Hilutungan Island

August 13, 2012

My friends and I agreed to do island hopping once again in the Mactan area before I leave for U.S. at the end of this year. We contacted a boat operator about a boat we could rent for a day. Our first island stop from Punta Engano, where all the charter boats dock, was the island called Hiluntungan Island. Next we planned to visit Olango and then Nalusuan Island. The ride going there was so rough – there were many big waves. I heard so much about Hiluntungan Island in particular. I read from many websites that this island is just awesome. There are lots of fish to see, pretty corals to view and many unusual vistas.

When we got to Hiluntungan we saw many of docked boats. Up to 60 boats were unloading people while others were just waiting for their guests to t finish snorkeling and scuba diving. Once our boat captain had our boat situated, I became very excited to see what was underwater.
But before I jumped in, there were three men riding on a very small paddle boat asking for an entrance fee. I found out that every rental boat that brings guests to this island requires a payment of 100 pesos per person. I was wondering why they didn’t also try to charge us for breathing the air around the island. The fish are so small and the corals are broken. For a hundred pesos per person and the boat has maximum of 50 guests every day, that makes a good business in this island.

I had been snorkeling in Bantayan Island, Batangas and Bohol before, but only in Cebu have I been asked to pay the fee like this. It is embarrassing to let the world see this find this kind of silly avarice since I’m a Cebuana too.

Our next stop was near Olango Island. This area was not good for snorkeling at all, plus there was nothing to see. The last stop on our itinerary was Nalusuan Island but we decided not to go through because of the strong currents and waves. Two of my friends suffered from sea sickness already. We finished a bit earlier than we planned. Lucky for the boat owner we paid the full amount considering we only used the boat for half a day, though we paid for the whole day.