Touring Bolinao - Cape Bolinao
Ternski
Brett gave us a tour of what Bolinao has to offer. Well, it was sort of, a tour of what Barangay Patar, Bolinao has to offer. We rode on his owner-jeep where Amber and Joby sat in front and us three were sitting/standing at the back.

Ivan: We love it here in Africa!!!Gotta love this pose! AMP!


Our first stop is Cape Bolinao. It is the only lighthouse tower that you can see here in Bolinao and it is around 5 minutes away from the resort. Actually, if you have a look at the view from the shack above the big rock in SP, you can get a really good view of the tower and how far it is from the resort. Although, Treasures of Bolinao is still the nearest resort near the tower and white beach but.. WHY will you even spend that much? Treasures will just rip off your money, imo.


Again, I'll give full credits to Abe for taking these amazing photos using my D90


Upon arriving at the tower, Brett started giving us some background information about the lighthouse. Poor me for my poor memory and I think, I was not paying that much attention to our guide, so I have to consult other sources of information about Cape Bolinao.

As you can see, on this photo, Brett was trying to show us the lighthouse but we were all too busy posing for the camera to take a photo. Peace, Brett XD



According to Wikipedia:

The Cape Bolinao Lighthouse at Patar rises majestically 351 feet above sea level atop Punta Piedra Point, a towering hill of solid rock which is the sharp point of Cape Bolinao itself.It was built by the Americans in 1903 on a 351 feet (107 m) high promontory at the western part of Cape Bolinao, the lighthouse still sends signals to vessels passing by the area.


The lighthouse provides a panoramic view of a portion of the 1,269 hectare Cape Bolinao Dendro Thermal Ipil-Ipil Plantation on a land area where archaeological excavations have revealed relics from the 14th to the 15th centuries. Filipino, British and American engineers constructed the lighthouse in 1905. According to the Bureau of Geodetic Surveys, the land elevation is 250 feet. Visibility is 20 miles at midsea towards the lighthouse in Poro Point. The winding stairway has 6 platforms with 20 steps or rungs for a total of 120 steps plus 14 more to the illumination room, or an over-all total of 134 steps.

When Brett was giving us some information about the lighthouse, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he mentioned that the lighthouse also is/was a source of electricity for the town. But, I'm not entirely sure if it is still working since if it was, then we wouldn't have experienced the brown out in the resort. And even if we did experience the brownout, we could have seen the light coming from the lighthouse (but we didn't).


Here are some excerpts from ICOMOS Philippines.com:

While the lighthouse has become a tourist attraction by itself, it has failed to do its “job” of guiding sea vessels at night, Honrada said.


In early November 2004, the beacon lights started to dim until it finally shut off on Nov. 8.“The batteries bogged down,” Honrada said. He has been following up with the PCG navigation command the repair of the batteries that cost about P1 million—to no avail.

“My wish is that before I retire [in October], the lighthouse will be working again,” Honrada said.

Here are the solar panels - not sure if they work

omfg.. I am soo fat, I really need to get fit -.-

uhmmm yeah... we were kinda hoping that the camera can still capture our faces next to the tower.. but this is the best shot that we could get XD


On the left side of the tower is where you can see some old abandoned buildings (actually, there were only 2). I am not entirely sure what they were before. And again, even if Brett was there to explain to us what those were, I don't think I was paying attention (sorry again).



Joby said that when he was here 3 years ago, this building still had a roof on top of it. UN Volunteers having a great time in Indonesia (Char!)This is Ivan, checking out the condition in Indonesia XD
For some reason, Ivan remembered a scene from The Ring and said that Sadako might come out from the bottom of that house. And so, here's a shot of him, smiling, hoping that once this picture gets edited, Sadako might suddenly "show up" -.-


On the right side of the tower, there is an area there where you can take photos and have a nice landscape of the beach. It certainly was a nice place for photo-op.. again, as expected, we took advantage of this opportunity. Notice our photos from normal to wild @_@

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Hawaii

Yes, we love it here in Hawaii

It was certainly nice to visit Guam XD

Yes, the view was soo nice, it can turn straight guys into gays LOL


Brokeback guys: My BF and Abe >.<

Now, this ends our trip at Cape Bolinao. It was fun and there were a lot of places here where you can take photographs. The view certainly was amazing. This is great for photography enthusiasts. The bad side though was that we were not able to go inside the tower. But we probably will have a chance to do so next time.

Learnings:

1. Standing at the back of an owner-type jeep was the best experience ever.

2. We felt like we were in Africa, Indonesia, Hawaii and Guam when we were only in Bolinao. Not bad eh?

3. Always listen to your tour guide.

What to look forward to the next set of blog posts:

1. AGAIN, Did we ever swim on the beach? <--- the never-ending question

2. What was the next destination after the lighthouse?

3. Since Bolinao has the capacity to turn straight guys into gays, did I ever get jelous that my boyfriend is closer to another guy than with me during the tour?

4. Did I ever felt out of place?

5. Did we go back to Manila as late as our trip in Zambales last April? Actually, did we ever go back immediately at all or did we stay for one more night?

6. How much did we save/spent?


................................. to be continued.

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