Bantayan Island, Cebu

Bantayan Island, Cebu. This was taken on Easter Sunday.




To get to Bantayan, we had to take a 2-hour-plus road trip from the Mactan airport in Cebu to the town of Hagnaya.




The scenery went from this...





... to this. A long and lonely trip, but the roads were very good.



The chaos of Hagnaya port during the Holy Week, full of people headed to the Sta. Fe pier in Bantayan island. We stayed here longer than we should have, and then even had to return when the "fast craft" we chose had to turn back because it couldn't handle the waves. The bigger, slower ferry was the better choice.













Some shots from our home base, the Marlin Resort. I couldn't sleep two nights out of three because of the cold aircon that was too high up for me to control, but they gave us good service.

The beach is covered with fine sand, not as white as Boracay and a little rockier. The water is clear and cool most of the time, at least when we weren't being tossed around by the waves. (The waves were, they told us, unnaturally strong during our visit.) I like a little waves here and there actually.

Another quirk of this beach is that it recedes in the late afternoon, revealing sand bars, just when you think the tide is about to rise. At night, it recedes so far out that we could barely see the water anymore. I wish I had a picture of that.



Our favorite breakfast place.



85 pesos for this and a cup of coffee. The first morning I had tocino instead of corned beef, and that meal came with a banana for some reason.







Some shots from the town. Notice this sign in particular, hung at the Sta. Fe town church, which made us feel a little down because we did think we were headed for a fiesta.

But we went to the Bantayan town proper on Good Friday anyway, despite people telling us there was no fiesta. There was a procession, so maybe we could look at that instead. Or buy danggit if there really wasn't anything happening.

And yet, when we got to the town...










I don't know. What's a fiesta supposed to look like if they're not on fiesta now?







More of the church.



A float from the procession. Notice the pink flowers.



Close up on the float. It comes with kids!



Dried fish, the thing to buy in Bantayan. I brought home 1/4 kilo each of dried squid, danggit, dilis and a red sweet fish thing.









(No one from our traveling party tested this.)





Taken on the tricycle back to Sta. Fe, where our resort is.



Day 3 merienda, halo-halo and a ripe mango. The halo-halo had fresh mango in it, which mixed with the milk and gave everything a fresh fruity flavor. Loved this variation. (I had a halo-halo once that had cheese in it -- loved that too.)



How to eat a ripe mango without a knife -- just peel and bite into it. Messy but effective. This, by the way, was a REALLY GOOD mango.



When we left the Sta. Fe port, the waters were considerably calmer.



We don't speak Cebuano, so hopefully we didn't break any laws.



Videoke in the ferry. (They changed it to Enteng Kabisote when the trip began.)



Taken at the Julie's Bakeshop in Hagnaya, while negotiating for a ride back to Cebu City.



Last stop before the airport -- Krua Thai in SM Cebu. Had bagoong rice and an iced green tea, yum.



Sunset from the plane. This was amazing.


Nice town, great beach -- just a bit of a hassle to get to. Half the fun (or maybe more) was provided by my travel companions though, so if you're thinking of taking this trip it should be with people you find amusing. :)