VI

Island Hopping in Iloilo

Fishing hut in the middle of the ocean

Jules on the white sand beach

Marino sitting under a tree on The Sand Bar

Marino running on the The Sand Bar

Going towards Tambaliza in the boat

Mount Manaphag on Tambaliza

My little brother, Marino

Views from the hill beside the mountain

Heading back to Conception

My mother grew up down the road from her family's farm in Sara in a beach town called Concepcion. We spent our visit there island hopping between (the very originally named beach) The Sand Bar, which was exactly what it sounds like - a sand bar jutting out into the middle of the sea, and Tambaliza, a tropical island with one of Iloilo's landmarks in the centre - Mount Manaphag (we didn't climb it but apparently there are wild monkeys that live there!)

Island hopping in Concepcion was a stark contrast to the bustle of Boracay - our companions on the water were fisherman and locals. There were no mega hotels, and on that day at least, no other tourists - just nipa huts, some fish, the white sand, the ocean, and the islands.