Jomalig Island

One of the Beach of Jomalig

Philippines has 7,107 islands. I am fortunate enough to reach one of the furthest island by hitching on a Cessna plane piloted by my friends.

Philippine Map Posted at the Wall of ATO Jomalig

From Clark, Pampanga I rode a Cessna  plane piloted by my two Japanese friends flying to Jomalig an island near Polilio Islands group . They keep on telling me that place before, I am fortunate enough to be able to see the place and take pictures of it.

Our Navigators ^^

We left Clark around 10 am then landed on Jomalig around 12 noon. We are four inside the small plane. 2 Pilots and 2 passengers. I think we flown slowly because of our weight I have to really lessen my weight ^^. We are all big in terms of body mass ^^,

I am the only Filipino on board, three of them are Japanese, we all shared the same AWE as we view the beautiful island.

An Island in Polilio

 
High about the sky, you can see the blue sea, and many corral reefs, not just patches but big island shapes underneath the waves, no wonder the color of the sand is different, orange.

We landed on a grass airstrip were cows, goats and horses grazes. As we touch down I look at the faces of the animals they seem surprised like the ones I saw in TV featuring Savannah animals when they saw planes passing by.

We were greeted by an old Auntie who works in the ATO (Air Transportation Office) and introduced us to Tatay..., I forgot the name ( Maybe Randy) I think he is the husband of the Auntie working at ATO.

I had the impression that there is only few happenings on that place, I happen to have a glimpsed of their bulletin board. We arrived there Nov 2011, but their latest post was around 2009.

Auntie called Kuya to show us the beach.. We rode a tricycle use to carry, pigs, cattle and people ^^,

  
Kuya send us to the beach, too bad the weather was rainy that is why I was not able to take many pictures. I swam and enjoyed the view ^^.

JOMALIG オニン I tried to write the date but the waves caught my writing :(

The Beach

The Fishing Boat Docking

Us ^^

Like many  fishing villages in the Philippines you will see houses near the seashore. Many fishing boats are also seen dock at the beach. The Pacific Ocean is clear blue, touching the orange shore of Jomalig.

I'm saddened by the way local people treat the area. They place their garbage on the shore. I tried to talked to Tatay regarding this situation and told him that they should be taking care of their area. I tried to explained to him about eco tourism. If the place is beautiful tourist will go and it will generated income to local people. I shared to him my experience at Dasol, Pangasinan,  where I stayed for three days and two nights. We did a homestay at the local fisherman house. We gave money to our host like a rental fee for using a portion of their place and for feeding us. I told tatay that the people in Dasol, only has a little patch of beach front yet the people there take part on preserving its beauty, more of Dasol, Pangasinan on next post. Back to tatay, all I can do is to give my view and hoping I might influence a little.

Open area Garbage on the Beach

Tatay also showed us another part of the Island, this time the residents are far from the beach line. Going there is an adventure in itself. We traveled on very narrow dirt road while the rain is pouring. Since the road is not cemented there are times we need to push the tricycle :P
We were like children soaking in the rain, riding a tricycle and avoiding the vegetation that we run on too.  The final destination of beach with orange sand but this time no houses in site which are very near the beach, so the beach is clean ^^,

The road less traveled

Century Old Balete Tree

Jomalig can be reached by boat too. From Atimonan Port  according to Tatay it takes 7 hours travel, If you ride from Real Quezon it will only take you 5 hours.