This is my second time to visit the City of Love, Iloilo. The last time I came here, me and my friends went backpacking from Roxas up to here then explored Guimaras island, so this time, Our destination was.. Isla de Gigantes. I took the Philippne Airline first flight, that departs at 4:40 am and arrives in Iloilo International Airport at 5:50 am. From Iloilo International Airport, i took a van outside that leads to SM Iloilo, it took about 20 to 30 minutes. Then From SM Iloilo I took a cab to get to my friend's house which is in Molo. We had breakfast, and about 9:30 am we left their house and went on our way to Isla de gigantes. From their place we took two jeepneys to get to Tagbak Terminal. From Tagbak terminal, we took a van going to Estancia Port. It took around 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get to the Estancia Terminal. The van fare is 150/pax Along the way, we just slept, and when we're almost near, we bought a rice cake which only costs twenty pesos! It's really good! We reached the terminal at lunch time so we took a tricycle to Pa-on Beach Club where we had our lunch. Tricycle fee is 15 pesos/pax.
We had our lunch and met Kuya Joel at the beach club, Kuya Joel is the tourism officer in Carles, Iloilo and he is our contact person in the island. After our lunch, we took a tricycle to the port which costs 10 pesos/ pax and Kuya Joel accompanied us. The boat fare is 80 pesos and it only has once a day trip which leaves Estancia Port at 2pm, and Isla Gigantes at 9 am. It took about 2 hours to get to the island. We left the port quite late, during the long trip, me and my good friend Jimai took chance of taking a nap and of course.. photos.
We arrived in the island almost 5:30 pm already. We were welcomed by Kuya Joseph, our official tourguide from Gigantes Hideaway Tourist Inn. We rode a single motorcycle to get to the tourist inn, the fare is 10 pesos/pax. We were brought to our room, we put down our things and drank cold water. It was a long trip, and a long day. We took a rest for a few minutes and then we changed clothes and asked Kuya Joseph to bring us to where the sun sets.
The view was breathtaking!!!
Need I say more? :D
And before I forgot, the island's electric supply is from 5pm until 11pm only, but at the resort they use generator so we can still charge our phones and use light and electric fan at night. They turn off the generator in the morning, you wouldn't need it anyway, since morning awaits lots of activities. And phone signal is quite not accessible, there is this place which they call, "call center" that's the only spot in the island that has signal. It's so nice to be detached from the world once in a while.
We started our day by waking up at 5 am and waiting for sunrise, but that day, it was a bit cloudy so we failed to see the beautiful sunrise, we just took photos anyway, having mangrove as our background.
After our failed attempt of sunrise watching, we went back to our room, had coffee and we head to the light house. The round trip fare to go to the lighthouse is 60 pesos/pax.
The place is just so beautiful. We decided to climb up the 72 steps of the lighthouse despite our fear of height. We didn't regret it anyway, the view is just...
How scared can we get?? We can't even stand! LOL!
But wait, there's more!
So we tried our very best, to stand up and enjoy the view, after a few minutes we got used to it. :)
So, this is their source of electricity.
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| Solar Panel |
After we bravely climb up the lighthouse, we went back to our inn to have breakfast and to start our island hopping, though we promised to ourselves we have to go back to that lighthouse to take more photos of the ruins before we leave the island. And so, our island hopping has started, we were supposed to go to 'tangke' first but unfortunately the waves are too strong so our guide Kuya Joseph decided to just come back later. We then headed to our first stop, Cabugao Gamay island.
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| “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” ― C.S. Lewis |
Since the island is so beautiful, i can't think of the right words to describe the place, I was really overwhelmed by it's beauty. So Cabugao Island has no electricity as well but it has signal! So we took time to call our family and let them know that we're still alive and kickin'. Cabugao island has an environmental fee of 20 pesos/pax. After taking of tons of pictures in this island (though we seemed still not satisfied with hundred of photos we took, we still want more :p) we started moving to the next island, which is Antonia Island.
We had our lunch in Antonia island.
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| seafood is LOVE! |
We were supposed to do snorkeling here, but we were too busy taking photos in the island, so we ran out of time. We didn't get to snorkel but we have bagged lots of pictures :D which I think is more important for us since we both don't know how to swim :p
After spending most of our time in Antonia, we paid the environmental fee of 20 pesos each then we went back to "tangke" unfortunately the waves are still too strong, but I bravely jump off the water just to take a photo of what they call "tangke". It was very risky though. I took couple of shots from my cellphone and Jimai's phone.
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| tangke |
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| And so, this is how "tangke" looks like during low tide. |
We were supposed to go cliff jumping from one of the rocks here, but since the waves are too strong, we couldn't to that activity. I think that's just another reason to go back to the island. ;)
After I took these photos, we hurriedly left the place because Kuya Joseph as well as our boatmen noticed that there was suddenly a dark cloud, what they call "unos". We went straight to Bantigue island which is a sand bar.
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| haduken shot |
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| Trolling around |
After the island hopping, we went back to the isla de gigantes for our caving adventure. We arrived at the port around 3:30 pm. Our guide met us and brought at the entrance of the Cave.
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| vadering lol :p |
We tried our very best to finish the trail of the cave. The view from the top is really amazing!
And yeah, believe it or not, we survived the darkness of the cave! We crawl, we side steps, we climb, we lifted our bodies, in other words... WE SURVIVED!~ :D
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| surviving spelunking |
After a very tiring yet fun-filled day, we had our dinner and fell asleep easily. in the morning, we woke up early and went back to the light house. There we took chance to take photos of sunrise and the ruins.
The whole stay in Isla de Gigantes is truly worth it! The experience was awesome, the food are great and the people are really amazing! They are very hospitable and friendly.
And of course we couldn't just leave the place without taking souvenirs from our guides.
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| our cave guide |
Kuya Joseph was too shy to have photos with us, but we finally get to convinced him :)
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| Kuya Joseph (tour guide and our official photographer) :p |
So my contact person in Isla de Gigantes, Kuya Joel happened to be visiting the Isla days after we arrived.
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| Kuya Joel |
If you want to see for yourself the beautiful islands of Isla de Gigantes, feel free to get in touch with Kuya Joel 0918 468 5006. He is based mostly in Carles, Iloilo so his phone has signal and he would reply as soon as he could. The boat rent and the island hopping was supposedly 2,000 pesos for the whole day, but Kuya Joel gave us discount so it's only 1,800. :) The adventure-filled days in the island is over but I know this is of the end of my journey, soon enough I'll be on my feet again to discover more of the destination worth seeing. And hopefully i could share my experiences and adventures to others and make them curious why #itsmorefuninthephilippines. :D Til' my next trip! ;)
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| Port of Estancia |
Suggested itinerary
Day 1
- take early flight from Manila
- Arrival in Iloilo City
- Go to JARO -Tagbak Terminal
- (look for van or Ceres bus)
- take Tricycle to Pa-on Beach Club
- Lunch at Pa-on Beach Club
- take Tricycle to Estancia port
- take a boat from Estancia Port to Isla de Gigantes
- check in at Gigantes hideaway resort
- look around, free time
- climb the 72 steps light house
- Island hopping
- swimming
- snorkeling
- Lunch at the island
- natural cliff jumping
- mountain trekking
- spelunking cave exploration
- watch sunset & sunrise
- motorbiking
- return to resort
- dinner
- FREE TIME (so we choose to go back to the light house and take a lot of photos at the ruins :) )
- Van to Tagbak Terminal --- 150/way
- tricycle to Pa-on Beach Club --- 15/way
- Lunch at Pa-on --- 150~200
- Tricycle to Estancia Port --- 10/way
- Boat from Estancia Port to Isla de Gigantes --- 80/way
- Room per night/pax (Gigantes Hideaway Resort) --- 200
- Activities --- Estimated price 2,000/pax
- (Island hopping,swimming,snorkeling,natural cliff jumping, mountain trekking,spelunking cave exploration, watch sunset & sunrise,motorbiking)
- Food in the island --- 500-1,000/pax (it depends, the resort personnel provides the food)
- Motorcycle ride --- 10 per ride/pax
Kuya JOEL 0918 468 5006
Hope you enjoy the island as much as we did!!! ;)
