Lakbayin ang Pilipinas - Hundred Islands

Aside from the Pic of the Day posts, I've decided to make Lakbayin ang Pilipinas posts too. Lakbayin ang Pilipinas means Travel the Philippines. This way, I get to share my favorite places in my country and share a bit of my culture too. :)

The first place I picked is Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan. It is located 250km away from Manila, our capital city. There are exactly 123 islands of different shapes and sizes here, hence the name. Not all islands are converted into resorts, so the beauty of it all is preserved. Only three islands were developed for tourists - Children's Island, Governor's Island and Quezon Island. We stayed at Children's Island. Just to give you an idea, here are some of the islands:
I went here with my friends on an environmental trip several years back. It was a great adventure, we really roughed it out and faced nature. We stayed in a bahay kubo, or nipa hut - a cottage made out of bamboo and nipa and anahaw leaves. The bahay kubo is a primitive type of house. I didn't get to take a photo of where we stayed, but this is an example:
Not all the islands have primitive accommodations, lol. There are resorts in the others. But we were on an adventure trip so it was perfect there. So anyway, there were no beds, we had to sleep on bamboo cots. There was no electricity there too which made it really exciting and it really pushed us out of our comfort zones. Especially me. There is a bathroom of course, but it was a good 5 minute walk away from our hut. It was perched on a hill. And also, there was no running water in the shower room. Only in the toilet. So we had to get our water from the poso at the bottom of the hill. We had to carry our pails up to the hill so we can bathe. The poso is a manual pump. Again, an example:
We were surrounded by lush greenery, the sea, and the wonderful salty breezes. It was really fun being around nature. Also, we had to cook our meals using manual fire. Like literally starting fire from two stones rubbed together. We had lots of grilled meat and seafood for our meals, yumyum.

First, some pictures:

this was on our boat ride going there
I took this in one of the islands that we hopped on to
this one too, those are two of my friends
and this is me, photo taken by my friend Ruthie :) (Hi Inay!) as you can see, the sand was really powdery, which I loved
I took this because it was cool. Procreating insects. I'm not sure what they are though, and they were really small so it was hard to take a close up picture using a digital camera.

Anyway, the main reason we went there was to do a coastal cleanup. It was just a bonus for us to do some kayaking and boating to explore the islands, and participate in an Amazing Race kind of game. We did all sorts of tasks, hopping from one island to the next. My team won! :) Also, my favorite part of the trip was when we found this really high cliff (approximately 25-30 feet, more or less) on one of the beaches that led to a secret cave-like corner that looked out to the deep water (around 10 feet or more). I wish I'd taken a photo of it, but no one would hold my camera because we were all jumping. So yeah, it was really cool! I was quite scared at first because I'd never jumped off anything that high before. But it felt so effing amazing when I lifted my feet off the cliff and plunged into the water. I wouldn't forget that moment.

We only stayed for 3 days. I still felt that 3 days isn't enough. There are still many places to explore, and many things to do, and I wish there was more time to enjoy the greenery, the sea and the sun and the sand. Guess it's pretty obvious by now that I love the beach and the sun, huh? The whole trip was just so much fun and there were so many memories. The entire place was so beautiful. I really wish I took more pictures, if only I wasn't too keen on spending all the time in the water :p I'd love to go back there with the same set of friends someday. :)