Tunnels, Ruins and Monkeys Oh My

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Yesterday, Dona and I went on a great adventure. We went to Corregidor Island. This is a small island, shaped like a tadpole, in Manila Bay. It has been used to protect Manila Bay since the Spanish. As such, it was the scene of many battles in WWII. First, the Japanese struggled to take Corregidor, the last place in the Philippines to fall into their hands. Then, the Americans had to take it back, after first winning many other battles in the Pacific. General MacArthur vowed "I Shall Return" and despite the opposition of America's president, he did so at last.

The island is home to American fortress ruins, both the base that was there in peacetime, and the bomb-proof shelters of wartime, and many Japanese tunnels. Visitors can also enjoy the beach and the jungle on the island. The coolest part however is definitely the ruins! We took a ferry to the island. During the ferry, we watched a lot of historical films, which is one way I learned so much about the history. I actually got swept up in the patriotism of it all.

At the island, we got dumped off at a restaurant where there was a buffet lunch. It was pretty good. However, no one told us we would have 2 hours for lunch. We didn't know what was going on and it was so hot. We walked around, took pictures with MacArthur's statue and explored a bit. Finally we found out that the trams would pick us up for our tours at 2:30PM. The food for the buffet wasn't bad - Pancit, fruit salad, cucumbers, rice.

Once we got on our tram, it was good. We got the BEST tour guide. He was so funny. However, if you were Japanese, you might have been offended. Needless to say, the Filipinos have not forgotten the Japanese invasion! He was not kind to the Japanese and made lots of jokes about them. Japanese people always get their own tram, their own guide, and a Japanese version of the tour with different content - even if there is only one Japanese person. Everyone else is on the English tour, which is told from the Filipino and American perspective.

Our tour guide - what made him great besides his often-naughty sense of humor was the cool stuff he let us do. He made sure we got to places before the other trams! At the japanese memorial, I got a picture of Kuan-Yin's statue and bought a Corregidor t-shirt. Then, we got to go into the Malinta tunnel and experience the light & sound show. This was a huge bomb-proof tunnel through the center of a mountain. The show was educational, but the best was yet to come.

We stopped at a gun battery and explored it, including lots of dark rooms. Then the next gun battery was even better. The tour guide handed me a flashlight and said, if you go inside, and go right, then right, then right again, you'll find a room with a square hole. Go down the hole and you will come up in a different place. If you hear any wierd sounds, that's me making scary ghost sounds to scare everyone. Well, Dona and I found the square tunnel and I was the first one down. The ladder was all covered in white rust. The tunnel wasn't so dark because there was light coming from the other entrance. However, there was one moment of pitch blackness. I turned out the flashlight and told Dona I lost it in the dark. Too funny! Then I turned it back on and we made our way out. None of the other tourists were brave enough to go down the hole like us!

We also went to another gun area where we saw huge guns and got to climb all around, and see a really beautiful vista of the ocean.

Then we drove past one of the barracks. it looked so ghostly with all its walls blasted out and only the girders holding it up. Our tour guide said we'd skip it so that we could get to the top faster, and spend more time "Topside". At topside, there was a huge barracks - the mile-long barracks. We actually got to climb up the remaining stairs and wander around. Then there was the ruined chapel, with trees growing on top of its walls. And the bachelor pad quarters for officers. Finally, the Spanish lighthouse, which we climbed to the top of. From here, there was amazing view of the island and you could really see that it was shaped like a tadpole. Afterwards our legs were shaking and I had sweated through my shirt - but we still decided to take the nature trail walk with the guide rather than get back on the tram. He took us through an old trail, what used to be a road on the base, by all these overgrown houses. Then we got to the memorial for the American and Filipino soldiers that died in the Pacific War. The Pacific War memorial. But before we went onto the museum, the tour guide pulled me and Dona aside.

"I want to show you something special." I was a little scared - what was he going to show us? Why just us two girls? The whole time, going through my mind, is when is he going to kill or hurt us, or even just hit on us? Can I take him? Hopefully. What if he has friends hiding in the jungle? We had to walk down a trail with a rope to help us. Then we were at a little overgrown house. We went inside and he showed us some of the debris, old medicine bottles, artifacts from WWII. Then, we left there and continued on. I see a cave in front of me, a Japanese tunnel. If there is anywhere to die, surely this will be it. But we go inside and use a rope to help us ascend. It's very dark and goes on for a while, and then starts going up. I can't imagine that the Japanese lived in these tunnels when they were besieging the island - but they did. I am still waiting for us to be killed in here and left for dead, with the explanation to the other tourists that we "disappeared" and must be off running around the island, silly girls. But I guess he just wanted to give us a taste of the adventure that existed on the island for people who wanted more than a day tour! Because he then brought us back. i gave him a big (20$) tip for this extra service because it was pretty darn cool! I had to apologize for thinking he was going to kill us.

After that, we had to take the ferry back. They played a James Taylor concert video for the whole way back. What torture! At least it was air-conditioned inside. We weren't allowed on deck the ferry, which was too bad because the sunset would have been beautiful.

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