Ever since 2015 began, I always feel the push to book a flight to Iloilo and wanting to visit Guimaras Island. I asked friends to go with me to Iloilo, they said yes, but then, the plan changed and they wanted to go somewhere else, Islas de Gigantes.
At first, I was like very clueless about the place. Never heard ba 😀 so I researched and found out that Islas de Gigantes is situated in the northern most part of Iloilo. A remote group of islands located off the coast of the town of Carles and Estancia. According to what I’ve read, Carles is almost 4 hours from Iloilo Airport. Then the boat ride from Estancia port to Islas de Gigantes would take you 2hours comparing to Guimaras which is about only 20mins from the port in Iloilo city. We made a decision, and Islas de Gigantes won our hearts.
So I started my research about the place, who to contact, where to stay, how to get there, places to visit. I’ve read blogs that mentions Mr. Joel Decano a lot. He is the owner of Gigantes Hideaway Resort and he is also the Toursim officer of the place.
Knowing that he is very reliable, we immediately inquired for availability on the place. However, we were very shocked that he already offered almost everything! 🙂 boat transfers from Estancia port, place to stay for 1 night, full board meals (unli rice and amazing menu of seafoods), island hopping tour with guide and fees, caving with guide/fees, habalhabal fees for 2 days. He offered all of these for Php2,430/pax for the 4 of us. We immediately said yes because who would say no to that kind of offer? 😀 now, our only problem is how the hell will we be able to go to Estancia port.
Our flight to Iloilo was 2AM and we are to arrive in Iloilo by 3:30AM. Scared and very much a stranger to the place, I went on searching for a van that will bring us to the said place. I found Newmore Transport Services and offered 4,800 for our transportation (from airport to Estancia port and our return from Estancia port to Iloilo City). I know it’s very pricey, but the comfort of sitting on a van, taking a rest for probably the rest of the drive (since we will not have any sleep at all because of the very very early flight and travel time to Estancis port is 4AM to 7AM supposedly) and not wasting any time is I think already worth the extra bucks (Someday I’ll try commuting. Just for the thrill of it).
And yes! Everything was worth it and went well according to plan, we arrived in Estancia port at around 7AM (kuya driver was also very cooperative of our time frame) and we took our breakfast in Paon Beach Resort wherein our boat to Islas de Gigantes was already waiting for us. At 8AM, we were already on our way to this year’s most awaited adventure. Us four were talking about it and we were all very clueless to what adventure awaits us in the place, but since everything was already taken care of, we were very much relax and gave our full trust to our tour guide 🙂
The boat ride was not very bumpy at all, however, it really did took us 2hours to reach Bulubadjang Island, an extension of the resort we checked in. Their staff were very accommodating, even welcomed us immediately as our boat approaches the island, and gave us a place to relax first as they prepared our lunch for that day. Cool 😀 Some vacation this is!
They offered red crabs, blue crab, scallops, fish and wasaywasay for our lunch. We were like, “huh? do we look like we are this hungry?” haha. But seeing them, you can say that they really are serving that amount of food, not just to us, but to all their guests. Here’s a before and after picture of our lunch 🙂
After lunch, we were then sent to the resorts main place and was then introduced to our place to stay. It was a small room that could fit 5 persons but it was already ok for us (di na choosy. hehe) and our very own bathroom. Islas de Gigantes only have electricity from 3PM-11PM. The electricity available in the resort from 11PM to 6AM was already on generator. After settling down our bags, we changed to our beach attires then headed already for our island hopping adventure 🙂
First on the list was Tangke Salt Water Lagoon. I’ve been to the small lagoon in El Nido and the water there was cold and fresh, here, in Tangke, the water is absolutely, salt water and very warm. The view was amazing and I could have jumped off the cliff, but the first time I did it from the big stone at the middle, my nose hurt a bit and was scared to do it on a higher cliff. hehe. boo! Maybe next time, I could already, suck up all the braveness in my body. hehe. We enjoyed taking pictures and swimming on the deep water.
Unbelievably, just a short ride away from the lagoon is the most awaited Cabugao Island. Cabugao Island is actually the face of Islas de Gigantes. I’ve researched so much about this place and this island is my most awaited place to visit. It’s one of a kind, breathtaking and awesomely beautiful. You may also want to see it for yourself 😉
After being in Cabugao Island, it was like I never wanted to go somewhere else. hehe. I felt that my Islas de Gigantes tour was already complete. I can finally go home. haha. But of course, there are other islands included in our tour and more adventures waiting for us.
Kuya Joseph then brought us to the sand bar, the water was still deep so only few parts of the sand bar can be seen. We took a lot of jump shots here. hehe. Kuya was very good at timing that our pictures were very amazing. We also had the time to swim. hehe.
After having fun at the sand bar, we then headed to Antonio’s beach. This place was for people who would love to experience snorkeling, for there are amazing corals and fishes just a few meters from the shore. But we were dead tired already. haha. Maybe due to the lack of sleep and the full tummies we have. So we just decided to take a rest and eat merienda here. Bought a few san mig apple, biscuits and chips to satisfy ourselves. After that, we were already on our way back to the resort. Yey! We took a shower and rest for awhile. When I woke up, it was already time for dinner.
Our dinner was ofcourse again, full of seafoods. Scallops and scallops everywhere. As informed by Kuya Joseph, scallop is their no.1 product in Gigantes. Well, that explains the scallops in our table. hehe. We were super full that night that we wanted to just relax. We sang our hearts out at videoke took a few sips of coffee or san mig light, then went to sleep. Some first day we had 🙂
Kuya Joseph then informed us that we will go to the lighthouse at 6:30 in the morning. No biggie, we were already up by 6am (thank you body clock). We then rode a habalhabal to the lighthouse. We were not directly dropped off the place since the road at the end were rocky and slippery, so we had to walk for like 5-10mins or so. Current lighthouse was a new one because the lighthouse built by the spaniards were already crashed by typhoons before.
We then took some photos and headed back to the resort for our breakfast. For breakfast, we had dried fish, meatloaf and egg. Something light since we are caving afterwards 🙂 we just changed to our already dirty clothes then rode a habalhabal to the starting point of caving.
To get to the entrance of Baquitan Cave, you still have to trek some 10-15mins, it’s a bit steep so you might want to catch your breath for a little. It was said that during the Japanese time, Baquitan cave served as a hiding place to the Filipinos. And up to this date, the cave was also used when big typhoons come across the island. Like for example, during typhoon Yolanda, about 10 families went to the cave for their safety.
I’ve never actually had a caving or spelunking experience. This was the first legit caving in my entire life. The guide gave us flashlights for our own use. When we got inside, it was just like the underground river, only we were walking and encountered 3 obstacles just to get to the finish line. It was a bit hard because the end of the cave was actually at the top of the mountain. And so we have to drag ourselves up for some of the obstacles which made it a bit tiring for us. But we enjoyed it a lot! 🙂
Caving/spelunking all in all was about 1 hour and boy, we were super happy with the experience 🙂 when you get to the top, the view was super amazing. You will get to see the islands nearby and the wide stretch of water. Now, the actual challenge of this experience was the going down part. The rocks were pointy and normal slippers might not last that long. Kuya guide then told us that when you look closely at the rocks, you will see that those were actually corals and that the island was once submerged in the water. Well that explains the pointy thingy. If you weren’t careful enough, you would most likely get a cut for it. Going down was also almost an hour, depends on your pace.
After caving, we returned already to resort to wash up and ready our bags for this is the end of our tour 🙂 I was both happy and sad. Happy because what we experienced was more than what we expected (we actually did not expect anything for this trip. hehe) and sad because we have to leave the place and there’s so much more to see. Kuya Joseph, our guide told us that, if ever we will be able to go back to Gigantes years from now, the place might already be developed since it has been said that numerous investors were going to their place to buy a piece of the land. The government actually talked to land owners and advice them not to sell their own piece. But the government also said that the decision will still come from them. Islas de Gigantes is another remote place in our country that boasts a lot treasure our country has to take care of. The place do not have much electricity and do not have mobile signals (there’s only a spot in the place where there is signal. But in Bulubadjang and Cabugao Island, signal is also available), life was very simple and the people there are very accommodating and friendly. I guess Ilonggos proved to us that they are malambing. hehe. I will always have the love to go back to this place and explore some more. Besides, I’m Ilonggo by blood 🙂
☀LIVE.LOVE.FLY✈ 