Batanes: Day 2 Sabtang Island ❤

I woke up early to prepare breakfast as our call time was 5:30am for our Sabtang Island tour.  Good thing, Marfel's Lodge has set-up their own Honesty Mini grocery store in the communal kitchen where you would just basically get anything you need, write it down in their list and put your payment at designated jar. They have basic items like coffee, canned goods, cup noodles, chips, rice and etc so you won't need to go out and buy your commodities especially if your call time was this early. In a span of one hour, I managed to cook rice, scrambled eggs and cornbeef while preparing myself for the tour. I consider it as an accomplishment because normally, I would be in my zombie mode waking up earlier than my 6am body clock.

Sabtang Island is where the famous Ivatan's stoned houses can be commonly found and a lot more beauty of nature anywhere you look. This time, we're a big group of 10. We had different sets of guides and group joiners every tours. Our guide for our Sabtang Island tour named Ian but pronounced as "Ayan". He's a bit reserved compared to Art but I could see he was trying his best to relay important facts about our tour in the Island. They say Ivatans are shy people but nowadays they're learning to comprehend more with tourists [due to high demand of Tourism in Batanes].

We travelled a 20mins van ride going to San Vicente Port of Ivana and another 30mins faluwa (boat) ride to Sabtang Island. The ride was not bumpy as I thought. We're blessed with a perfect weather during our entire trip. Our guide said that the weather has been drizzling the past few days. In fact, the sun only showed up on the exact date of our arrival. One of our housemates even experienced a cancelled flight two days prior to our flight-- they're already in Basco but the plane was not able to land due to zero visibility that's why their pilot decided to return back to Manila. We're very lucky indeed.

From Sabtang port, we went straight to Sabtang Tourism Information Center. I believe that all tourists of Sabtang Island are required to register and pay an environmental fee which was already included in our tour package. The tourists are also encourage to try their native Ivatan tea called Tubho tea for free and I could say that it tastes like taho (soya). 

Brgy Chavayan Stone Houses

Sto. Thomas Chapel

Brgy Savidug Stone Houses

We stopped at a hut selling buko juice and souvenir items.Nanay, as shown in the picture below was bragging us that his father reached 100 years old drinking Tubho tea regularly. I bought one to her for Php 50.00 for pasalubong.

I think that the highlight of our 2nd day tour in Sabtang Island was the Savidug Idjang viewing. The scenery is just so breathtaking.. Lush green rolling hills as far as eyes can see, breathtaking cliffs, big waves hitting the rocks and the beautiful view of Mt. Iraya. Am I really in the Philippines?

Of course, we won't miss the chance to wear Ivatan headgears (vakul and kanayi ) which traditional Ivatans use for protection from the harsh sunlight and rain while farming.

We had a sumptuous lunch at Morong beach which was our final stop in Sabtang Island before heading back to Basco. They served us chopseuy, Ivatan adobo, fish steak and seaweed soup.

We only had a limited time as the last faluwa ride was only until 12:30pm so we only stayed in Morong beach for 10mins for photo ops to the famous Ahaw Arc Formation

And then there goes the scariest boat ride I've ever experienced going back to Basco. As in tumalon puso ko as I see the big waves hitting our faluwa. The boat captain was steering the boat by foot. He must have mastered the flow of big waves of West Philippine Sea. Hehehe. But thank God for a safe trip!

At 2:30pm we were already back at Marfel's. Even though its just a half day tour but we felt so drained. Maybe because we're lack of sleep the past few days. We've agreed to meet Ron and go biking around town proper to see what we can buy in the market for dinner. But myyy, my ever dependable boyfriend didn't set the alarm.  We woke up past 6pm already. The market in Batanes closes early and we don't want another canned goods for dinner. And so we invited Ron  to join us for dinner in Shanedel's Inn restaurant. They're one of the restos in Basco that offers coconut crab. Though the coconut crab is quite expensive (Php100.00 per gram) pikit mata namen inorder out of curiosity just to identify the difference from the regular crab. I think the difference was the alege (crab fat) of coconut crab tastes a bit bitter. Yun lang. Nothing else. Hehe. We also ordered pork steak, venes & ivatan rice. 

Another couple who was with us during our Sabtang tour happens to be staying in ShaneDel's Inn. They just came from dinner date in Fundacion Pacita and so when they saw us dining at the Inn's resto,sinamahan nila kame for an endless chitchat. Ang saya lang!  .I asked them how was their experience with Fundacion Pacita as we also made a dinner reservation with them the next day.. the couple surprisingly discouraged us. They said its overrated from blog reviews. Disappointed from the feedback we've heard, we immediately cancelled our reservation. Perfect timing because Jan's mom knows someone from Basco and he was kind enough to treat us a sumptuous dinner in Octagon restaurant.

Part 1: South Batan, Batanes

Part 2: Sabtang Island, BatanesPart 3: South Batan, Batanes

Rica ♡