Two Days on Bantayan Island

Bantayan Island Trip 08-22-2009

Last week I went with a friend over to Bantayan Island for a night.  I wanted to stay longer but unlike him, I’m not on vacation but I am on a budget, which is blown.  My friend though, he’s still over there.  Seems he likes the place as much as I do.

I wish I could get over to the Island at least once a month but I just can’t seem to make that happen just yet.   Its not an expensive place to go.   It can be but it doesn’t’ have to be.  My overnight stay  cost about $65.00 and that included transportation to and from the island.

My last visit was a peaceful one, nothing out of the ordinary happened, nothing but fun and one topless girl but she was too far away to see her at all.   She was out in the water as was Joe and I so we headed that way and the top went back on quickly.  LOL  Oh well.  Shhh I probably shouldn’t even mention such a scandalous thing. 

I Finally got a chance to take my underwater camera underwater!  That resulted in some pictures from an unusual perspective.

We stayed out until fairly dark.  I looked around and noticed none of the locals were in the water and decided it was time to get out.    Probably the worst that would have happened is not being able to see where I put my foot.

The next day, we headed back out at low tide and went further out than we usually go.  Saw a beautiful Sea urchin that looked like a cactus.  Then I realized why it was a bad idea to stay after dark.   One needs to see what they are putting their feet down on.

The way the sun light gets focused into dancing lines on the sea floor fascinates me for some reason.  I’m sure those that are frequent beach goers would not be so easily amused but I am.  I would have cropped this picture off more but I love that dancing light.

I have too many pictures great to post in one article.  I’ll include more in a gallery at the end of this article.

The water was warm, almost hot in places.   That made it very pleasant.  When we went in February, the water was quite cool but that also probably helped to keep the urchins further away from the coast line.

Speaking of the coast line.  It changes quite a bit.  When we were there two months ago, the sand was piled high on the beach at Tristan’s.  Now that is gone, leaving a high step to get on the steps from the beach leading to the restaurant at Tristan’s.  The sand has moved because the currents have changed creating this sand bar.

I don’t know exactly when but that sandbar will later disappear again.

The day came to an end and we found that we had to return home.   On our trip home we had a bit of excitement, not that I look for excitement when on a ship!  We heard someone on the bridge yell something and the boat made a hard turn.  We never did know what that was about.  Some one the bridge had their heads hanging out the window watching something.

I don’t know if we nearly ran over a fisherman or if there was something in the water and the maneuver might have been routine because of some type of hazard.  I have twice noticed dredging going on in that area so I suspect there is some kind of hazard there that the captains know how to avoid and that’s all that happened.

We nearly missed our boat home!  Normally, the last boat leaves Bantayan Island at 4:30pm but there was some kind of problem with one of the ships.  I had noticed that there were two ferries in port at the same time and usually there is only one.  The ships gate was not positioned correctly on the dock, looked like it was teetering on falling right in.

One of Tristan’s employees had learned of this and raced back to the resort to tell us we needed to leave now as the last boat may not leave today.  He took us by pedicab to the dock, by passing some of the normal steps so that we didn’t miss what probably turned out to be the last boat of the day.  Its the kind of service that Tristan’s provides on a normal basis.

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