Notes from Tañon Strait, Days 5-6: Overnight on Mantalip Reef, Sailing with Dolphins in Bais

Sailing with the dolphins in Bais • Image for Oceana Philippines

Two days is way too short to appreciate the beauty (and creature comforts) of Hale Manna in Moalboal, Cebu.  The huge rooms and wide open garden that opens up to the sea will have to give way to two days of bunking on the liveaboard of Harold Dive Center.  Sort of two days since I get to stay overnight on a reef station, but that's getting ahead of the story.  

We make an excursion southwest across Tañon strait to Bindoy in Negros Oriental (located less than 2 hours drive from Dumaguete City) to meet, talk and share lunch with Mayor Valente Yap.  The shallow water near the mangrove areas meant we have to ride a rubber raft from the liveaboard heading to what Yas aptly calls the Mangrove Pavilion.  It was a hot day and the locals certainly didn't want to waste another minute in the sweltering heat, not when the clear, cool waters under the mangroves were too inviting for a swim.

Notes from Tañon Strait, Day 3: Cruising the Bojo River , Visiting Aloguinsan Farmhouse and Finding Hale Manna

Trellis over path leading to The Farmhouse at Aloguinsan

Heading to our third morning on Bantayan island, I was already getting used to Anika Resort and its environs.  But as with other assignments, you have to leave and move on just when you've sort of settled in but that's work for you.  By mid-morning, we crossed over to the mainland via a ferry boat, then headed southwest to Aloguinsan, 59 km from Cebu City.   I drifted in and out of sleep on the van, recalling seeing roads after roads canopied by tall mango trees, a lot of which are just begging to be picked clean of their fruits (mango is my all-time favorite fruit).

A RIVER TOUR AND AN ELEGANT FARMHOUSE.  We were just in time for a belated lunch on the hut/cabana by the Bojo river.  Yeah, I know, most people will just automatically refer back to the more popular one being run on Bohol's Loboc river.  I personally welcome the thought of more river tours as these ecotourism endeavors help preserve the river, mangroves and natural resources of the place as well as provide livelihood to the locals who live along the river.  This one is no different though I must note that the lunch served was tastier, more substantial, than the one I tasted in the Bohol river cruise I took years ago.

Notes from Tañon Strait, Day 2: Sharing Virgin Island with Ethel Booba, Marketing for Dried Fish in Madridejos, Sunsetting in Lawis

Talk about a tropical getaway - Virgin island off Bantayan Island

Day two on Santa Fe started with seeing the dawn break on the horizon accompanied by a friendly dog.  It would be much later that we'll find out that the folks here go out to sea late, around 9-10am.  Which explains why there was not much fishing action to shoot at sunrise.  Getting my feet soaked shooting the locals scouring the shallows for shells on Bantayan Island the night before made my right big toe swollen.  It will keep me from swimming all trip long but not from wandering about and shooting.

We would be spending the middle of the day on Virgin island, about 30 minutes by pumpboat from here.  Maybe the name fooled me a bit, leading me into thinking it was an uninhabited island.  It was not.  It was, however, a white patch that stood out from a rather overcast day coming from the sea.  By mid-afternoon, the sun shone and made the white sand blindingly white.  While the rest of the Oceana team snorkeled the clear, turquoise waters, I roamed around and chased a dog to the other side of the beach where the boats moor and no tourist wander to, save me, Cris (Yabes) and fellow photographer and best buddy, Ferdz aka Ironwulf.