Malumpatan Island, Agho Island and Sandbar Island.

Sunrise

                  Wake up due to noise of I think a kind of animal on the roof, when I checked my phone it was only past 4AM in the morning, my first time in this place so i can't get my sleep anymore, I checked tim and mabel and they're still sleeping. After 30 minutes of just lying on bed forcing myself to get back to sleep but I cannot, I decided to get up and take a breath of fresh air outside. I walk into the shore with my camera waiting for the sunrise still low tide. The sun didn't show up when he rise because he was covered by clouds. So i decide to take some scene, before 6 AM I back to the room and started preparing our breakfast, tim and mabel has awake.

           
                  Before 7 AM our boat has arrived to pick us up for island hopping, we decided to visit the Malumpatan first, where it was feature in one of sunday program Balitang K, we leave in tambalisa at around 7 AM in the morning, we ride a boat going to malumpatan island, after 20 minutes of ride, we reach the island. The water is clear and a nice rock formation, as usual taking picture and exploring the place.

 Malumpatan Island

At the Malumpatan Island

                 There are two more island that we need to visit, so after taking some picture we leave the island and proceed to ag-ho island. We reached the g-ho island after 30 minutes which also has the same clear water as Malumpatan. It is also a white sand beaches, me, mabel and tim enjoyed the simple beauty of this island and not that crowded.

Ag-ho Island

At Ag-ho Island

 
                   Our last destination here is the Sandbar Island, from checking of picture on some of the website, this island is know for its sandbar, maybe from there the owner got the name of the island. All of us were excited going to that Island and as for us that's the finale which is the best island but upon reaching the island we saw that it was too crowded and it is a high tide.The sandbar was not visible although you can still walk but it was covered by water, in short we got dissapointed on what we saw. The place was crowded and lot of trash  along the shore of the island, an empty bottle, plastic and some slipper floating. The group decided still to explore the island and just taking picture only, I didn't swim anymore, Tim and Mabel took a swim for a while then we stay there for our lunch. After having our lunch with mountain dew that costs us 27 pesos per bottle, we decided to leave the island and go back to the town because the last trip of the bus from concepcion to Iloilo is 2PM and it's already 1 PM. After 30 minutes of ride we reached the town. The leave the place at around 2 PM. at around 4 PM we reached iloilo. Another adventure, another experience it was another great weekend, even though we dissapointed on what we saw in the sandbar but overall it was good.

Sandbar Island

(This trip was done on May 20, 2012)

Mt. Manaphag, Concepcion Iloilo

                May 19, 2012 After spending previous weekend finding my relatives in Passi Iloilo, me and my colleague decided to take another outdoor trip in iloilo. This time it is located in the Municipality of Concepcion. The plan was we will do a dayhike climb of the highest mountain in the island then the following day we will do an Island hopping. We wakeup early and then travel going to tagbak terminal where we take a bus trip going to concepcion of course with my colleague buddy Tim and Mabel. We arrived at around 6 am in tagbak terminal which the first trip of bus going to concepcion ha about to leave, we decided first to take our breakfast and take the second trip going to concepcion. What we ate? again chicken from andoks.. So after breakfast we ride a bus going to concepcion and leave at the terminal around 7 in the morning. and after 2 and 1/2 ride we arrived in the town of concepcion. We go first to tourism office for a registration and pay 20 pesos for the fee. Tim contacted the boatman whose already waiting for us. Tourism office not that far from the port where we ride a rented boat. The sea was calm and there are so many jelly fish, first thing comes in my mind when I saw it was the cartoon spongebob because the jellyfish looks like that in the cartoon. Anyway we leave the port at around 10 AM, during the travel we can see the mountain that we will hike, the mount manaphag which is located in Brgy. Tambalisa.

                  After more than 30 minutes we arrived in Brgy Tambalisa and then we look for kagawad sorry I forgot his name where the tourism officer told us to look for and we can stay in their place. After few minutes of wating, the kagawad has arrived, after some negotiation my colleague and I decided to take one room in kagawad's resort's "Irish Beach Park" at the foot of Mt. Manaphag. It was nearly lunch so I start to prepare our lunch, cooking our rice and prepared our canned goods. We also ask what the resort food can offer to us. Our meal for our lunch is canned good tuna, tortang talong and small dried fish called dilis in manila good enough to feed our hungry stomach.

                 Taking a little bit of rest, around 1 in the afternoon we decided to take the challenge of the Mt. Manaphag. We took a guide which that is the requirements for us to able to hike on that mountain. From the start of trek mabel and tim was a liitle bit nervous because it's their first time to do hike. The weather was so hot from the start and you can feel a little bit of wind from your skin. First hour of trek both of them are ok then we reach the view deck of the mountain where you can view the whole brgy. and some island from a far. The view was great and our location was a little bit dangerous because were in the side of a cliff. After taking some picture we resume our trek and I saw on tim's face that he started to feel the altitude, he started to feel dizzy so from time to time to took a 5 minutes rest while Mabel is enjoying the the trail and love hanging and lifting her body from the help of the tree trunks. I remember also when I asked Tim if he's ok he said yes and when I asked him again if he is sure then he answered me he didn't sure. Then I asked him seriously if he still want to continue and he answered me yes, the answered I want to hear from him that he can finish this trek. There still no trail so it's like we exploring the mountain and  not to mention that I always heard tim's voice ouch.... always something happen to him, it's either bitten by ants or victimized by some thorny plants. After 2 hours of trek, finally we reached the summit, even though it's not a 360 degrees view in the summit, actually no view at all because it was surround by trees, we feel great because we reached the summit that everyone is safe.  

Trek going to the summit

At the summit

                 After taking some rest and picture of course, I asked our guide if we the traverse is much easier than the trail that we accent and according to him it will be better to take the traverse because the trail was already established. So we decide to do the traverse, Tim is feeling better now, he already recovered from dizziness but another problem is he has a fear of height. So we descent on the other side of the mountain, I still recall how mabel laugh at tim because tim already removed his slipper just to cope up with the trail , He feel the trail was slippery  maybe because his knee was already shaking because of his fear of height. During the middle of the descent we stop at one house and take some rest, our guide offer us a coconut fruit for refreshing our body, that time it is hard to say no. Our guide climb up the coconut tree and pick it up some for us. Its almost 4 PM when we continue our descent and then after an hour we reach the other brgy on the other side of the mountain. We also visit one local houses which has a Philippine eagle pet. I asked the owner about the eagle and he told me that he already set the eagle free but its keep coming back so he decided to keep it. 

The descent

Eating Coconut Fruit

                    Going back to the brgy. were we are staying, we walk along the shore, it was a low tide so we enjoy a different rock formation, we reach brgy. tambalisa at around 6 PM. Mabel and Tim had enjoy our trek,its their first time, Tim got some bruises because of that thorny plants and he also got some bite from ants but overall the climb was great.

             
         

Nogas Island

                        June 10 when we decided to go to this Island. I just saw this island when I'm looking and checking what are the other places I can visit while I'm in iloilo because in a few weeks we will be back in manila. Since our trip in Malalison Island has been cancelled twice, I think this can be an alternative that we can visit for a day only. So my itchy feet together with my colleague buddy Mabel and Tim leave the boarding house early as 5:30 and took a breakfast in Jollibee Jaro, first we didn't know how to go to the terminal in Molo so we ask some of the crew of Jollibee.

            After eating our breakfast, we took a two ride jeep going to the terminal but when we reached the terminal, we were informed that the first trip of BUS going to Anini-y was already leave and the next trip will be 3 PM, we ask some of the driver on what other alternative way going to Anini-y then one of themn told us to take a san joaquin jeep and from there take a trike, luckily after giving us instruction a jeep stop in front of us which is a san joaquin trip. We ride into that jeep and after an almost 1 and 1/2 hours of travel we reach San Joaquin. From there we took a single motor ride which cost us 100 per head and took us almost 30 minutes. When we reach Siraan-Hot spring we paid an entrance of 20 pesos and from there we rent a boat going to Nogas Island.

            The boat cost us 500 peso round trip, not expensive anyway for the 3 of us and the capacity of boat is for 10 person. From siraan hot spring you can see from afar the Nogas island which the landmark is the light house. Mabel was so very excited because its her first time for her to visit a lighthouse. After almost 15 minutes in the sea, we reached the island, we are entice by the clear water that you can see what lies underneath. The path going to light house was great, it's like you're walking in the isle with calachuchi tree both side. 

The Path going to Lighthouse

            We start exploring the island, we go first to the light house, unfortunately were not able to go inside because it was closed. After taking some picture we to the mangrove farm where i saw a fish that is new to me because it has a leg, the fish was called mudskipper. After the mangrove we took a picture of an old Balete tree then we go back to the shore to take a swim in the clear water. We also saw one of the fishermen catch a huge squid and a huge fish, I forgot what's the name of the fish.

Nogas Lighthouse

The Balete Tree 

The Bats 

The Mudskipper

             While waiting for our boat, rain fell and I thought the boat will wait for the rain to stop before they pick us up, but after few minute our boat has arrived to pick us up, we travel going back to siraan hotspring while raining, I remember mabel how tight she's holding on the boat because of the wave hitting our boat, upon reaching siraan the rain started to stop. 

The huge fish 

Giant squid

Us

              We took our lunch at one of the restaurant in Siraan hotspring then after lunch we decided to swim in the pool but we were disappointed when we saw how the pool look like. So we decided just to change our clothe and going home. The driver of a single motor or the local call it habal-habal was waiting for us. We leave Siraan hotspring at about past 1:30PM, At San Joaquin we took a bus going to Molo terminal. We reach the town of Molo at around past 5:00PM and we decided to go to Starbucks to have some coffee before we go home.