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Published: March 7th 2011
After the exhilaration of swimming with whale sharks in Donsol we had some island hopping ahead of us! Our travelling over the next couple of days was actually quite difficult - we had planned to cross over a couple of islands in one day but once we realised that some of these islands only had one ferry in the morning our plans were sunk!! It became even more difficult as Tina was suffering from a stinking cold - perhaps a goodbye souvenir from the whale sharks!
Our first ‘hop’ was to the island of Masbate where we then took a jam-packed local bus to the ferry port of Mindaon - this was when it started to dawn on us our travelling plans had been a bit ambitious. We booked into a lodging resort for the night as we could not take the next ferry till early next morning. Mindaon was a bustling little town, and we enjoyed having a very local Filipino dish in the only restaurant we could find while ofcourse some karaoke was being sung in the background!
The next morning our small ferry (more like a fishing boat!) took us to the small but beautiful Sibuyan
Island. With an Italian traveler – the only other foreigner we bumped into on our ‘hopping’, we jumped aboard a tricycle to head to the next port town of San Fernando. Again, we managed to check into the only lodgings in town for the ferry the next morning. San Fernando was once of the nicest little communities we have seen in the Philippines – not many foreigners travel here so a walk through the streets brought so many curious looks and usually laughter from the cheery locals at us!! But again, everyone was so friendly and constantly asking our name and where we were from – we were thinking by this point of carrying a sign with our name and nationality to make it easier!!
Day three of our island hop took us to the large island of Panay and its capital Iloilo which meant a return to some civilization again. This was just in the nick of time as the laundry situation had reached the crisis stage!! In Iloilo we took care of the necessities and headed out for some Friday night drinks in a cool little acoustic bar we had found. A live band played some great
tunes and even a few Filipino songs that we thought were pretty rockin’!! With only slight hangovers the next morning we headed off on our travels again in search of some beach time!!
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liliram
liliram
hi again
Hope u found your way to Boracay for more sun and sand. Livelier there,though around this time there should be less visitors because of the overcast sky. More places to lounge and dine too. From Iloilo in Panay, it should be just a bus ride away. Iloilo and Caticlan are in the same island. From Caticlan, a 15-minute boat ride to Boracay. Food to eat? Try La Paz Batchoy (a noodle dish) or Pancit Molo (a dumpling soup), chicken inasal (barbecued chicken) or lumpia (vegetable roll made from heart of palm). These dishes come from these islands. Happy travels!