As a continuation of my
Pangasinan adventure, we are now headed to the town of Alaminos which houses the very famous Hundred Islands National Park. We left Bolinao at around 8AM and we reached Alaminos after some 30 minutes. We spent time on the town proper shopping for supplies and by around 10AM, we were at Lucap Wharf which is the main jump off for the boat rides to go island hopping on Hundred Islands.
After arriving, we need to go first to the tourism center and register at P20/head. After registering, we could now choose the type of boat that we want to rent.
Since there are 5 of us, we can choose the P800 day tour boat that can take us to the 3 developed islands Quezon, Children, and Governor's Island or the P1400 for a service boat in which we can dictate which islands we want to go or even overnight at one of the islands. We opted for the latter as we wanted to explore as many islands as we could in the Hundred Islands National Park. But as when they were about to assign us our boat, they said that there are no more 5 person boat available. So what they did instead is assign us a bigger 10 person boat for the price same as the rate of a 5 person boat, lucky us!
The complete price is list is as follows:
Day Tour Overnight or Service Boat
Small boat (1-5) P800 P1400
Medium boat (6-10) P1000 P1800
Large boat (11-15) P1100 P2000
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| The lighthouse at Lucap Wharf |
After preparing our stuff, we are now ready to board our boat and start island hopping at around 10:30 AM.
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| The boat is quite spacious for only 5 people |
After leaving shore, our first stop is Century Island. The docking to this island is a bit tricky as there are no sandy shores to dock to, only rock faces. Good thing the ice cream vendor who hitched a ride in our boat was there to help our boatman.
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| The cave inside Century Island |
The cave is huge and there are lots of bats inside. It seems like you can go deeper into the cave if you want but unfortunately, none of us had a light source and so off we go to our next stopover. After a few minutes, our boatman took us to an island which is called Shell Island.
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| Photo ops rock at Shell Island |
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| They didn't call it Shell Island for nothing. |
The island is a bit on the small side, and it only has a small sandy beach. The other side of the island is a bit rocky. You can easily notice why they called it Shell Island because tiny colorful shells are just scattered all over the island. After a few rounds of photo ops, we continued with our island hopping.
Next stop is the famous Governor's Island. Before arriving into the beaches of the island, we saw a raft not so far from the shore. It turns out its a venue for helmet diving which we also tried. Anyways, the Governor Island is mostly famous because it's one of the three developed islands and it house the PBB house which is a landmark in the island. After some round of photo ops in the island, the people from the helmet diving offered us a special price which we can't ignore. The normal price is P300/head but they offered us P900 for the five of us so that just makes it P180 per head. We think it's a great deal so we dived in for the offer, it's also a great chance to test the GoPro camera I borrowed from a friend :)
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| The floating raft of PAC helmet diving |
After arriving at their raft we had a short briefing with one of their dive instructors. The dive lasts for 30 minutes, they will be putting a heavy helmet in our heads which is constantly pumped with oxygen and the pressure inside builds up inside. What they said we should do is hold our nose and blow as hard as we can so that air would escape from our ears. Sounds simple enough, right?
The dive was a pleasant experience, though the waters below isn't exactly as clear as I thought it would be. The dive area is around 30 feet deep, and there are fences all on where we can only step on. There are giant clams and corals around the area. They would also give you cooked rice which attracts a horde of fishes. It was my first time doing that and I would say it was a good one :)
Anyway, after all that activity, we were all hungry and it is now time to eat our lunch. Since renting a table at one of the developed islands would cost money, we figured we should just eat at any available island where there is a beach with a nice shade so our boatman suggested Romulo Island.
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| I'm sorry I don't know what this island is called >.< |
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| Romulo Island's beach with other visitors eating lunch |
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| The part of Romulo Island where you can swim without getting tanned :p |
We ate our Jollibee takeout lunch in the island and also some photo ops here and there :)
After enjoying Romulo Island, we are now on the way to our next destination which is Marcos Island. What makes Marcos Island popular is the Imelda Cave, which is an underwater cave, where you can cliff dive it's 40 feet of height.
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| The beach of Marcos Island |
After a short climb to the side of the island, you can reach the jump-off point of Imelda Cave. At first I was scared because I'm not really a good swimmer, but I'm wearing a life jacket anyway so I had the courage to jump out. It was a bit scary inside the cave as you can feel the strong waves pulling you out to the sea and the only way you can get back to the shore is by walking through the sharp rocks on the edge of the island. >.<
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| Imelda Cave |
After our exhilarating cliff diving adventure, we are again on the move for more island hopping.
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| New Scout Island |
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| The Cathedral Island |
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| Lopez Island |
Before going to Quezon Island, our boatman took us to the snorkeling area beside it. The dive area is surrounded by a rope so that no boat can enter it and you can freely swim in the area. It was a bit hot around that time so I decided to just snorkel beside our boat where it's shade can reach me.
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| One of the rafts where the rope that encircles the snorkeling area is attached. |
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| Fishes! |
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| Scared of the sun haha |
Eventhough I didn't go too far, there are still lots of corals and fishes from where I snorkeled. One of my friends went far inside the snorkeling area and he said there are lots of giant clams in there. I was so envious! How I wish we arrived at this spot around 4PM in the afternoon so that the sunlight wouldn't be as strong as compared when it is 2PM >.<
After the snorkeling are, we now arrived to the famous Quezon Island which is also one of the three developed islands in the Hundred Islands National Park. It was a bit crowded when we arrived at the Island and there is also some construction ongoing on the island. There are tables for rent where you can eat, there are also stores with inflated prices.
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| The beach area. |
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| Manuel L. Quezon's statue with some construction ongoing on the background. |
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| Some nice views from Quezon Island. |
After exploring Quezon Island and a few rounds of photo ops, we were back on the boat and on our way to the last of the three developed islands which is the Children's Island.
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| The shallow beach at Children's Island |
It seems to have gotten it's name because the waters in the beach is really shallow even if you get a bit face from the shore, and sure enough, there are some children swimming in there when we arrived. There's not much to explore in Children's Island and I could say the Quezon and Governor's Island is definitely better than it. After just a few minutes in the island, we are already back in the boat as the day is getting a bit late and we are still a long way from home.
Our last island hopping destination is Cuenco Island where there is a tunnel that would take you from one side of the island to the other. But unfortunately, when we arrived in there, the other side of the cave is blocked by what our boatman called 'miners'.
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| Cuenco Island's cave, with the miner's tarpaulin blocking the exit to other side of the island. |
It's a shame that we can't go to other side of the island and how can the local government allow this kind of activity when the Hundred Islands is a National Park? Anyway, there is no more you can explore in Cuenco Island so we hopped back to the boat and the rest of our boat ride is just passing by more islands.
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| Bat Island |
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| Kissing Island |
After passing by some more islands, we are now on our way back to Lucap Wharf to finish our Hundred Islands day tour. It was a really worth while boat ride and paying the extra P600 for a service boat is definitely better that just going to the three developed islands.
Have you been to Hundred Islands National Park? :)
Hundred Islands National Park adventure links:
Bolinao and Alaminos Pangasinan Trip Sample Itinerary
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