Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan

Today’s itinerary looked easy enough on paper: only three activities for the entire day. Unfortunately, each one is in three different places. The morning was spent at the Hundred Islands. Of the 123 islands, we were only able to step foot on two: Governor’s Island and Quezon Island. These two islands are two of the only three islands that were developed in the entire marine park. Governor’s island has a view deck that can be reached upon climbing 120-something uneven steps. It’s a pretty light and easy hike and you’ll be rewarded with a fantastic view of the islands. Governor’s Island is also where the Pinoy Big Brother house is located, which can be rented for Php 10,000 per night. The house has a couple of bedrooms, lots of beds, kitchen, dining area, toilet and bath.

Should I kayak or swim?

Quezon Island has more buildings in it, which includes a rental shop for various watersports. There’s also a pavilion where groups can have a picnic. Though the beach is rather small, there are areas where you can swim, kayak or snorkel. For lunch, we feasted on grilled pork, grilled bangus, shrimp, vegetables and seaweeds. Dessert was sweet locally harvested ripe mangoes.

Sadly, we still have places to go, so we packed up and headed back to the mainland. We drove on, following the coastline to Masinloc, Zambales. Here, we learned about their programs aimed to preserve the region’s diverse and endangered marine life. They’re taking the program further by offering eco-tours that aim to educate the public. The tours allow you to partake in the town’s efforts to help the environment like mangrove planting. Ironically though, the marine biodiversity of the town is under the shadow of the coal fired thermal power plant.

Birthday girl Cha snorkeling at Quezon Island

After the presentation, we boarded the bus and headed to Subic, our final stop for the night. Our first activity in Subic was the Tree Top Night Adventure. The Subic Extreme Adventure park that I experienced in 2004 has transformed into a one-stop high flying adventure zone. Different adventure packages are being offered from tame canopy walks to the adrenalin rush inducing tree top drops.

We finally end up at White Rock Resort for drinks and karaoke. This is our home for the moment, until we check out at 6am.

Today started out relatively late at 7:30am. We were actually supposed to be waiting at the lobby already, but everybody seemed to have enjoyed their sleep last night, so by 7:30, we were just checking out and having breakfast.

Darth Vader pondering the life and times at the Empire by the Ambuklao River. And why his clone army has a very short life span.

There was a press briefing at the Baguio Country Club. Baguio is taking a different route for promoting tourism in their region: adventure travel. It’s not exactly what you would expect from Baguio, a place known for its temperate climate, fresh produce and ukay-ukay shopping.

We were introduced to the Ambuklao Dam and River, where activities like kayaking, river boarding, karting, mountain biking, rappeling, snorkeling and even SCUBA diving is possible. A mere 45-minute drive from the City of Pines, this is a great day trip and an alternative to the usual Baguio itinerary.

Karlo and Monica karting at the river bed

The Baguio Country Club takes it up a notch by offering a picnic service that lets you enjoy the outdoors in style. Picture this, you spend the day going through all sorts of adventure (or misadventure) in the dam, and with the last ounce of energy, you walk to a clearing where a nice picnic is waiting for you, complete with an outdoor bar that serves refreshing drinks, a chef to prepare the most sumptuous of meals and a butler to tend to your needs. Okay, that may seem a bit too pretentious especially right in the middle of a dry riverbed, but really, after an exhausting day, nothing beats a cool drink (the Baguio Mint was an instant hit) and some flavorful adobo served over a mound of white rice.

Enjoy a fine meal at the end of your adventure

Due to a problem with our shuttle, our schedule was thrown off the loop and we were terribly behind. It was already 5 o’clock when we left Baguio, when we should be doing our courtesy call at the Pangasinan Capitol at 5:30pm. We finally rolled into the capitol complex at 8 o’clock. We were given a mini tour of the complex, including a tour of the provincial capitol, where we had a very late snack of tupig, bangus fillet, dinuguan and puto.

I’m writing this from inside the Lakbay Norte Victory Liner bus as we make our way to Alaminos. I’m heading straight to bed later; it’s another long day tomorrow.

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