Living The Island Life: Our First Real Days As Bantayan Residents

It is our second day here in Bantayan as residents, not as tourists. While we enjoyed our vacation here last month, I believe we'll enjoy the island more this time knowing we have a lot of time to discover the corners of this island as we learn to live like how Bantayanons do. My work will start three days from now, so I have plenty of time to enjoy the island more before starting my work, which means losing my precious vacant time and hoping rest days will come. I always remind myself that I am now an adult, and I have to persevere through the demands of life to survive and live happily. Speaking of perseverance, we all come up with coping mechanisms to adjust to our new environment and condition ourselves that life has already begun. We develop different coping mechanisms in different environments, and as for me, exploring the island for now is the best coping mechanism I can find to survive here.

I told my boyfriend we'll spend our day roaming around the island and buying the things we forgot to buy yesterday. We planned on going to the public beach we visited last time, which is Kota Beach, and visiting some churches that are historical in this island. We also came to buy some necessities for the apartment and bought dried fish and vegetables in the market. But before that, a slow, peaceful breakfast on the balcony of the apartment facing the greens of Bantayan started our day productively.

Here on the island, even if it is early in the morning, the sun is already scorching hot. While I am always annoyed by this fact, many tourists come here for the weather, which is very perfect for skin tanning and the island life tourists haven't experienced yet. So I told my boyfriend we should leave as early as possible to save ourselves from getting sunburned, but truth be told, we were not saved by our early departure to run our errands.

We visited Kota Beach to dip for a few minutes since we didn't take a bath before we left. We wanted to swim around since we weren't able to go there yesterday because we got busy settling our things in our new home. Beaches on this island never disappoint me. They always amaze me. The blue, turquoise water, powdery white sand, and the beach resorts with aesthetically pleasing architecture catch my attention every time we go to Bantayan beaches. The water was quite high earlier because of the tide, so we stayed in the nearest part of the seawater to be safe. The water was not as clear as last month when we visited, but it was still top-tier. Jellyfish season is already here, and local folks say the water clearness comes with this season. But some beaches in Santa Fe still have the same clearness; just this one changed since it is also near the port.

We also passed by different areas in the Bantayan proper. We passed by the famous Bantayan Baywalk where visitors flock at dusk to capture the cool sea breeze and fantastic sea lights during the night and eat some street foods lined up along the Baywalk. We also passed by the plaza, sat in front of its cute fountain, and roamed around. Since the public market is near these destinations, we grabbed the chance to buy dried fish and vegetables in the market to save time and diesel, which is now so high in price. Philippines is focked up.

One thing I loved about our roam today was witnessing the majestic churches on the island. I was not able to know the name of the yellow-colored church, but the other one was St. Peter the Apostle Parish Church, which we visited and I featured here last month. I'll include the link to my Bantayan trip last month at the end of this blog. It has always been an interest of mine to see churches in unfamiliar places since I always come to the realization that these historical landmarks carry so much history of how Bantayan stood through many centuries and passing years. They witnessed the origin of the island, the original locals, the war, the invasion, and everything in between. They are the epitome of hope and resilience, and they deserve to be preserved and cared for.

As the sun slowly set and our errands finally came to an end, I realized that living here feels different from simply visiting. There is something comforting about knowing that tomorrow, and the days after that, we still have more roads to take, more stories to witness, and more corners of Bantayan waiting to be discovered. Maybe that is the beauty of starting a new chapter in an unfamiliar place — little by little, it slowly begins to feel like home.