We planned to hop Roxas City, Aklan and Antique.
Roxas was more than just the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. On our first day, we went to explore Tuwad Island, which was a 45 to 1 hour boat travel from Roxas City. Lunch was at nearby Baybay Island, where Olotayan Island can be seen from afar.
On day 2, we traveled by van to Caticlan & took the boat to Boracay. I've seen several beaches definitely clearer than that of Boracay's. The influx of tourists may have really contributed to what has become of Boracay now.
On our 2nd day in Boracay, we treated ourselves to the famous Deco's, which serve really sumptuous la paz batchoy (they also serve tapsilog and longsilog).
At around 11 am, we set off to Culasi (2-hour bus ride from Caticlan to Culasi). Upon arrival in Culasi, we had a quick lunch of baranggan fish and seaweed at Divs' house, and took a 15-minute boat trip to Malalison Island, the primary reason why we traveled all the way to Western Visayas – after seeing pictures of Malalison, courtesy of my friend and colleague Bikoy.
We camped out along the shore; grilled baranggan fish and tried to catch meteorites fall down the sky. It was all worth the travel. Malalison is a small island in Antique with only 700 people. We were joined in the trip by the charming island barangay captain Allan Macuja, 2 tanods, and several young lads from Culasi.
Our 2nd day in Antique was spent at Tibiao for our fish spa session.(Tibiao, a small town in Antique, is home to 7-tiered falls named Bugtong Falls).
We were pressed for time hence, the desire to take a peak at the famous falls did not take place.
We also discovered that Antique has the most number of bridges. On our way back to Culasi, I counted 7 bridges along the way. Haha!
June 7 in the afternoon, we traveled back to Kalibo to take a van to Roxas City.
June 8 was our last day in Roxas City. We started the day with an early morning trip to the market. I bought blue marlin and prawns. And yes, we won't forget our diwal (capiznon word meaning dila).
Still not getting enough of the 5-day trip with 3 provinces, 3 islands and lots of other extra ordinary experience, we set off to the nearby Pan-ay, still in Capiz, to get a glimpse of the biggest church bell in Asia at Sta.Monica Church. Whoa! The church has a really amazing facade. It can be likened to the church in Vigan (which was renovated and repainted, to my disappointment, as it lost its 'old character').
The trip was worth the 30-minute travel. We learned that the bell was made in 1870; was made out of 70 sacks of coins; echo can reach up to 8 kilometers.
Our flight was delayed by 2 hours so we went to Baybay Beach again and had lunch of shrimp, grilled squid and liempo.
We promise to go back to Roxas and Antique. There's still a lot to discover. Falls. Virgin Islands. Seafood. Different kinds of clams we haven't tasted yet.
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