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| Puerto del Mar Resort |
Holy Week of 1995 was Layug family reunion time we all opted to spend a 4-day vacation to a place we have never been to or rarely heard of – the 604.65 sq. km., island province of Guimaras. Me, Grace and our kids, 9-year old Jandy and 4-year old Cheska, as well as my mom Carol, our eldest Frank, together with wife Cherry, daughters Jaja and Sandy and son Franco, and our youngest sister Tellie were joining. However, my older sister Salve wasn’t able to join us. We left Manila on April 13, Holy Thursday, on the 4:30 AM PAL flight from Manila to Iloilo City arriving at the Mandurriao airport by 6:30 AM. At the airport, we were picked up by a shuttle which brought us to the city’s Muelle Loney Wharf near the Post Office.
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| On our way to Guimaras Island |
Directly offshore from Muelle Loney, separated by the 1.5-nautical mile wide Iloilo Strait, is Guimaras Island. Here we boarded a big outrigger boat which brought us to our destination – the Class “A” Puerto del Mar Resort, along Alubijod Bay in Brgy. Sta. Ana, Nueva Valencia, arriving at the resort by 8:30 AM. Breakfast was already being served at its restaurant and we had our first taste of the island’s famous mangoes (8,000 hectares or about 20% of the province is mango orchards).
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| Dinner at the resort’s restaurant |
We were billeted at 3 of the resort’s non-airconditioned native-style beachfront cottages with bath. The resort also has a private beige sand beach, picnic coves, an aqua sports club (windsurfing and snorkeling), pavilion, bamboo bridge and serves as a training center for a local maritime school.
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| Cheska enjoying her hammock along the beach |