A new way to Apo Island

We had been worrying about how to bring more than 20 visitors to Apo island in style, instead of taking the small pumpboats from the usual jump-off point at the Malatapay market in Zamboanguita. In the many times that we had brought visitors over to Apo Island, we learned that riding the small bancas could be a very scary experience, especially for first-time visitors who do not know how to swim. These guests of ours were part of the entourage of last week's wedding in Bacolod City of my nephew Deo Angelo Xenos to Mary Margarette Therese Mentor of Brooklyn, New York. This was our second big group of visitors to the island this year, the first being last May when my wife's family came over from Vancouver, Dublin, and California.

This group this time was composed of the newlyweds, my nephew's siblings, friends and new family from New York; we also had my cousin from New Jersey, as well as an aunt and cousin from Kidapawan, Cotabato.

Then we discovered that going to Apo Island can be fun, comfortable, and safer on board a bigger boat -- the Annabelle Lee, the trimaran of Antulang Beach Resort in Siaton. We decided that it was better to ride on one big boat instead of renting six or seven small bancas, which would amount to the same cost.

It had been raining since the time we left Antulang in Siaton, but the five-foot waves brought about by the Habagat, or the southwest monsoon, were not a problem to the trimaran, which coasted along with the waves.

The good thing about Apo Island is that it is small enough so that if the sea is rough on one side, you can easily take cover on the other side.

We docked alongside a pumpboat near the marine sanctuary. Most of the island's bancas were also docked on this side of the island due to the big waves on the eastern side. When we got to the shore, some fishermen were crowded around newly-caught fish and we bought us one three-kilo jack for lunch, which we turned over to the Apo Island Cooperative Store for grilling. The Cooperative Store, located beside the elementary school, also cooks and sells food to visitors at "carinderia" prices. This has attracted not just the local tourists but guests of the nearby resorts who want to eat food that is closer to home cooking.

As it turned out, some of the guests from the U.S. had been to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and they realized upon seeing the island first hand that the exhibit they saw in Chicago was a replica of Apo island. This was the real thing.

The downside of docking on the eastern side of Apo, however, is that you don't get to walk through the village and see the two resorts. Of course, you can take a short walk to the other side of the island but you may not think of doing that anymore the moment you jump into the water for some snorkeling.

"You'll appreciate the island more if you see what it has underwater," my wife would always tell our guests she takes to the Island. Irma had fallen in love with Apo since the time she had her first tropical dive there with Brgy. Capt. Mario Pascobello no less.

She made the fishers of Apo the subject of her graduate school thesis, and has made friends with several of them and their wives.

The trip home promised to be rough but the boat handled the bumps very well. We travelled fast, too, reaching Antulang in less than one hour. As a bonus, we even found ourselves surrounded by some dolphins, which was just as well because we were not able to go on a dolphin-watching tour in Bais the day previous.

"That's the beauty of Negros Oriental, you have a lot of nice places to see," said a cousin, who also went with us to Lake Balanan two days earlier. He is now making plans to visit the island again soon. And perhaps, he will go back there in style, on board the Anabelle Lee.*

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