Life       Backpack

Masbate, one of the 7117 islands in the Philippines is the poorest island in the Visayas and Luzon Regions and the third poorest island in the entire Philippines was clearly evident as soon as we arrived from the Sorsogon Province. Once we were out of the city of Masbate we found that there was minimal infrastructure with most houses having either a basic breeze block shell or a timber structure and all shops being the traditional Sari Sari stores. Although there were roads inter-connecting most major towns, once in a particular town the bichiman roads soon became dirt tracks. Despite the islands overall poverty, the ranching tradition gives it its unique attractive character with acres of open grass fields with grazing cattle in amongst low lying rolling hills, as well as the picturesque coastlines lined with coconut trees.

It was never our intention to spend much time on this island but rather use it as a stepping stone to get to Boracay, but due to a specific ferry schedule on set days we were forced to spend two days in Balud. Despite the initial frustration it was definitely a lucky misfortune as we found Paraiso de Palanei, a really nice local resort on a long white sand beach just one kilometre from the centre of Balud. This small resort with only a few modern bungalows, was set on the beach close to a couple of other resorts and was mainly visited by local families. This small holiday resort set in amongst the dense rows of coconut trees that lined the beach was run by a very friendly elderly local couple who most definitely enjoyed the company of a couple of foreigners for two nights. Although there wasn’t very much to do there, we just enjoyed the beautiful weather on the long clean and quiet white sand beach with a few fruit smoothies.