Since Bolinao and Alaminos are near each other, both in Pangasinan, what the heck, we included it in our itinerary.
Alaminos is about 2 hours away from Bolinao via private transportation and the home of the world famous Hundred Islands.
As with almost every tourist destination here in the Philippines, the journey begins by registering at the Tourism center. Here you can find all you need to know about the place, like the map of the Hundred Islands and also a ton of people offering their services. So the services they could render here are the boat and the snorkeling gear, which is cheap and sucks... in water.
Trivia: on a high tide, their are a few less island count. ^__^
Before starting the show.. err. journey, one must put first their foundation... err.. sun screen.
and then strike a manly pose up till Governor's Island.
Governor's Island is our first stop. Here contains the Pinoy Big brother house, which obviously was used by Pinoy Big Brother (Sorry I don't watch tv). By stepping a few elevations higher, the Governor's Island also has a man made ridge to overlook most of the other islands. The view is exceptional and breath taking, I'm not certain where the sun will set, but I think this place will be spectacular during the sunset. That's why people can't stop taking a pose. ^__^
coming back down to the shore of Governor's Island also lies a small cavern of some sort that around 40 feet inside leads to a dead end or a light sucking cavern.
After Governor's Island, we hopped back to the boat to go and eat at Quezon Island. Note to those who wants to tour the Hundred Islands. Food at the island is not cheap, so better bring your own food. As for us, we take-out some langhap-sarap Jollibee as we are short on cash c/o food from the place we are staying in.
Now to the fun part of the journey, snorkeling! Currently there is just one snorkeling spot (different from diving spot, which i think the hundred island has several of). The base point has a rope tied to it up to several buoys to help the non-swimmer to still enjoy the snorkel.
The coral reef is at the very center and far from the ropes, so people needs to brave themselves to see the beautiful preserve reefs. It was pure awesomsauce as it was the first time i saw a big clam!
After about an hour or so it was time to hop to another island. The snorkeling experience was almost perfect if not for the cheap snorkeling gear that keeps sucking in water in our eyes and the nasty laceration mush got from the ropes.
Next island we went to was the Children's Island. It was indeed the perfect place for children as the water was shallow and only knee deep. I don't have any photos as I got worn out by snorkeling (lazy excuse for a photographer i know. lol). So after learning how to float laying on my back (with the help of a life vest. lol). I just floated till it was time to go home.
On the boat ride home, I was again awestruck by the setting sun. Too bad we left a bit early as it would've been perfect if the sun was a bit lower when i took the photo above.
after reaching the shore and showering at a Php10 shower joint, we walked around the port of Alaminos, ate some delicacy and made our way to eat dinner at Cindys at Alaminos town proper before heading back to rest at the resort in Bolinao.