Batanes Chronicles: Batanes Sneak Peak

Day 1

BATANES  SNEAK PEAK

Batanes, finally! One big check mark on my 2010 travel checklist. 

Upon touchdown, the first thing you will notice, aside from the very short runway, is the cutest Basco airport with stone house design, very charming. From there we went straight to the quite pricey Batanes Beach Resort where we had traditional Ivatan meals for lunch, which was great but i didn’t enjoy as much as I enjoyed the awesome view from the resort. With matching waves as the background music.

Because it was too late in the day to take a halfday tour, we decided to tour the town ourselves and proceeded with the first of our many walkathons, thoroughly enjoyed by my travel companions jp and Karen. It was about a 15-20 minute walk from the resort to town proper. From the town, we decided to rent mountain bikes in Abad St. and bike all the way to Basco lighthouse. Im sure other people will approve of this move, unfortunately I found the bike ride uber difficult. Im not trying to make excuses here but yes, i was pretty sick that day, nursing colds and was a bit feverish, which made the ride even more challenging. Okay fine, im weak and even on my best day, going up those hills is quite tasking. 

Spending the afternoon in the very pretty Basco light house made it all worth it of course. The sunset, the hills, the quietness of it all is just overwhelming. It drizzled a bit but it even made it even more conducive to muni-moments.

We ended the night with a sumptuous coconut crab dinner (yummy!) at Pension Ivatan, and ice cream bought from sari-sari store on our way back. 

Batanes Beach Resort P1800/ night

Lunch at the resort P200/ head ( estimate )

Bike P30/ bike/hour

Dinner at Pension Ivatan P 300/head

Ice cream- free c/o Karen


Stick around for more of the Batanes Chronicles. This was just half a day of the first of 7 days I spent in Batanes.