Friday, July 1, 2011

Viaje Western Pangasinan | Hundred Islands National Park

Day 2 - June 3, 2011 | Alaminos City's Hundred Islands

The trip from Bolinao to Alaminos lasted an hour and a half. We alighted around 11:30 am just near the City Hall where we again took a trike ride to Brgy. Lucap (P80.00).

Alaminos City Hall

From the moment I stepped down from the trike, a group of bangkeros/tourism officers, or whatever you call them, approached us. They gave us flyers and rental packages.
Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) have standard pricing for their services and rentals. Check their site here for the rates.  
At Lucap Wharf, we were given a lot of options for the island hopping rentals and we chose the following:
Small Boat good for 4-5 persons - we opted the service boat where you can do the island-hop-all-you-can (P1,400) instead of the usual 3-islands-only (P800).
Full set of snorkeling gear - inclusive of the snorkeling mask, life vest, and flippers (P250 per person).
| I highly recommend the service boat rental instead of the usual 3-islands-only boat rental. You'll be able to maximize your fun and stay at the HINP. 
After finalizing our tour package, we then registered at the Lucap tourism center .

registration at tourism center
The next thing we did is to look for a place where we can leave our baggage while doing the island hopping. Our original plan was to stay at Maxine's Hotel, but when a lady offered us a transient house which was cheaper, we did not hesitate to grab her deal. We got the transient house for only P2,200 overnight.
| I also recommend staying at transient houses. They are found everywhere in Brgy. Lucap. Convenient and affordable.
When we checked the transient house, we couldn't decline anymore, there's an airconditioner, a TV and two comfortable beds. It also have a fridge, a comfort room with shower and a terrace. We left our things right away and headed back to Lucap wharf.
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  Transient House, Brgy. Lucap, Alaminos City
  Helen - +639085631215
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We ate our lunch at Lucap wharf. I was able to eat another variety of Philippine longanisa, the longanisang Alaminos. The taste is like Vigan's longganisa but with reduced saltiness and garlic flavor.

Alaminos' longanisa

By 1:10 pm, we boarded the boat and started the HINP tour.

Island Hopping, Spelunking, and Snorkeling

Excitement was drawn in our faces, the Lucap Lighthouse was getting smaller as the islands were getting bigger. We're nearing the Hundred Islands National Park, yipee.
| Hundred Island National Park, located at Alaminos City, Pangasinan, is composed of 123 islands and islets of dead corals. It is the very first declared national park in the Philippines, if not in the whole South East Asia.    
boat trip
Photo from Roan. us on the boat
The boat ride from Lucap wharf to our first island took 15 minutes. Our first island was the Century Island where we explored a cave, Century Cave. The scent of guano is really strong (sumusoot sa ilong) but the stalagmites and stalactites are excellent.

our boatman
Photo from Roan. trail to Century Cave
Century Island landing
Photo from Roan. the stalagmites and stalactites
Century Cave
Photo from Roan. us at the Century Cave
We then moved to another island, the Shell Island. According to our boatman, beautiful shells were very abundant on the island but was years ago, tourists took the shells as souvenirs. This island's beach is one of the greatest that I've been so far. Walking on its sand on bare foot was truly relaxing.

Shell Island
Photo from Roan. temptation island?
We explored another cave, Virgin Cave, in Virgin Island. It is said that during the Hispanic times, virgins were brought here as sacrifice - story from our boatman. Bats flew out as we entered the cave, guano scent again as expected. The cave is like a tunnel, it has an opening on the other end. Lots of jellyfishes swim at the waters in the other end of the cave.

Photo from Roan. Virgin Island's cave


Not far from the Virgin Island is the Governor's Island, famous for it's PBB house and the hundred islands view point. There's a 4 minute hike to reach the view point, it's the most popular spot seen in most of Hundred Islands postcards. We visited another cave in the island. We also took pictures at the PBB house before we finally sailed to our next island. Jellyfishes here are very abundant.

Photo from Roan. trail to the viewing point
the famous scene from HINP
Photo from Roan. us and the Hundred Islands
Jellyfishes
Photo from Roan.  my tiny islet

Photo from Roan.  the PBB house at Governor's Island
our boat
We met several interesting islands along our way to our 5th island. There were Bat Island, Crocodile Island, Turtle Island, Macapagal Island and Old Scout Island.


I forgot the name of our 5th island, but I remembered our boatman telling that there lived Dugong (a character from the fantaserye, Marina). Hence the cave that we explored there was popularly called Dugong's Cave.

Photo from Roan.  Dugong's Cave
Photo from Roan.  inside the cave
From there, our boatman brought us to Coral Garden - snorkeling time. It was my first time to do snorkeling activity, and I say that it was an unforgettable experience. The corals, fishes and clams were astonishing. I was able to touch the colorful corals, I wish I had an underwater cam with me. Jellyfishes also swam with us, their tentacles were very small similar to those in Manila Ocean Park. However, in time, I felt itch all over my body, so I decided to go back to our boat after 40 minutes of being with the marine environment.

Photo from Roan. the snorkelers
Photo from Roan.  first timer
By 4:35 pm, we proceeded next to our 6th island, the Marcos Island. The beach here is also great, fine and white. It was also here that we jumped at Imelda Cave, woohoo. Diving from a height was not an easy task especially for a person like me who has an acrophobia, it needs a lot of confidence and bravery, and counting too. 

the beach is so good
Photo from Roan. I support for clean and green
the stairs to the mouth of Imelda Cave
Photo from Roan.  jump at the Imelda Cave
We spent almost an hour in Marcos Island (antagal kasi namin tumalon sa Imelda Cave). On our way to our 7th island, we passed by the Cathedral Cave, New Scout Island, and Lopez Island.

Our 7th island was the Quezon Island. Kayaking was one of my must-do's in HINP, however we were a little too late when we arrived, the kayak rental was until 5 pm only. So we just followed the stone stairs up to President Quezon's monument. The island also have a giant clams viewing area, specially made for the non-snorkelers. I also fell in love with Quezon Island's fine and white sand beach.

viewing area
para sa mga ayaw mag snorkel
grr, arrive early to experience kayaking
Quezon Monument
sunset at Quezon Island
We passed by the Clave Island and Children's Island before we reached our final island, the Cuenco Island. Like Virgin Island, it also have a tunnel like cave that has an opening on both ends. It was here that we watched the majestic sunset similar to that of Patar beach in Bolinao. Our trip ended at 6:30 pm. 

beautiful sunset
"all the single ladies" at Cuenca Cave
another sunset viewing at Cuenco Island
Photo from Roan. herself inside Cuenco Cave
Photo from Roan. jumpshot to end the tour
While sailing back to Lucap Wharf on half way, our boat ran out of gas. I really thought we'll gonna paddle it all the way, good thing the boat's motor still permitted us to reach Lucap wharf before 7 pm. We paid our boatman and gave him some tips for his excellent service.

Photo from Roan. back to mainland
Back in the mainland, we ate again at Lucap wharf. My dinner was a fried squid with stuffing. I was really hungry from the Hundred Islands experience.

dinner - fried pusit with stuffing

Since we realized that our transient house was just a few minutes from the wharf, we decided to walk it all the way. We reached our house after we got lost for 10 minutes.

We spent the remaining hours on TV, watching different shows from different channels.

Photo from Roan.  our transient house

End of day 2.

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Viaje Western Pangasinan Series Bolinao-Alaminos Trip for 3D2N (June 2-4, 2011)

Viaje Western Pangasinan | Hundred Islands National Park - Part 3

Itinerary | Bolinao and Alaminos
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10 comments:

  1. Ang sarap ng trip niyo! Nakakamiss tuloy ang Alaminos. My trip to Alaminos with travel bloggers is the best ever. Bitin pero masaya parin kasi oks mga kasama. Dami niyo kulit shots ah :P

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  2. I want to try the Imelda Cave Jump! Parang exciting!

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  3. Ang saya ng trip nyo ah!
    Pangarap ko rin makapunta jan =]

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  4. "We spent almost an hour in Marcos Island (antagal kasi namin tumalon sa Imelda Cave)" - si bonn kasi!
    "Photo from Roan. our transient house" - hahah si brad

    -wih

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  5. @mica, hihi.. mukhang masaya din yung trip nyo sa Hundred islands dati e.. libre pa. :)
    @ms Nice, go try it.. super saya.. nkaka uplift ng puso :)
    @sir christian, punta na habang hndi pa tumataas ang sea level :) maraming maganda picturan dun..
    @wih, haha.. imaginin nyo.. kung mas maaga tayo natapos dun edi naabutan natin yung kayak :) sayang tlga yun :)

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  6. hi! super like ko ung trip nyo s HINP, naeexcite na tuloy ako.. pde po malaman ung name ng transient house nyo? tnx!

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  7. Hello...:)
    Parang gusto ko rin makapunta dyan... :)

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  8. i like this website. informative and nakaka enjoy basahin. blessings!
    ang sarap mag travel sa pilipinas!

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  9. Great travelogue, as usual, BL! May I ask why you picked Cuenca Island as your final destination, instead of the usual Quezon Island or Governor's Island? My dad is from Alaminos.
    http://phinoyesque.wordpress.com

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  10. hello,thanks to your blog, very informative. I thought there are only 3 destinations in hundred islands, (quezon, children, governor islands. Me and my family are planning to visit this place. Can you tell me where is Maxine by the sea exactly located? Thanks much.

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