Apo Island Beach Resort (05 Sep)

Orange-yellow buildings.

They're probably the first structures to catch anyone's eye when on the boat approaching Apo Island.

Once you get off the boat and pay your fees at the registration office, they're not in plain sight though and you wonder how to get there.

The locals would point you to go leftward if you're facing the registration office and walk past the cliffs, which by the way would have water dripping down its rocky face all day if it had been raining the previous night. You eventually find yourself in some sort of sand pocket and think you've reached a dead end.

Look closely at one corner and you'll find a passage hewn out of the rocks.

Go through that passage and you'll find yourself in a cove where Apo Island Beach Resort is.

The resort is well known to, and caters mostly to divers. In fact, diving fees could be found at the back cover of their menu.

They serve food on shaded tables along the beach where you can watch the sea while you eat. The servings are enough for one person. The food tastes good but the menu isn't extraordinary. The choice of cold drinks are limited since electricity is still not always available.

There was one fly who kept buzzing around while we ate, prompting Bee to cover her glass of fruit juice with the water glass.

The Baluarte, or the large formation of rocks jutting out to the sky, gives the cove partial shelter, and that is why guests at the resort have an awesome view of this magnificent landmark.

The sand is white but not fine. The shore slopes slowly to the sea, inviting one to first wade into the water, and then take a swim.

The birds called Maya would be hopping along the shore, and there's this dog who decided to accompany me while I walked around taking pictures.

Apo Village (05-Sep-2008)

Apo Island, is not only a resort area and diving spot. It is also home to a community that is slowly coming to terms with living on a "protected area" and a tourist spot.

The influx of divers raring to discover Apo Island's marine life has given the locals different opportunities to make a living.

The stretch of beach facing Dauin proper is lined with boats that ferry people from Apo Island to the mainland and vice versa. Tourists could rent one for a round trip arrangement, and depending on the size of the boat, the fee could be anywhere between PHP1,500 and PHP3,000 - the more people share the boat, the cheaper it would be per person.

As all tourists to the island will land on this beach, this is where the ambulant vendors of T-shirts with "Apo Island" designs hang around. The t-shirts cost arount PHP200. It could be higher or lower, depending on your haggling skills.

Acutely aware by now of what marine loving tourists would need had they come unprepared, locals rent out life vests, footwear fit for the rocky beach of the sanctuary, and if the tourist is looking for specific kinds of marine life like the sea turtle or the jack fish, he or she can hire a local to show him/her where to snorkel for around PHP150 - 200.

Some locals, in exchange for buying their wares, would gladly guide you around the island at no extra cost. You can trust them to look after your bags as they consider it detrimental to the island's reputation (and eventually bad for tourism) if a visitor would get robbed during his/her stay there.

Most tourists to Apo Island are divers and usually stay on the rented boats if they are out of the water. They would probably set foot on the island only to eat at one of the two resorts. Bee and I were not diving but snorkeling, so we actually get to go through Apo Village to get from the shore we landed on to the marine sanctuary. Since I backed out of snorkeling due to the sharp rocks, I ended up taking more interest on what's on the island.

The small town chapel is the first thing you see once you get past the registration office. The absence of a priest's living quarters and the distance of the parish from the city allows the priest to only come around once a month. A lay minister takes over on most Sundays (presumably holding paraliturgical celebrations).

Small, clean houses line the small streets. Mud puddles would form after a heavy rainfall so one should walk carefully so as not to slip on the mud.

Here and there are stalls selling vegetables to the locals or trinkets to the tourists - and none of those products are probably grown or made on the island.

Electricity is not always available, and for potable water, the locals have to either collect rainfall or import water from the mainland. Our guide said that according to the older folk, there used to be potable water from small inlets, but said sources have disappeared with the denudation that happened before the island became a protected area in 1994.

The current mangrove trees show their youth as they quite thin ... they were planted only recently. The original trees were cut down for timber.

Tilapia live within the waters where the mangrove trees are planted, but the locals only catch them for food if weather does not permit them to fish in the open sea. They don't like the Tilapia as it feeds in murky waters.

Near the Marine Sanctuary, but before the path leaves the mangrove trees, are small cottages that I believe could be rented by tourists who want to stay overnight on the island. I am not sure however if these cottages are maintained by the local government or owned by individuals.

The Municipality of Dauin holds its Kinaiyahan or Mother Nature Festival every September 10, and Apo Village makes it a point to participate every year. The festivities start as early as September 6 and the village folk were loading the drums and props they would be using on their fishing boats.

Watching their community spirit at work uplifts one's mood.

Apo Island Marine Sanctuary (05-Sep-2008)

Apo Island is part of Dauin and not Dumaguete City. You get there by taking a boat from Malapatay beach.  The first thing you do upon setting foot on the island is pay the entrance fee (PHP100 for non-Dauin residents) and other charges that will apply to the activity/ies you plan to do on the island.  The fees go to the maintenance of the island.

Apo Island has been a protected area since 1994 and its marine life has benefited from this.  It is now a popular dive site, and for non-divers like me, one can always snorkel.

One treks across the island from the landing site to the part that faces the sea in order to get to the marine sanctuary. Once you see a path through mangrove trees, you know you are almost there.

If you plan to snorkel, make sure you have in hand the receipt given to you when you paid your fee, otherwise, the authorities on this side of the island will charge you a snorkeling fee again.

One signpost clearly points the way to where snorkelers should start.  There are small "huts" nearby that visitors could rent and use if they want a place to eat or just sit and enjoy the sea.  As it was a Friday and there are few visitors, we get to stash our things in one of the huts with a local volunteering to look after them.  Some students from the island's school were in one of the other huts, practicing a number they are going to present at the coming fiesta (Sunday).

 

Visitors are advised to stay near the beach.  Ideally, one should not wander farther than the boat in this picture.  Note how rocky the beach is.

The authorities decided to build a cement path going down the beach into the water ... which sounds like a good idea if one wants to avoid the sharp rocks ... unfortunately, I found that I prefer to step on the rough rocks than on the slippery cement ramp.

 

The fear of slipping and getting hurt by the rocks made me back out of snorkeling.  Even Bee had trouble getting into the water.  Once she managed that one, she was snorkeling and swimming as far as she could manage.

I decided to stay put on terra firma and take pictures instead.

According to Bee, the fish she saw at Apo Island were bigger than those in the Dauin Marine Sanctuary, but she found the fish in the latter place to be more colorful.

You could not find the pawikan, or sea turtles, in Dauin Marine Sanctuary, though.  The pawikan lay their eggs on Apo Island, and locals could point you to areas where you could find one or two swimming around.