Iloilo-Guimaras 2013: Part 1

First trip of the year is Iloilo with a side trip to Guimaras, January 18-21, 2013. Our friends in the office are always on the look-out for promo fares, so when Tiger Airways had a sale last July 2012, we immediately booked tickets to Iloilo to watch the Dinagyang Festival. 8 adults and 2 kids, we’re so excited because may kalaro si Gwen during the trip.

Dinagyang Festival, yup, that’s the main reason why we booked on those dates, kaya lang nagkamali kami ng bilang, the following week pa pala yung Dinagyang, kamusta naman? So we included Guimaras in our itinerary since there’s not much to see and do in Iloilo.

We had an early morning flight…

We had to pay for Gwen’s plane seat na, di na sya libre coz she’s 2 already.

Since she woke up very very early, she immediately dozed off just after take-off. She slept throughout the flight, hooray, walang makulit.

Touchdown Iloilo. We’re all hungry and the best way to start our day in Iloilo is to eat La Paz Batchoy. We had our breakfast at Ted’s Oldtimer Lapaz Batchoy along Diversion Road.

They have different kinds of Lapaz Batchoy, may special, extra special, regular, etc. I didn’t remember what Jeff ordered for me, basta masaraaap!

After a hearty breakfast, we broke into 2 groups to ride a taxi going to Ortiz Wharf, that’s where we’ll take a ferry going to Guimaras. It’s just a 15-minute boat ride.

15 minutes later, we immediately hired a multicab going to our resort. The 2 kiddos were fuzzy already and we all wanted to take a rest. We managed to buy mangoes when we passed by a market and also some mango treats from Trappist.

Guimaras is so peaceful and still has a very provincial laidback vibe.

When we got to Raymen Beach Resort, we all went to our respective rooms to catch a few winks. At around 3 pm, the multicab driver picked us up again to start the island tour action.

First in the itinerary is Guisi Beach and Guisi Lighthouse.

Maganda sana but the walkway going to the lighthouse is not kid-friendly. There’s also a slight drizzle that afternoon so we just stayed inside the multicab. That’s basically the highlight of Day 1, we all slept early that night since everybody was tired from the flight and road travel.

Day 2 is Island Hopping Day. Raymen Beach Resort already offers island hopping services. This is Raymen’s shoreline by the way…

So are you ready for some island hopping action? Gwen’s ready!

We visited about 4 or 5 islands. I can’t remember the names, I think there’s an Ave Maria island, the bat cave and one that they called Turtle Island. But the Turtle island is just a rip-off, calling an island that because of a lone turtle and charging 5 pesos for every visitor who wants his/her photo taken with the turtle is not fun. Definitely not fun especially if you think about animal rights and such.

Gwen and Lucas definitely had a blast in the water! These kids are so lucky to have parents na lakwatsera no? And not to mention lakwatserong mga ninong at ninang.

By lunchtime, we were already finished and famished, hehe. We just ate at Raymen’s canteen, yummy food but super cheap. One of my fave meals at the canteen, Buttered Garlic Shrimp at syempre, Guimaras mangoes for dessert.

After being hyped as the sweetest mangoes, I expected too much. That’s why when I got to taste it, I was not impressed because I ate sweeter non-Guimaras mangoes in the past. Pero, sabi nila, because it’s not yet in season, March and April is said to yield the sweetest mangoes daw.

After lunch, we all had siesta especially the kids. Jeff ran for a few kilometers in Guimaras and went back dinner time. After dinner, he took care of Gwen while I had the most relaxing and sulit one-and-half hour massage at our room. Sarap matulog!

Part 2 is all about Iloilo…