Verde Island

My friend is taking some courses about environmental subjects. She and her classmates invited me to visit Verde Island as part of a field trip for one of their classes. We left Ortigas at 6.am to begin our trip to Verde Island in Batangas. Traffic was fairly light, so it only took us about three hours to arrive at Liya beach in Batangas. From there we took a motor boat to Verde Island, the center of a marine sanctuary in Batangas. Like us, most of the people on the boat were planning to explore the island’s marine life by scuba or snorkeling.

The water was so clear and there were so many different types of fish, it was like being inside one of those National Geographic programs. This was the first time I’ve witnessed coral “in the fresh” so to speak and it was even better than I imagined. Coral are like flowers made of stone. The colors seemed to be intensified by the crystal clear water and beautiful fish of every variety. I’m not an underwater expert, but I heard many people on the boat going back to Liya beach boast that the diving around Verde Island is the best in the Philippines.

This is my second trip to Batangas this year and I have to admit it has some important advantages over Cebu. First, Batangas is simply more beautiful than anything I’ve witnessed in Cebu – and I lived on Cebu Island and/or the surrounding area for more than twenty years. Then there’s the convenience if you’re travelling from outside the Philippines. For the vast majority of foreigners, the port of entry into the Philippines is Manila.