Giveaways
AFTER arriving in Basco, I set out to tour the island of Batan on a small motorbike.
The motorbike cost 1,000 pesos a day. The first places I explored were still near Basco, where I visited the lighthouse just to its north, described in last week’s post.
North of Basco, I drove into the hills of Vayang and Naidi, where white buffalo graze over the west coast of the island.
South of Basco, on the west coast, there are long beaches, where I found the modest but wonderful Batanes Little Cafe, just two kilometres southward along the coast from the middle of Basco, which looks across the beach. Again, the food there was great!
Here are a couple of photos of boats on the west coast south of Basco.
In the middle of the island, toward the south, I came to the locality of Tukon, where there were the colourfully signed Galerie du Tulaan and Cafe du Tukon. These phrases sound like French but are actually in Ivatan, in which, in this context, du means ‘at.’
There were some tunnels nearby that had been dug by the Japanese during World War II.
I carried on along a coastal road on the east coast that looked amazingly like Punakaiki, in New Zealand!
I came across a quaint little honesty store, possibly not the sort of business model that would work in Manila:
And some more rolling fields in what, I think, were the Marlboro Hills of the east coast.
On the east coast, I came to a very traditional-looking fishing village called Diura.
I included a couple of images of thatched houses in Diura in last week’s post.
Here’s a photo of a more Mediterranean-looking building in Diura:
And a sunlit bay nearby:
Diura is famous for local fishers who spear the big mahimahi, or dolphinfish.
Mahimahi is a Polynesian name meaning the strong one: mahimahi can grow to more than two metres in length and a big one is hard to land. It’s also known in Spanish as the dorado; the southern-skies constellation of Dorado is named after it. The inhabitants of Diura have a cultural festival that celebrates the start of the mahimahi season.
After Diura, I zoomed back over to the west coast to explore the Maydangeb White Beach and the nearby Homoron Blue Lagoon. This might seem all over the place, but the two coasts are most just a couple of kilometres apart, so there is no need to stick strictly to the one or the other when you are on a scooter, at least.
A lot of the beaches aren’t swimming beaches, so this one was definitely worth visiting.
I carried on around the coastal road:
And past pink beaches, from which Sabtang Island can be seen. The Batanes comprise nine islands, with a population of 20,000, up from 18,000 recently.
To the north of Batan, the next big island is called Itbayat, while the biggest island to the south is Sabtang. These aren’t as densely inhabited as Batan, however, and have more limited tourism facilities. If you really wanted to get away from it all, these would be the places to go!
I also looked out toward Sabtang Island from Mutchong Viewpoint, in Uyugan.
I went past more thatched houses with solid stone walls to resist the hurricanes:
Here’s an interesting bay with another really solid stone house:
On the southeast coast, I came to the Batanes branch of the National Museum of the Philippines.
The museum had geological and cultural displays about the Batanes and the indigenous Ivatans.
And from there, I went around to the west coast again to the vicinity of the Batanes Little Cafe, capturing a sunset with half-eaten pumpkins by the road.
Here’s the Amboy Restaurant, very close to the Batenes Little Cafe:
And more of the school mural that you can also see in the photo above.
And here is the sunset that you can see from there.
I was also captivated by the Villa Hontomin at that spot, possibly an old Spanish structure but now a highly regarded hotel with, again, terrific sundown views.
The Villa Hontomin has a classy lounge:
Finally, I got some photos of family travel in scooters with side cars.
Some of them almost resembled housetrucker trucks or gypsy caravans!
Finally, I returned to Basco, where the harbour was full of swimmers enjoying the sunset.
As a postscript, here and there, I saw these interesting pavilions with thatched roofs. They reminded me of the open-sided social pavilions, called fale, of Sāmoa (a word that can also mean house), though they were smaller.
To sum up, this time around, I only explored the main island, Batan. Even so, it is a really lovely island if you want to kick back.
I only stayed three nights on Batan, but I would love to have stayed seven nights, which would also have given me time to hike Mount Iraya.
My homestay cost me 1,000 pesos a night.
Basco also had a thriving night market and cheap vendor food.
Also, it is a good idea to bring cash, as not everyone has eft-pos and, of course, that is no good for the honesty store!
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