Islas de Gigantes (islands of giants) is one of the tourist spots destination in Iloilo. It is a remote group of islands located off the coast of Carles and Estancia towns in northeastern Iloilo.
The ffg are the places included in our tour:
1) Islas de Gigantes Mainland (read in Part 1)
2) Gigantes Norte Lighthouse (read in Part 1)
3) Antonia Beach (read in Part 1)
4) Tangke Lagoon (read in Part 1)
5) Cabugao Island (read in Part 1)
6) Bantigue Sandbar
7) Bolobadiangan Island
8) Bakwitan Cave
Bantigue Sandbar
This reminds me of the famous White Island / Sandbar in Camiguin. It is also composed of a long stretch of sand which narrows and change shape during high tide. During the time of our visit, it was C-shaped.
Bolobadiangan Island
I'm not really sure if this is name of the island that we went to eat our lunch. But there are several huts in this place in contrast to the other islands that we previously visited. Several tourists are also staying in the island's beach resort. However, I didn't find its beach attractive for swimming because there were lots of stones and the wind at that time was really blowing strong.
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| Our lunch |
Bakwitan Cave
As per our guide, "Bakwitan" means a place to evacuate. This cave was used by the locals to hide from the Japanese soldiers during the World War, and also as an evacuation site during typhoons.
At first, trekking towards the cave was easy. And so was the beautiful tour with the stalagmites, stalactites, and rock formations. Never did we know what dangers and difficulties we had to go through before we can exit the cave. But we made it! Proud amateur spelunkers here!
Below are different formations protruding from the cave wall. The first looks like a chicken leg, the 2nd one looks like a horse leg, and the 3rd, that of an owl. The 4th photo shows what a growing stalactite looks like, with a whitish, crystalline substance.
We had to crawl inside a small hole to go to the other side of the cave. This is the start of the quite difficult journey towards exiting the place.
We had to climb a very steep and quite slippery part of the cave.
After quite some time, we finally made it outside the cave. But wait, the sign only says "Success!! You have made it half way..." What?!
And only after the climb downwards did we get the "halfway" part. We had to cover quite a distance from the cave's exit towards the foot of the mountain. There were several steep parts, we had to go down a number of huge pointed rocks, and pass thru a narrow cave-like passage.
For those interested to read similar island hopping adventures, just click any of the links below:
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