At 9 am, Lucap Wharf was inundated with throngs of hungry tourists arranging their trips for Hundred Islands. Vendors hawking native hats greeted us by the entrance with smiles as warm as the midmorning sun, their tenacity never waning despite the countless nos.

Interestingly, despite its stature as a poster island for the Philippines’ most touristy, the wharf is devoid of antsy boatmen selling tours. 


Everything, from boat rides down to snorkel gears, has standardized rates and can only be transacted via the tourism desk inside the wharf. It’s streamlined and simplified: choose a tour package, select add-ons, pay, get tickets and map, board a boat. 


Lucap Wharf’s famous lighthouse.
The cheeky desk office offered us a regular tour of P1,000 for 3 islands – Quezon, Children’s, and Governor’s Island. “Twenty-minute allowance for each, and pick one to stay in for the afternoon. You’ll be dropped off and  fetched there at the agreed time.”


View of the islands from Governor Island’s viewdeck.

“Or,” she continued, “pay P1,400 and you can visit all (23) islands in the loop and stay for as long as you can in any. The boat man is yours,” she said.


I haul P1,400 out of the squalor that is my pouch and jested, “as in forever?”



Docked boats floated on petrol- and weed-littered waters, which is characteristic of the sea surrounding majority of can-be-visited islands. Such sight made the journey less mesmerizing; we psyched ourselves up with a hundred green mounds sewn together on the horizon.




Governor’s Island


We were ferried first to one of the three most visited, highly developed islands after Quezon and Children’s Islands. More than being the largest of all islands in the realm, Governor’s Island is famous for two things: the now-unoccupied one-storey bunk that housed local TV’s PBB teens, and  a view deck that affords a bird’s eye view of the 123 islands. 

Veranda of the PBB house. Some of the islands – Virgin Island, most notably – can be seen from up here.


This, after an exhausting 100 or so uphill steps, or one I’d like to call, that-which-reminds-one-of-Mt.-Tapyas trek.  I painfully hoisted up love handles, a two-kilo sling bag, and an 18-kilogram toddler, encountering husbands piggybacking their wives along the way.

The viewdeck.


That 10-minute challenge was rewarded with an amazing vista of the islands, tails to heads. A turtle, a sandbar that lies beneath green waters, breaks that occur mid-sea, rocks that kiss under the sun. 



My cup runneth over with cheesy thoughts somewhere along the lines of, “this is my country, and I’m so proud of it.”

Virgin Island


At a fork en route to Governor’s Island’s view deck, there is a path that leads to a zipline (P350) connecting the northern tip of the island to one of several islets in Virgin Island. 



If you aren’t as adventurous as this guy here, you can tread Virgin Island from the back side of Governor’s Island on foot during low tide.


Back part of Governor’s Island that serves as start-off point for treks to Virgin Island.

The island is connected to Governor’s via a sandbar, although the mid-sea breaks can get pretty strong as noon commences, and water rises up to a little above the knee. Aqua shoes are recommended; sharp corals and rocks line some portions of the seabed.

Romulo Island

As the boat circled back, an inconspicuous island appeared in view. It didn’t have the colorful stalls and shacks that Governor’s Island has – no, not even visitors.  It was quite obvious why – not only was the current a bit stronger than usual, it was also rather small. It’s smaller than Coron’s Banol Beach, but the quietness is very similar.




This wasn’t part of the boatman’s itinerary, but we asked. And I’m so glad we did, because Romulo Island turned out to be my favorite out of all the ones we visited.




Romulo Island’s shore is may be short, but it’s near white, soft and powdery, sinking your feet as you inch further to the edges. It’s  understandable how some people bypass it due to its size but if you like pretty islands away from tourist crowds, then Romulo Island is a keeper.


Quezon Island (Giant Clam Farm)

We didn’t specifically go to Quezon Island, because of the P200 “compulsory” fee for huts – as per our boat man –  which we later found out, was actually optional. Instead, we docked halfway between Macapagal Island and Quezon Island and went for the next best thing: snorkeled one of three giant clam farms.




Actually, I was the only one who snorkeled. Jigs stayed in the boat with Lia, because he felt it was too risky to snorkel in the middle of the ocean in that tide and depth.


It isn’t actually. Despite the strong current, there’s a guiding rope to hang on to, which intersects Macapagal and Sison Islands (north); and the Giant Clam Farm (east to west). If you have a baby on board, you can alternate babysitting with company. Afterall, exploring the whole farm takes no longer than 30 minutes.


Macapagal Island – a snorkeling site – as viewed from the giant clam farm site.
To the left is Sison Island, which can be reached by swimming, also using a guiding rope.
Boats aren’t permitted beyond the red jump-off board to prevent destruction of corals and clams. 

Appreciating the feet-long clams – a conservation effort by UP –  though can be challenge: the water is murky, and if you ever make out whatever clam image you can from the silt and murk, it’s too vague even for a person with 20/20 vision. 

Children’s Island

Much of our time was spent on Children’s Island, so called because of its kid-friendly beach. Here, the water is so shallow that you can safely tread the neighboring off-shore islet even at high tide. The sand slopes very gently too, if at all. 

Children’s Island serves as a stopover point for lunch during tours. There are plenty of picnic huts available for a fee, but you can opt to take a sit-down lunch on the sand if you please, like we did.

Taking shade in an islet.

Children’s Island was perhaps the most populated island out of the six we explored – filled with families and kids – and as such, it also has the most turbid of waters.

This was her favorite activity there: picking up the weeds.
Unlike many of the islands, the sea is river-brown, itch-inducing, and tainted with gas from docked boats and seaweed. Dead corals and rocks sprawl underneath.


There were a couple of brave souls kayaking from the back side of the island, the equipment for which you can rent at the front.


Cuenco Tunnel

From the outside, Cuenco Tunnel looks like an ordinary – even rundown – tunnel. But sitting on the other end of that tunnel is a pleasant surprise.

Built on stilts above water, Cuenco Resto Bar and Grille is a native-themed seaside installment by the southern, less exposed side of Cuenco Tunnel.

It’s a quiet little spot that overlooks some of the nearby islands including Bangar and Marta, ending with an unrailed ledge perched about 15 feet above the sea (translation:seriously, watch over your kids).


Would’ve loved to have taken lunch here instead of Children’s if I knew, but hey, there’s always a next time, right?

And then, there were the other islands…


I thought this was Turtle Island, but I could be wrong.
Part of Monkey island, where purportedly, there are a lot of, uhm, monkeys.

Bat Island

Clave Island offers a beach, an arc-shaped rock (that kind of doubles as a cave), and a statue of a lion.


Post-scripts

Despite its popularity, Hundred Islands has never been on top of my bucketlist. I had no intentions nor inkling to go there in the next five years, simply because it’s so tourist-hot I find the mystery waning. 



That only changed when I went to Alaminos for work training (hurrah for work trainings!). ‘Cause as my tolerant boss said, it’s simply ridiculous to come all the way there – for a grueling 6.5 hours –  and not take the opportunity to see a bunch of islands just 10 minutes away from my hotel.



Except for the two-way boat fare of P800 (which apparently increased to P1,000-P1,400, depending on how many islands you choose), I was basically unlearned about the place till the last minute. WiFi was painfully slow in the hotel, and I wasn’t too uppity-up about Googling in that condition after a 9-hour shift.

And this, kids, is where I say, research REALLY would’ve made the difference.


Updated standard 2014 rates for Hundred Island tours.
The loop on the map illustrates the 23 islands you can visit if you choose the service-type tour.
Regular tours are cheaper, but only involve 3 islands: Quezon, Children’s, and Governor’s.


We were assigned a newbie boat guide for the tour who either didn’t want to go to certain islands because the “waves are too rough”, or just skipped telling us about them altogether. Jigs and I mostly relied on him to take us wherever, hence this rather short list. 


Judging on Josiah of Lakas.PH’s table here, it was doable to see at least 10 islands out of 23 navigable ones. We managed to experience a measly six out of a staggering 123. Oy vey.


If only we had the right guide. More importantly, the right minds to be guided by a guide. 

But the beauty of residing in a country of 7,107 islands is that if you’re unsatisfied with a few, you’ve 7,000 more options to check. 

No oy vey 🙂

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Gretchen is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and essayist from the Philippines, where she embraces life while managing bipolar disorder and ADHD. Her confessional pieces unpack the complexities of grief, healing, motherhood, love, and intersections, garnering recognition from the Greg Grummer Poetry Contest and Navigator's Travel Writing Competition.

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