At first, I was hesitant with the idea of doing a spontaneous travel, but at the end of the trip I felt that this was one of my best trips ever in years. Why? Keep on reading to find out why.
Leaving Manila
We were at the hype of setting up our trip to Puerto Galera when unexpectedly it was postponed by the owner. (But finally, we did visit – Puerto Nirvana Trip)
I felt bad about it for we are all in the beach mode already. Having the urge to go to the beach, out of the blue, my mom message me and asked me to join her, to visit my grandparents in Pangasinan. The idea of bringing the whole crew pop up, and I insisted the condition that I would only say yes if my Mom agrees for us to head straight to Hundred Islands a day after.
The Road to Lucap Wraft
A popular image found in textbooks in the Primary education in the Philippines, I thought I’d grow old without seeing Hundred Islands in real life.
The Hundred Islands National Park is a national park located in the city of Alaminos, in the province of Pangasinan in Northern Philippines. The islands, totaling 124 at low tide and 123 at high tide, are scattered in Lingayen Gulf covering an area of 16.76 square kilometres (6.47 sq mi). Only three of them have been developed for tourism: Governor Island, Quezon Island, and Children’s Island. The Lucap Wharf in Alaminos, the entrance to the National Park, is about 240 kilometers (150 mi) north of Manila.
Before visiting Hundred Islands, we planned to do an overnight stay first in our house in Paldit, Pangasinan. The place is less than two hours away from Hundred Islands, but it was just okay, at least my uncle can just accompany us on our trip the next day.
It was a long bumpy two-hour drive to Alaminos, Pangasinan, good thing I’m with a fun and crazy company. My mom was with us along with my cousins and my Uncle, who owns the jeep.
Upon reaching Alaminos, we decided to buy some food in the market. If your travelling from Manila via bus, this is the place where the journey of the bus ends. From the bus terminal you will need to ride a jeep or a tricycle towards Lucap Wraft, which is where the sea adventure starts.
The Islands at Hundred Islands
Upon arriving at Lucap, the first thing you needed to do is to head on to the registration area where you will be needing to pay an environmental fee and boat rental.
Environmental fee costs Php 40 day tour / Php 80 for overnight. For the boat rental;
Small Boat – Php 1,400 (max 5)
Medium Boat – Php 1,800 (max 10)
Large boat – Php 2,000 (max 15)
Aside from the boat rental and environmental fee, you also have the option to rent other equipment like goggles, lifevest etc.
The rented boat will be your ride to wherever island you wanted to visit. The trip to the first Island took us around twenty minutes. The island is called The Governors Island where a dock to see a picturesque view can be found.
Other islands we visited includes Clave Island, Children’s Island and Romulo Island.
If you are looking for long shores, this is not a place for you. Most of the islands here are mushroom-like and can’t be visited via boat, only a few islands are developed for visitation. And because most of the islands are too crowded we decided to look for a better place to stay. We ended up at Quezon Island, for it is the most developed and got the best shorelines among the rest of the islands.
We may not be able to visit all of the Islands, having a fresh glimpse of this place is just enough. Add to that are the crazy friends I traveled with, making the most disappointing moments even fun! Plus I got a chance to bond with Mom!
We left the Island at 3 pm, head back to Lucap, went home, took a rest and readied ourselves for another adventure!
