A DARK cloudy day after a night of intermittently moderate and heavy rains opened to a relatively serene sea where an outrigger boat was to take a group of practitioners from both mainstream and social media on Siargao’s renowned tri-island hopping tour.
At the boat, fun, fun, fun dissolved the disparity in ages in the inter-generational mix of the island-hoppers, this septuagenarian enjoying common ground with the mostly millennial tourmates. As in dancing, aye, literally swaying to the sway of the boat as the waves crested and ebbed.
GUYAM ISLAND
First stop, Guyam Island. A tiny strip of white sand beach, a red-white striped lifeguard chair, a shack selling food and drinks, a bitty basketball court, two poles with a net for beach volleyball, a pair of hammocks tied to towering coconut palms, under the coconut grove a three-man reggae band or what looked like one, scores upon scores of women and men of all shapes and shades in various stages of barely decent uncoverage.
NAKED ISLAND
Given all that skin overexposure, the second stop intensely ignited the imagination all the more – Naked Island, as immediately doused, alas, by the inference of the island’s physical bareness, as in no plants, no trees, not even a makeshift shed. A taho vendor all alone, heavenly bodies galore – sunning, soaking, swimming, or simply sitting on the sandbar.
DAKU ISLAND
Final stop at Daku Island, the biggest — hence, the name — and the lushest of the three, for that storied Siargao signature feasting – seafood boodle fight. Simply, divine!
Halfway through the banquet by the beach, the dark clouds since morning finally breaking into rain, scattered drizzle for a moment, torrential the next.
Forget that island in the sun where everything’s fun so celebrated in song, Siargao in the rain still sizzles.
(Philippine Airlines flies Clark-Siargao-Clark every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday)
