№ 159. Batanes Through Square Lenses

These are random images of a second visit to Batanes, last year. 

The Batanes archipelago is the usual alley of typhoons exiting to the north after entering the Philippines from the Pacific Ocean in the east. So the islands see their share of two to three destructive ones every year. Fortunately, the network of roads are again reconnecting the small barangays scattered in the big island of Batan.

Street art in the capital

It is still relatively expensive to fly to Batanes. Because it is the northernmost province, it takes a good one-and-a-half to two-hour flight by propeller plane. 

The locals tell us that there are no ferry boats able to shuttle people from the mainland. The Balintang Channel, they say, acts as rough sea barrier where the West Philippine Sea and the Pacific Oceans converge.

One of the many art pieces by Pacita Abad

№ 10. Calaguas & Bagasbas

The sea looked glassy and calm in the dusk that Saturday. It certainly belied the journey to Calaguas Islands and Bagasbas Beach, Camarines Norte.

№ 2. Palaui: Sunny & Quiet

Manila at 36˚C is a fusion chamber inside an angry sun. Everything concrete, it seemed, was glowing white. The rest was melting away.

After two hours of greasy and sticky wait at the bus station, the airconditioned bus was a pool of winter. We didn't wait to be called when the blue bus arrived.

The driver read our collective wish: an escape velocity away from the incinerator. And by 2 PM, we finally escaped Manila and headed fast for the highway---light years from the urban heat sink.

Quiet and uncrowded. Not like Boracay's sand and fury.

When we made a turn for the North road, the on board entertainment also began, auspiciously enough, with Ian Veneracion v. Raymart Santiago DVD marathon. Four hours.