January 3, 2009: The Romblon Circle Tour

Another super-long day.  I was up at 3:30 after an odd, fitful night of sleep; we were on the ferry by 5 or so, making sure we didn't miss it.  As it happened, it didn't leave until 6:30, but getting there early ensured that we had seats.  We arrived at Romblon Town an hour later after an absolute hellride - it was like riding on a very large, slow mechanical bull for an hour.  No wonder smaller craft weren't allowed out - even the ferry (not the hugest boat in the world, but certainly sizable) was rolling up and down, being pounded by every single wave.  Eventually we moved into Romblon's harbor for some respite, but I only survived the whole trip with stomach contents intact by sitting in one spot, eyes closed and hands pushing against the seat in front of me.

After arriving we checked into the "condotel," which was nicer than the San Agustin accommodations by a factor of around eight bazillion.  The one room that Alma and I shared was bigger than the San Agustin room (plus it had two beds instead of just one, a night stand and an armoire), and that's before you include the other bedroom, living room and kitchen.  In addition, the bathroom had a toilet that actually flushed and a shower head that dispensed robustly, although unfortunately the water was ice cold (in the end I could only wash my head; the rest of my body simply recoiled from the temperature).  After a light breakfast (all I could get down), we headed out to tour Romblon in a jeepney with a passel of relatives from Alma's father's side, including two of his three siblings.

Our first two stops were at beachfront resorts, both of which were basically deserted (at least one was still partly under development, I think).  We got some nice unobstructed views of the ocean as a result, and could see Tablas as well as the small Bangog Island, which is separated from the main island by a sandbar that can be crossed at low tide (we did not do this).  We also dropped in briefly on a high school classmate of Alma's dad; we saw several over the couple days we were on the island, as the entire trip was motivated by her dad's 50th high school reunion.  After that it was off to Apunan Point on the south side of the island, which features a narrow lighthouse (apparently replacing an older one with a spiral staircase that Alma's dad remembered from years gone by).  I made the nervy climb to the top to get some pictures.  Nearby there was a turtle hatchery/sanctuary, which we looked at briefly before continuing our drive around the island.  We dropped in on another relative, and then I finally saw a carabao up close.  Later we had dinner, again with relatives, and then walked around Romblon Town's main area after dark.  After that I think we were all ready to crash, and our 18-hour day finished with a relatively early night.

A picture of the ferry from the safety of dry land.  It's a big enough ferry that cars can come over on it (not more than a couple, mind you), but the waves still rocked it.

Another look at the harbor.  Three islands just north of Romblon provide natural shelter for the harbor, so the water in it was relatively calm.

The port building at Romblon.  Much more impressive than its San Agustin counterpart, but of course Romblon Town is the provincial capital.

One of these guys - I think the congressman, Madrona - was on the boat along with us, glad-handing.  Alma commented that he seemed like a local politician.

A view from the condotel balcony; that's the top of the cathedral, with some neighborhood buildings in the foreground.

The condotel living room (and the edge of the kitchen, where the table is).  Already much larger than the San Agustin hotel room.  Also, there was a TV that even got a few channels, including BBC World News so we could stay updated.

A look from in front of the TV, into the kitchen.  That's the door to the balcony on the left.

One bedroom had a single queen bed and the other had twin beds, so naturally Alma and I took this one.

Another shot from the balcony, up into the hills.  Alma's dad used to play in the hills as a kid.

The elementary school Alma's dad attended as a kid.

Outside of Manila (where major chains like 7-11 own the convenience store business), this is just about every store in the Philippines - the Coke sign, with the name of the store written underneath, is near ubiquitous, and a Load Na Dito sign - telling you that you can add minutes to your cell phone at this establishment - is in pretty much all of them as well.  The weird thing is that all these little stores seem to be functionally identical inside and out, and yet we drove through small towns in Pangasinan where you'd see like six of them in a row, skip a block, and then see six more.  Same thing in Baguio, and really same thing in Romblon too; although there weren't nearly as many of them in Romblon, they did tend to sit cheek by jowl.  It is an utter mystery to me how they all manage to stay in business with this in mind; I guess in small towns, or even in barangays in larger cities, if everyone knows each other they may have certain stores they go to out of loyalty, and there are enough different loyalties to keep all the stores afloat.  Either that or the stores are more unique than they look to a foreigner, though I'd be pretty surprised.  For the record, these are called sari-sari stores, which basically just means that they carry a range of items.

I thought this sign was a joke when I first saw it.  It was not.

This monkey was in a cage, but there was another across the way who was out on a rail.  He couldn't quite reach us as he was tied up, but he leapt at Alma's cousins before missing them, getting caught, and falling backwards.

The last time I saw this was the beach in Australia - a mangrove forest, the many roots sticking up out of the sandy wetland.

A look out at the beach at Diwata Resort, our first stop.

There were some signs of life on the far shore, though we were pretty much alone at the resort itself.

A look out from Diwata's little harbor/cove.  The little green island in the center-right background is Bangog (a local name which means "bad smell"), the island which can be accessed via sandbar at low tide.  Way in the background is Tablas.

50 pesos is just over a dollar, so I guess you could swim in their pool for a buck.  Diwata means "fairy."

Romblon is known for its huge marble deposits, and there is marble statuary all over the island.  The lobby at Diwata had quite a few; this one of two playful dolphins was my favorite.

Outside of Romblon Town, I think this was the tallest habitable building I saw anywhere on the island.

A local street near the house of one of Alma's dad's high school classmates.  Most places we went in the jeepney were not actually paved.

The entrance sculpture to our second beachfront resort, San Pedro.  I wonder if they go with something other than what appears to be a version of the nativity scene at other times of the year.

The beach at San Pedro.  The sand here was rather coarse; it was a reminder that sand really is just tiny pieces of rock, since you could see the individual grains at their larger size.  That's Tablas in the distance again.

A wide view of the San Pedro beach.  You can tell where we were on the island relative to Diwata by noting where Bangog is now located (it's the little spit in the back middle).

There were maraming aso hanging around while we ate our lunch at San Pedro.  They were extremely well-behaved - none of them ever jumped on the table or anything, but they certainly stared us down hoping either for pity or wind-blown scraps.  The funniest moment of the day came when one of the dogs got a hold of a bag of crackers that our group's youngest member had put down and then walked away from.  The dog walked around for a while with the bag in his mouth, as though waiting to see if he would be called out on his theft; when no one approached him, he dove in, proceeding to get his entire face stuck inside the bag for a minute.

Another look at the water (and Bangog in the background) from San Pedro.

I like this shot because you can see all the color gradations in the water.  The islands are volcanic in origin, so they came up very fast and in certain places, leaving deep-water channels all around (the reason why the waves were so choppy on the ferry crossing).  Unlike on a continental coast where there's usually a more gradual dropoff, as you can see by the turning of the water from very light green to deep blue within a few hundred feet of the shore, things drop off very quickly beyond these islands.

A neat rock formation (along with a small part that appears to be man-made) near San Pedro.

Another interesting rock formation near San Pedro.

The sign on the lighthouse at Apunan Point, on the southern tip of the island, gives the latitude and longitude.  To give you some idea of the tropical nature of 12 north latitude, some other places around the world that fall on that line are Nicaragua, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, and southern India.

A look down into the shaft of the lighthouse.  The climb is as harrowing as it looks - the ladders aren't quite straight up and down, but they're not that far off.  Alma considered following me up at first, but decided it wasn't her style after a few steps.  I can't blame her.

The lighthouse's light.  Alma's dad told us the lighthouse here used to be of the classic, spiral-staircase style, but what stands there now is decidedly functional.

A look out at the Sibuyan Sea, with Tablas in the background.  This was taken from the top of Apunan Point Lighthouse.

Tablas in the background, Romblon in the foreground, and the not-really-offering-that-much-protection railing of the lighthouse in the very foreground.  It was fairly windy and I stayed in the center of the deck as much as I could.

The third main island of Romblon province, Sibuyan, in the distance.  Reading about its waterfalls and natural splendor in a guidebook, I thought it would be cool to go, but it turns out it's a further two-hour boat ride from Romblon Harbor.  Not a chance.

As it turns out - though I didn't know this at the time - in the distance of this shot is pretty much the exact spot in the ocean where the ferry MV Princess of the Stars sank on June 21, 2008, during a typhoon, killing almost 800 people.  I did remember that a ferry had sunk in the Philippines recently in a storm and was a little nervous about getting on the boat because of that, but had I known or remembered that it happened within sight of Romblon itself, I would probably have to have been sedated.

It got a little cloudy at this point, so here all you can really see is Romblon itself.

Kind of a waste of a panorama, with the Sibuyan Sea fading to white.

A look up the lighthouse from the base.

Back on the ground, I snapped another shot of the Sibuyan Sea with Tablas in the distance.  One of the reasons the sea was so choppy in the Romblon Pass (the strait between Tablas and Romblon) when we crossed it is that if you head due south from Romblon, it's all open water until you get to Panay, a good 70-80 miles south, at least.

Another picture of a rooster.  Someone was way too excited to see roosters strutting around.  Was that somebody me?  You guessed it.

Near Apunan was a turtle hatchery/sanctuary.  Here is a look into the pond with all the baby turtles.  Note: turtles smell awful.

A look at the ocean near the hatchery.  Supposedly there is also a fish sanctuary just offshore here (those things in the water there may be part of the marking system for it).

A plantation-like compound where one of Alma's dad's distant relatives lived.  We stopped here late in the day.

The jeepney in which we rode around the island.

Carabao!  Heck yes.  At some point - I don't remember how exactly it came up - everyone realized that I was really hoping to see a carabao up close and it turned into a game of trying to spot one.  Finally, near the end of the jeepney ride, we saw this one in a field.  I took this picture from the jeepney; there were three guys standing by the edge of the field and I felt self-conscious, although Alma claims they were finding the whole thing funny and waved as we drove off.  Still, since I wasn't going to walk out into the field or anything, it's not like I could have gotten that much closer.

A nice look at St. Joseph Cathedral, built by the Spanish in the mid-1600s.

What the jeepney looked like on the inside.  I was sitting near that line in the back cushion of the left side bench.  This is the only real public transportation outside of Metro Manila, and you'll sometimes see them loaded, with people hanging off the back or sitting on the roof.

Finally, the amusingly named "Pop Cola."  We accidentally bought a rather large size - chalk it up in part to communication issues, I guess - although we actually got through it quickly enough.  It tasted more or less like any standard cola.

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