Travel Footprints

I have little idea what to expect island-hopping in Guimaras. Before this trip, I only know Guimaras for two things – export-quality mangoes and the unfortunate oil spill in 2006! I had the chance to go for a very short vacation to the quaint island of Guimaras – lest I miss the famous beach scene of sunny Philippines while Mr. Rono and I take the summer path less travelled in the Himalayan ranges this year. I was firstly surprised how easy it was to get to Guimaras from Iloilo. For only Php13, you can take a boat from mainland Panay to the island of Guimaras. Boat trips for Jordan, Guimaras are readily available at the port area until 7:00pm. No need to worry about schedules because there are always trips available as long as the boat capacity of 46 persons are met.

From the port of Jordan, you can catch any of the public transportation to take you anywhere within the island. The most convenient (and exciting!) would be a taxi motorcycle. We happened to arrive at Jordan around 5:30pm and had no idea that the beach resort where we are staying was about 15km from the port (about an hour’s ride from the Jordan Wharf), we opted to go for a motorcycle taxi to bring us there faster. I can only count the number of times I’ve actually ridden a motorcycle taxi (also called habal-habal in the Philippines) and this one in Guimaras is naturally memorable for me. It doesn’t help that our driver would talk about witchcraft in the Panay area during the ride. The fact that we were riding off with a spectacular view of the Guimaras sunset is especially unforgettable. Here I am trying to document the sunset while on the motorcycle as best as I can!

We stayed in a beachfront resort called Raymen Beach Resort found in Brgy. Alibuhod which was highly recommended by locals in both Iloilo and Guimaras. I am guessing it’s the most famous and reliable (maybe most accessible as well?) resort in the island. One good thing about the resort’s location is that it is not directly in the area of the oil spill and, of course, the fact the beach is just a few steps away from our simple cabana. I was pleasantly surprised to meet a fisherman by the beach on my usual morning beach walks hawking his catch for the day. He was trying to sell to me his harvest of fish and lobster (which looked really big and yummy!) for only Php 1,600.

Since there was no way I could take those home with me to Manila or eat it all during my stay in the resort, I graciously declined (meaning, I had to say NO over 10 times!). But I have to admit that the seafood selection in the beach of Guimaras is much more exciting than what I have witnessed in Ilocos Norte almost 6 months ago. Raymen Beach Resort offers accommodation ranging from Php600-Php2,000 per room, per night. They also have a restaurant that serves good food at decent prices (considering they almost have a monopoly of sorts in this area!). We had to try the world-famous mangoes which was sold a bit expensive at Php80/kilo –

and sampled the available seafood in their menu such as this crabs in garlic and butter for only Php 130 (half-kilo) –

Yum! As far as I know, Raymen is the only place where you can get food this good in this part of Guimaras. We tried looking for other options along the beach but the only other place we saw was a small shack which only served mostly instant noodles and 3-in-1 coffee mix