The Batanes Story

I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶f̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶a̶l̶s̶.̶ ̶ I have simple requisites for rather "fancy" life goals. Case in point: I want to go to Paris to hug (and not even to eat!) a brown bag full of hot, freshly-baked baguettes. Never mind that the Eiffel Tower's standing right behind me, asking for a selfie. I want to go to New York to take the subway in a trenchcoat and Manolos--looking like I'm in a rush just because. Haha.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got to tick off another simple item from my list, and that is to wear a vakul in Batanes. Yay! 

The vakul is a headgear made from abaca that is designed to protect Ivatans (Batanes locals) from the heat and the rain. It goes well with the kanayi (vest) and the backpack, don't you think? The whole ensemble's so "abacard" (hahaha get it? 😛). Too bad the kanayi's actually for men. 

With one clear objective in mind, I felt so accomplished already after having tried the vakul. But-- this coming from a nature non-fan-- I must say that there is so much more to love other than the stylishness and practicality of Ivatan fashion . 

1) Most obvious would be Batanes' beauty that needs #nophotoshopnofilternotapon. If only my eyes had camera lens to capture everything I saw and do justice to the real thing! For now, make do with some of the photos that I took and just imagine that everything's 10x more beautiful in person 😛

I was most awed by the Vayang Rolling Hills. It is less popular than Tinyan and Marlboro Country, which made it to the big screen already, or Basco and Tayid Lighthouse, which made it to postcards and souvenir shirts, but looking at it was just overwhelming. I had to hold on to our tour guide so the wind would not blow me away like a wobbly kite but the effort was worth it. The vast greens ended where the deep blue of the West Philippine Sea started. I believe even the cows were of a sharper shade of white (whut? Haha). 

It was that windy. 

See how I clung to that post? Haha!

The Basco Lighthouse was just a stone's throw away from Vayang Rolling Hills. 

A photo shoot by the lighthouse's staircase was called for. 

It was a nice place to view the reflection of the sun's rays peeking through the clouds

and also to take photos by the dilapidated shelter. 

I also liked the Dipnaysupuan Japanese Tunnel for its significance in history. It served as shelter and lookout for Japanese soldiers during WWII. Plus this photo:

Getting into the tunnel was easy, but getting out (for the seniors) was like

It would be a good idea to get married at Mt. Carmel Chapel (or Tukon Church). It is a small church built almost entirely on boulders, save for the wooden doors and stained glass windows.

It's far up in North Batan and can only accommodate a few guests, it will be so easy to uninvite unnecessary people (Ha!) One interesting fact: the saints that were painted on the ceiling of the church were made to look like the Ivatans. You can tell from the high-bridged nose and the brown skin. 

About a 40-minute wavy boat ride away from Batan is a town called Sabtang which I most remember for the traditional communities.

This is what will greet you at the entrance of the village. 

Another option for a wedding

if you want it colorful, for a change. 

That's Nelson, our tour guide, talking about traditional Ivatan houses. These houses are made of stone, lime and cogon grass roof and have a storage area submerged at the basement, thus they're built to stand strong typhoons. They may look the same to us but there are actually two types of Ivatan houses, the difference is one has a two-sided roof while the other has a four-sided roof.

This one has a two-sided roof. 

That's me, just sitting by the front door of an Ivatan house while ate inside was weaving. The locals are so used to tourists doing touristy things that they don't seem to mind at all haha. 

Me again, just standing by the pretty flowers planted outside one house. 

I noticed that the same structures were used even for the office of the punong barangay (see below) and the airport (no photo). 

And the same cogon roof material was used for their tricycles. It's best to tour the village in these. 

There was also an area in Sabtang with a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean but after the Vayang Rolling Hills experience, I wasn't as impressed (that or I've prolly had enough hills already) 😁 

But don't get me wrong, it was beautiful and what set it apart was there were rock formations perfect for these:

Another iconic place in Sabtang, or in Batanes as a whole, is the Nakabuang beach. It's home to the Nakabuang Arch, turquoise waters and white, powdery sand. It would've been an ideal place to swim but the place has not yet really been developed for such and so there's no place to properly rinse and change after. So I passed up on the swimming part, but I heard from my brother and my cousin who still went for it that the water's saktong cold and wavy 👍🏻 

It was so hard to take a photo without photo bombers! Co-tourists flock in this area for lunch and the beach has a short stretch, so sneak out while everyone's busy eating. 

This is where everyone eats. 

This is where you want to go. 

Oh! Selfie 😄

I wish I got to experience you 😭

A 3-day tour of Batanes usually ends with the South Batan tour. This was my least favorite because it was like a repeat of the North Batan tour but we got a lot of photos that I'd like to post here anyway.

Us, looking fresh as we went down the Chawa View Deck. 

Us, climbing back up. I was sweating heaps and my nostrils were flaring! Don't try this after 9am, before 12nn. Don't try this at all. Lol kidding. 

This was the view down there, so you could say that the sweat was worth it. 

Then I left a short letter somewhere in book no. 1 of South Batan's library (nope, I didn't vandalize the book, the library holds hundreds of books with blank pages and people are encouraged to write about whatever's in their head--although I think the idea is to write about your Batanes experience. I flipped through the pages and saw a lot of emo letters about finding oneself and all that haha). Look for it if in case you'll be in the area! 

I took a photo by the San Jose Church because it matched my top haha. 

Near the church was the famous Honesty Coffee Shop. 

We all know how this works-- there's coffee, camote chips and pastries for sale but there's nobody manning the store, and so it's up to you to be honest and pay for whatever you'll be getting. To make deciding easier, please do consider that a couple of elderly people own the shop and rely on it as their source of living 😊

Dishonest people are not welcomed here.

"Bukas na po ang tindahan!"

Then we were off to Marlboro Country. 

But first, photo by the road side!

At Marlboro Country:

This was what the photographer had to go through to get a similar shot haha: 

Like in Vayang Rolling Hills, you can also see a lighthouse (Mahatao Tayid Lighthouse) from Marlboro Country. 

You can tell the Tayid Lighthouse from the Basco Lighthouse by the tip of the main tower--Tayid's is hexagonal instead of round. It also faces the Pacific Ocean whereas Basco Lighthouse faces the West Philippine Sea. Tayid's main tower is also closed to the public and so there's no provision for photos by the staircase here 😂

Front view

Back view

Side view (serious)

Side view (candid) haha!

2nd thing to love more than the stylishness and practicality of Ivatan fashion (finally, we're back to the topic): Batanes makes you forget that just over an hour plane ride away, there's a world that's more complicated and superficial. I mean in Batanes, "rush hour" is when you pass by another bike in the national highway! There are no fancy hotels but there are homey accommodations. There are no posh restaurants (I'm just not used to seeing beef steak on the menu) but they serve really tender beef and fresh seafood. If you're friendly enough, they might even cook coconut crabs for you (but try not to do this because the coconut crabs are getting harder and harder to find. As for us, we were not able to resist it :( ). 

And finally, 3) the locals are the nicest, warmest neighbors you wish you had. Aside from Nelson, our tour guide, we also grew fond of Ate Linda, the caretaker of the lodge where we stayed at. She was very warm, hospitable and helpful. She also made the best garlic rice and steamed coconut crab. I wish we could take ate Linda home with us 😭

We were lucky to be able to book Time Travel Lodge. It's relatively new and compared to the other accommodations that we saw, it was also the quirkiest. 

I was sitting on the Basco Lighthouse. 

The parentals making pa-cute by the lodge's garden. 

The little area where we ate dried flying fish, egg and fried rice in the morning and convened over pizza at night. Yes, there's pizza. I reco Casa Napoli. They have super yum thin crust pizza and wings.

This little area also has its own version of honesty shop where you can take cup noodles, softdrinks and cookies and just leave the payment in the food container.

Dios Mamajes, Batanes! I hope to be back soon 😊

Notes: 
I want to hook you up with Nelson and ate Linda! See details below.
Nelson - you may contact Northern Adventure Travel and Tours at 09084424042 and request for Nelson.
Ate Linda of Time Travel Lodge - 09396238978