A Hundred Miles to Hundred Islands

Location: Alaminos City, Pangasinan
Date Visited: April 10, 2010
Travel Time from Manila: 5 hours

Unlike our impromptu Baguio weekend getaway, we had more than a few hours to plan a trip to the Hundred Islands, Pangasinan. I think we had a whole day =D

My husband's childhood friends came for a visit from Guam and wanted to go to the beach. I don't know who came up with the idea to travel 5 hours to Hundred Islands but everyone agreed to go. There were 8 of us who went, 4 couples and no kids. We all fit in the van and packed the following;

1. Large cooler with ice cubes
2. Barbecue meat for our dinner
3. Hotdogs
4. Chips
5. Alcoholic drinks
6. Marshmallows (to roast over a bonfire)
7. Snorkeling gear
8. Zip lock plastic bags
9. Underwater camera

We left Manila at 5am, luckily, everyone from the group lives in the same village so we were able to pick everyone up on time. We took the NLEX route and had a total of 4 stop overs. First was in Tabang to have breakfast and the rest was to take bathroom/cigarette breaks.

5 hour drive, it helps to have a reliever driver =)

We arrived at Lucap Wharf, before 12 noon. The place had a huge parking space that's safe and from there we were able to talk to a tour guide who prepared everything from our motor boat, island hopping tour and even lunch (Boat rental cost us Php 2,500). The downside of the wharf is that there are no public restrooms or baths. We found a sari sari store who had a bathroom we can use to change and shower in for a fee of Php 10/person. We left most of our stuff inside the van and brought the necessities; towels, wallets, cellphones, keys, etc. We kept our phones and cigarettes inside the zip lock bags so they won't get wet.

Before boarding the boat, we bought our lunch in the nearby market. There are  several canteens that can cook and pack food for you. The food is pretty cheap, less than a hundred pesos for a meal. We bought 1.5 liter bottles of soft drinks and lots of water. With our lunch, we boarded our motor boat, the Aquarius 300!

We started the island hopping tour and visited several. First was Governor Island, it had a resort and climbing the peak of this island gives you a bird's eye view of the Hundred Islands. It was crowded in Governor's Island so we proceeded to the Bat Island. There we saw several of the flying mammals sleeping upside down the trees;

Sleeping bats...

We saw several other islands including one that had it's own waterfall! Finally, we went for a swim in the Giant Clam area. It's nowhere near an island, just a spot in the open water marked with a floating platform and fish nets around the giant clams area. It's a good thing we had our underwater camera case to take pictures of the giant clams and several schools of fish;

Clam diving!

The motor boat crew provided us with snorkeling gears and life vests but it's recommended not to use one if you know how to swim so you can get close to the clams. The water is about 15 to 20 feet deep but it's really clear. After 45 minutes, we searched for a place to have a late lunch. Our tour guide found a small island and we had it all to ourselves! The crew unloaded a wooded  table and we all shared a meal of inihaw na baboy, inihaw na bangus, tinapa, kamatis, itlog na pula and rice.

Roughing it...

We stayed in the island to swim some more and I picked shells to take home to my daughter. Finally, we went back to the wharf. I again paid Php 10 to have a shower =) We then headed to Bolinao to look for a place a to stay. We found an old resort (I forgot the name, LOL) where a room for 2 costs Php 1,000. My husband and I strolled on the beach in front of the resort and watched the sunset.

We slept for a couple of hours before we prepared our own dinner. The owners of the resort were nice enough to offer us the use of their kitchen. We grilled some hotdogs and barbecue and served it all on a banana leaf. Since we didn't bring any rice, we ordered from the resort. Sadly, we were unable to have a bonfire so no marshmallow roasting for us =(

We had a few drinks at the resort's balcony. The next day, we ordered breakfast from the resort (Php 150/person) and left at 10am since we still had a long drive home.