The Rush of Guimaras

Straight from the Iloilo airport after dropping our luggage to the hotel, we headed to the Ortiz wharf to board the boats that will take us to Guimaras island province. Boat fare is only P13 for adults and P12 for kids. The boat has capacity of 45 passengers, and we were seated at wooden benches below the life jackets that hang on the ceiling.

The boat trip took only 15 minutes to Jordan port, where tourists are asked to register and assisted on their transport needs by the lady in the small tourist counter. Public transport around Guimaras has infrequent trips, while jeep rental of P1000 and multicab rental of P800 are too much for us, so I decided to rent a tricycle for P500 with my 2 kids. 



The roads are generally fine with few bumpy parts. Before we went to Alubihod beach, we took our breakfast at one of the food stalls in the port, where we had our first taste of batchoy in the Visayas region.

I chose Raymen's resort as jump off point to island hopping after paying P10 entrance fee for adults and P5 fee for kids. The resort has small beachfront and I find their cottages too close against each other, but they seem to be organized. Boat rental starts at P400 on first hour, then P150 for each succeeding hour.

Our first stop was the Lawi Marine Turtle sanctuary, where for 10 pesos, guests can hold the turtles that they nurture while undergoing treatments from wounds and illnesses caught in the wild. I asked one staff if those turtles gets stressed with those handlings whenever there are tourists, but he replied that the turtles are used to it. We also saw some varieties of puffer fish on one floating cage.

Second stop was one of the small caves on the group of islands, where we saw bats clinging to stalactites, and a sea snake diving deep into the water. We passed the Baras island with seaside huts of the resort, but we didn't tried the beach there. 

Third stop was the undeveloped Ave Maria islet with its clear water and fine cream-colored sand. We saw some fishes swimming in its shallow waters, as well as a few corals. If this beach didn't have stones and corals that could hurt our feet, we could have lingered there for more than 30 minutes. With a lot of areas cordoned off as marine sanctuary, I'm sure that those few tourists I saw snorkeling are having a goodtime with many variety of fishes and corals in selected areas.

Final stop in our island hopping is the SEAFDEC research center where they study and breed some sea creatures. Adults pay P25 entrance fee while the kids can enter free. The staff showed us their 3 huge garoupa/grouper, estimated to weigh at least 80 kg each after keeping them for 18 years now. 

The kids were also allowed to feed the other fishes in their floating cages like the snapper, pampano, wild milkfish, etc. It was also our first time to see and hold abalones in person, and the kids enjoy the tickling sensation while the expensive gourmet shellfish crawls in their hands. The facility also has houses perched on the small islands where guests can stay for P250 per night.

We were back at Raymen's resort after 2.5 hours and paying P625 to the boatmen, plus P100 tip. It was already lunchtime, but there were too many guests on the resorts' cottages and small beach, so we looked for someplace to eat. Good thing that our boatman directed us to a small eatery just outside the resort, where most locals eat. 

Our lunch meal costed us only P102 total with 2 viands and 3 large portions of rice plus a cold soda drink. Later, a pair of guest from the resort also went to the eatery, but the eatery's food had almost ran out.

Since the kids don't want to swim under the noon heat and wants to rest, we decided to go back to our hotel in Iloilo so that they could freshen up and take a nap. Along the way, we stopped at their famous Trappist Monastery where we bought some cheap souvenirs, cookies, otap, and biscocho with mango flavors. Unfortunately, it was not mango season so we cannot sample the taste of world-famous Guimaras mangoes.