Batanes (My Dream Vacation) 1st Part

Rolling Hills and Mt. Irayat

First of, GOOOOOD MOOOOORNING BATANES!!! That is my everyday mood when I was there, because it will always be a good morning when you are in Batanes. It is said that the islands of Batanes was created because of seismic movements in the sea that raises land from water, that is why most of the coast line are cliffs. First people in Batanes were Austronesians and they first set foot on a cave in Itbayat island from somewhere in Taiwan through boats.People in Batanes are called Ivatan and so as their languange. There are three islands that are inhabitant in the Batanes Group of Islands namely Batan (the center of commerce, where the Basco airport is located), Sabtang (south of Batan) and Itbayat (north of Batan). Batanes is known for its natural beauty, all you can see are natural landscapes that are created through time. Wind is both a gift and a curse on these islands. The wind brings cool breeze on a sunny day but also creates big waves in their seas and the reason why only large ships are capable of reaching Batanes from the island of Luzon.

You can reach Batanes through plane (Manila - Basco and Tuguegarao - Basco) or through ships (but ships that reaches the Basco are not paseenger ships, they just bring cargo shipments to the island and they came all the way from Pangasinan).

Batanes was my dream vacation and so I am really eager to go there. It is quite pricey to go there, normal price for a roundtrip ticket is Php16,000 and only two airlines have flights to Basco (Skyjet and PAL). So when we got the opportunity to buy a promo ticket, we bought it with no hesitation. We set meetings and discussed when, where and what are the things we will expect and do there (LOL). We agreed to stay there for 5 days, so we will not be in a hurry and to enjoy our vacation. We depart from Terminal 4 at around 7AM and arrived in Basco passed 8AM. By the way, flights in and out in Batanes are only in the morning, and usually MWF only with one flight for each airline. Below is my journal for each day we stayed in that awesome place.

February 26 (Day 1)
0600 depart from Manila terminal 4 airport
0730 arrived in Basco Batanes, weather: cloudy with small amount of rain
0800 arrived at Crisan homestay (walking distance from the airport)
0830 breakfast on a local carinderia near the homestay, there is a meatshop outside (Chilis is I think the name)
0900 rent a bike to north of Batan, went to Vayang rolling hills, Valugan boulder beach and Basco lighthouse, weather: sunny
Note: 20 per hour is the rent for a bike, biking will take a lot of effort since you will be climbing up the hills, be sure that your bike has working breaks as you will need it when you go downhill
1400 ate at the SDC canteen near the church
1430 arrived back at the homestay
1700 rode a tricycle and went back to the lighthouse to watch the sunset
1830 ate dinner at the same carinderia
1900 went back to the lodge to rest

Crisan Homestay

Road to Vayang Rolling Hills

Vayugan Boulder Beach

Basco Lighthouse

Sunset at the lighthouse