Editor Pick
Bulalacao
- March 26, 2007
- Rated 3 of 5 by
manlalakbay from davao, Philippines
I was able to convince my friends to go try out the Bulalacao island hopping trip with me for our Holy Week vacation. I was able to find a contact, so accommodations wouldn’t be a problem.
So our only concern for the trip was to look for a way to get there. The vans from Calapan City, the capital of Oriental Mindoro, only had routes to Roxas. Roxas is two towns before Bulalacao. We hired a van to take us straight there.
When we got to Roxas, the bus would be leaving at 3pm. It was only 12:30pm. It was there we also needed to meet up with our guide. While waiting, we negotiated with the driver to take us straight to Bulalacao. The driver has not been there yet but decided to accept the offer anyway.
No wonder the vans only reached until Roxas! The road to Bulalacao was rough, dusty, dry, and zigzaggy. Plying the route felt like you were in the middle of nowhere. Minutes to hours passed, and it felt like we weren’t going anywhere at all, as each turn and bend looked the same as the ones before.
Three hours after, we finally reached a paved road. Houses were starting to appear, first sparingly, until they began to cluster together. A sure sign that we have come back to civilization.
Bulalacao was a quiet little municipality. There were only small stores and humble houses lining the roads. Our guide led us to a boat. It was only then that we realized that we were staying on an island across.
It was already after 5pm when we got to Bulalacao, so we were greeted by a nice sunset as we crossed to the island we were staying in.
Our foster home for the night was the family of a student of my contact. They were already preparing our dinner, which we were to have at the barge a few meters from the shore. While making our way there, one of our companions suffered a mishap as she slid and scraped her leg badly on the barnacles of the raft we were to ride. Good thing, we had a doctor among our troop. We looked for somebody who could take her and the doctor to the hospital, or at least a clinic. It was thirty minutes away by motor. Thankfully, the locals were more than willing to help us. Our hurt companion was kind enough to give us her blessing to go on and enjoy the rest of the night anyway.
Minus the accident in our minds, it was a peaceful night. The sky clear and starry and the beach calm while we have a nice warm dinner on a floating hut, our feet dipped in the salty cool water. The local teens took care of us, who helped prepare our dinner and rowed the boat from the shore to the barge.
It was your idyllic rustic setting. Beautiful.
From journal Island Hopping in Bulalacao, Mindoro Oriental