Aunt Dolly arranged for Bee, Sam, Sam's Mom, and I to join a tour group to Sabtang Island. The tour group was coming from Basco and would pass by Mahatao on its way to the port in Ivana where we would be taking the boat to Sabtang. The driver made a brief stop at the "Blue Lagoon" so we could take pictures. In the olden days, the friars/priests used the clear waters at this semi-secluded place to take their baths.
I kinda slept halfway through the boat trip to Sabtang. It's official, I could sleep through any trip - whether it's in a car, bus, plane or a boat.
We landed at Sabtang's port which is located at the island's Centro.
Was able to take a few pictures at Centro while waiting for the whole group to disembark from the boat and load into the jeepneys. The original tour group was packed into one jeepney. We shared our jeepney with a family of four. That meant there were only eight of us in a jeepney that could seat around sixteen to twenty people.
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First jeepney stop was in Savidug, a town near the coast lined with houses made the old way - stone and lime.
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After that we went up the hills of Savidug and stopped at the Limestone cliffs where the view of the sea was spectacular. The guide said that some tourists, seeing the big waves, tried to surf there once ... but didn't take into account that the beach was mostly stone and crashing into it would be painful. Idiots.
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Next stop was Chamantad Hills with its breath-taking view. This place was used as a location in the shooting of a movie ... not sure which movie it was though - the Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta one, or the Iza Calzado and Ken Chu movie.
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The next town we went to was Chavayan, which was also near the coast and where there is a shop set up by the basket weavers that sells woven sandals, small baskets, and the famous headdress worn by Ivatan women - vakul. I don't know if the guys buying the vakul and trying them on are aware that it's a woman's headwear, and that the counterpart for males is the talugong which looks very much like the salakot with some kind of collar/shoulder cover. I think it's harder to find a talugong for sale than it is to find a vakul.
Other stuff I saw being sold are the glass floats from Chinese fishing nets that the rough seas have torn away and brought to the shores of Batanes.
I also saw old fashioned boat pulleys which I don't think is still commonly used elsewhere in the country.
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The jeepneys brought the tour group back to Centro where we had lunch in the school auditorium. We were supposed to go to the lighthouse and the white beach after lunch, but since it was raining, we only got to visit the Sabtang lighthouse as the jeepneys could not handle the already muddy road leading to the white beach.
The seas were rougher on the way back to Ivana, and some actually got wet when the waves crashed into the boat. There were some squeals of fright by other passengers along with Bee's squeals of excitement at seeing flying fish. I didn't see the fish. I was sleeping when she started shouting. The fish were gone when I opened my eyes.
Sabtang is a part of old Batanes that has survived modernization. I could imagine that Basco and Mahatao used to look like this ... rows and rows of stone and lime houses with vegetable gardens all around. It makes sense that it would be Sabtang that would challenge time ... it is said that many people of this island were courageous enough to challenge authority during the Spanish era that they had to be shipped to Ivana so that the Spaniards could keep a closer eye on them.
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