguese Maria Braga, who married farmer Mariano Lacson and died on the neighboring island of black, during the pregnancy of their 11th child,
Later, also in Manila, where the descendants (including Enrique) acquired Spanish nationality and founded La Fábrica de Cerveza de San Miguel, the first in Southeast Asia and, over time, one of the iconic brands of the Philippines.
Raymen Beach Resort is the starting point for a photography and swimming tour of the surrounding beaches, considered the best on the island of Guimaras and the Visayas sub-archipelago.
A dense front of coconut trees separates the buildings of this and other resorts from a yellowish sand that is caressed by the coral and emerald sea.
Tropical cove on the western coast of Guimaras, near Ave Maria Island
When we discover the scenery of Alubihod, we immediately feel tempted to dive into that seductive patch of the Pacific Ocean.
They tell us we'll have time.
Sailing on a Smaller Bangka, along the Western Coast of Guimaras
Instead, they take us to a corner of the beach. We get back on board.
In fart, of course, is tiny compared to the connection between Iloilo and Jordan.
Bangkas in Alubihod beach cove, Guimaras
We see several others, anchored on the cyan sea.
Even if aligned with the opposite and distant coast, a caravan of brown clouds seems to fly over them.
We contemplate the sea view, from the sands of Alubihod, when one of the bangkas approaches. Two of the boys we had seen playing snooker are in charge.
They invite us to enter the vessel “Ray Joshua” already immobilized with the bow on the sand.
In no time, we settled in. We set sail for Santa Ana Bay and then south to Igang Bay.
Helmsman of a bangka next to a rock near Ave Maria Island
The further we go down the coast, the whiter the sands appear, true coral reefs that create natural aquariums worthy of long snorkeling trips.
We enter several coves that reveal coconut trees camouflaged in the jungle.
Some are home to sandbars and shallow seabeds.
Helmsman at the bow of the bangka “Ray Joshua 5”
They force the helmsman to fart turning off the engine, maneuvering it like a gondolier.
Every time you immobilize the “Ray Joshua” we make up for the missed dives in Alubihod.
New Stopover for Bathing, on a Sandbar on Ave Maria Island
We relaxed floating and swimming among the schools of exuberant tropical fish.
Cabins at a resort on the west coast of Guimaras Island.
Heading north, we see two other resorts, one of which has cabins perched on top of rocky cliffs, subsumed in the vegetation.
Facing Lusay Beach, we are seduced by a new strip of sand that the low tide has left exposed, contrasting with a small island jungle above.
Sand spit of Ave Maria Island, off the west coast of Guimaras
We stopped there. At some point, with the company of passengers from another bangka, a “M/Ba Samantha".
Soaking in the warm water, chatting with the new arrivals, we discovered that we were in front of the Ave Maria islet.
It is one of the few in the area still free from construction, except, on the opposite side, which is more rocky and devoid of sand, there is a staircase that led to a small sanctuary of the Virgin Mary.
Modest but providential, the work proved to be yet another expression of the Catholic faith that the Spanish bequeathed to the Philippines, considered the most Christian of Asian nations.
Helmsman of guide photographs a group of bathers visiting Guimaras and Ave Maria Island
Out of nowhere, dense, dark clouds, some of which the weather forecast had predicted, take over the clear sky.
We were aware of the instability and damage that the latest hurricane was causing in the north of the country.
We lacked precise information about its current trajectory.
Not wanting to get caught in a storm, aboard the little “Ray Joshua”, we anticipated the return to Raymen Resort and, shortly after, to Jordan, where another fart that he took by ferry.
We completed the crossing back to Iloilo without any problems.
Rowers aboard a small bangka
By a hair.
That late afternoon, a storm stirred up by strong winds and heavy rain finally punished the Islands from Western Visayas.
How to go
Book your Philippines program with Quadrante Viagens: quadranteviagens.pt
Phone: 256 33 11 10
