The Hundred Island National Park, Alaminos, Pangasinan - The Barren Islands

We’ve seen hundred islands from postcards even when we were young. Personally I was fascinated by the view. I’ve browsed from the internet how can we go there. Last April we decided to have a nature trip there since we had vacation for two days. We were four girls went there by Five-Star Bus. We departed from Pasay at midnight and we reached Alaminos early in the morning. The waiting shed where we were dropped has tricycles that are ready to transport us to Lucap Wharf. The special trip cost us 100 pesos. We were so early to arrive actually there were few people on the street. There was a restaurant and lodging house open and we decided to have a cup of coffee but the funny side was they were not yet ready to serve. Then we stayed in a waiting shed area. There was a tricycle driver who offered us a boat that would transport us to one of the islands but the group decided to wait for other boatmen so that we could haggle for price of island hopping, because according the HINP the boat rental ranges from 1,500.00 up. Aside from that we would like to witness the sunrise while we are riding on a boat. True enough one boatman agreed us to be our service for our island hopping and he was our tour guide too. The ride while the sun was rising was really a breath taking. It was really one of the wonders of God. Very relaxing and felt blessed, especially for us who are working and seldom to unwind.

Our boatman told us that we will do island hopping while we were on our way to Quezon Island, where we planned to stay overnight. I was thinking that every island could be explored like the usual island hopping that I know, but I was little disappointed because the boat man would just point and told us what was the name of the island. Most of the islands cannot be explored. Islands are almost the same, there is not much vegetation. The first stop we did was in Children’s Island, the water and the seashore are nice really suited for children. I love the view from the top. Don’t forget to take time to explore the island. Before lunchtime we were already in Quezon Island. This island is quite congested of tourists, foreigners and locals. The first thing my sister and me did was explore the island. Since there were no available cottages left us, we opted to stay on the sand where kayaks stocked at the top of the area are the stores. This was the scenario that made us pissed and at the same time turned into a blessing. We had to make it funny otherwise our vacation would be ruined. While we were lying on the sand resting my co-worker and me decided to explore more the island even the sun was high. We were teasing the other two who were sleeping when suddenly from the top someone throw a water with fish scales and blood. It was really ewwww, very yucky the blanket was wet together with our other belongings and even us. We were waiting for someone to go down and say sorry and check what happened. But sorry for us the one who did it was never human enough to say sorry, she was really arrogant. We were already complaining but she never went down to check. We washed our wet belongings in the sea water just imagine how pissed we were. The good thing is that we are used to wrap our clothes in a plastic when we are on our nature adventure for safety purposes. There was a huge rock, which has small opening, so we dig the sand till we could lay down there. We planned to swim in the afternoon but since we are already soaked in fishy water, we had no choice but to swim. Good enough we had a shelter all day long under the rock. Other tourists would look at us because we were having fun under the rock. It was a misfortune turned into a well deserve day. As the sun went down we did kayaking, it was the first time I did it. It is tiring but enjoyable water sport. The island is perfect for snorkeling, swimming and of course kayaking. While we were swimming little fishes swam with us too. We have two tents but we decided to use one. The cost for every tent is 200.00 plus the overnight fee of 40.00.

The next day very early in the morning we went island hopping before we heed to Lucap wharf to go home. The first stop was in Romulo Island, where we tried to explore the cave but we can’t because of the bats. The island has white sand. Quezon Island is the last island we explored; I think it is the biggest island among the hundreds. This was the island I enjoyed most because we did a little bit hiking, caving and swimming.

Don’t forget to bring potable water, sun block, snorkeling gears, cameras and food to explore these islands.