My third day in Batanes was scheduled for the South Batan Tour, Dale picked me up at my home stay around 7:30AM.
Our first stop is the Chawa View Deck. It is known to be one of the perfect spot to view the sunset. Since it was just around 8:00AM, I just decided to go down the cliff of more than 100 steps and enjoy the watching the strong waves crushing down the stones. Also I was able to spot the Philippine Airlines preparing their arrival at Basco.
Then we headed down south over the Mahatao Water Shelter. As the name implies, it serves as shelter/protection for boats during typhoon season.
Next on my list is the Maywang A Libro Du Vatan / Batanes Blank Book Archive. Literally speaking, it is a collection of Blank books wherein you are given the privilege to right something about something or do scribble or anything you want.
Right beside the Blank Book Archive is the
Matao Church /
San Carlos Borromeo Church. It was declared as one of the 26 Philippine Churches that has been recognized as Cultural Icons due to its beauty and excellent state of preservation, It was built using Limestone walling in Baroque Style and Cogon Roofing.
From the church, we proceed to our next stop,
Tayid Lighthouse and the Liveng/Hedgerows. While driving uphill, the view was mind blowing. I even imagine the Great Wall of China situated on top of the hills from the road constructed with retaining wall built on both sides of the road to protect the vehicles from falling.
While walking towards the Tayid Lighthouse, A local snake welcomed us. Sorry for the poor photo. We all know that snake is a snake. haha. It's better for me to stay distant when I took photo. haha.
Next stop is thew
Racuh A Payaman / Marlboro Country. It is a vast area of pastureland for cows, carabaos and horses. It is a perfect spot for nature lovers and photographers.
Our last stop before going back to Basco is the Municipality of Uyugan. We stop over at the
Alapad Rock Formation and overlooking
Loran Station. From where I am standing, you can feel the strong wind whipping your entire body and the ravage of waves crashing the huge stones.
The
Loran Station were previously used during the World War II by the Americans as the US Coast Guard Station. Way back, it was known as Little America. The government is planning to rehabilitate the structure as the National Museum of Batanes.
I don't know the name of this area. I just asked the driver to stop when I saw this spot.
10 Commandments written in Ivatan. This monument is located in front of Itbud Curch,
The Old Spanish Bridge which is built during the Spanish Period. This bridge is still being used to date.
After few hours of awesome South Batan Tour, We decided to have our lunch break at
Vatang.
After we had our late lunch, we rest for few minutes and headed down to couple of spots left on our itinerary. Below is the famous White Beach of Batanes. This is the most memorable part of my vacation here. I will attached a short clip below this post for you to find out the story. :)
Along the roads of Batanes, you can see from each corner this sign. #medyobastos #parangtextlang
To wrapped up my South Batan Tour, I went inside the House of Dakay. It is the one of the 5 houses that survive the catastrophic earthquake happened last Sept. 13, 1918 that causes the Municipality of Ivana to be leveled. Up to this date, the floorings and shutters haven never been changed. Cogon Roof is changed every 30 years. Last change of Roofing is way back 2007.
After that, I went back to my homestay around 3:00 in the afternoon to regain the lost energy of the entire day. By 5:30PM, Dale picked me up at my homestay and we went to Naidi Lighthouse to catch the sunset. Unfortunately, It is too cloudly due to the tail of Typhoon Pepeng. But still, the last photo I had below is taken on top of the Naidi "Basco" Lighthouse.
