One of our church's youth friends started working for NGCP last October 2025. He was assigned to Pamilacan Island, a part of Baclayon town, which is actually a barangay of the municipality. My husband and I got curious because we haven't been to this island, although we are now locals in Bohol.
I asked this friend the costs of us going there, and after checking with our youth team, we decided we would visit it during Holy Week. True indeed, the day came, our prayers became a reality! Let me bring you along!
Our trip started on Wednesday, and we have assigned committees to work on such and such. We bought our supplies, mostly food, because they are expensive on the island and there's no proper market there. Our trip would involve 5 sets of meals.
Early morning on the 2nd of April, we were already heading to Baclayon. We reached the town at 7 AM and bought additional supplies - charcoal, drinking water, and more to complete our needs. There was a boat waiting for us at the port. Of course, some tiktok transitions have to be done before heading out, will share later on.
Here's our group! We were mostly women, and my little one was the only kid in our boat. This boat cost us Php 5500 as a package, which includes our round-trip boat ride from Baclayon port to Pamilacan, and a morning dolphin watching. We paid Php 550 each!
It took only 45 minutes to get to Pamilacan, and we were all excited to get there! We brought a lot of things with us, and we were all aware of what to expect on the island.
Arriving at the island, we were welcomed by this beautiful white sand filled with fishing boats, which I thought but later on, I learned about the island and the locals' livelihood after we had settled in. It was actually a little hard to walk with your footwear on because they get into the sand, that's how thick the sand of this island!
Our humble abode! We rented this place, which has three beds and a bath. A kitchen is also provided, but it's not in there; we have to walk a few steps away. There's also a dining table. The island has one problem - no water provider! They use rainwater instead, and they also have a desalination system, but I'm not sure if that was working. Drinking water can only be bought from the mainland, and so they sell it here for Php 70 instead.
They have no air conditioner; instead, a wall fan is available. It was enough for us to be refreshed while sleeping, but it was indeed hard to sleep during the afternoon.
We had lunch at the island, it was our first meal, we cooked our food with the butane burner which we brought, and just borrowed the pans and other utensils for the kitchen. We also brought our paper plates, disposable spoons, and cups. They requested that we segregate our trash for easier disposal.
Another surprise we received was that this island has a historical landmark - a watchtower! The Pamilacan Watchtower is considered a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines. It is part of the Bohol Watchtowers Collective, designated on August 29, 2011.
Some fun facts about the island. "Pamilacan" is derived from pamilac (harpoon), referring to its history in hunting manta rays, dolphins, and whales. The community has transitioned to tourism, and homes still display historical whale and manta ray bones. I forgot to take a photo of the dolphin bones and shark bones, which they displayed at the cottage we were staying at.
After lunch, we talked about so many things, then decided to get a bit of sleep, and then we will be exploring the island at 3 PM.
We woke up earlier than planned because it was super hot inside the room. We prepped and headed to explore the island! Of course, our first stop was the watch tower.
Our cottage was just right in front of the beach, we found other resorts at the other side of the watch tower and some local houses around too, but for me, our spot was just perfect!
We did a few pictorial at the watch tower and also at the beach!
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This felt like a paradise! There were actually many tourists coming here for diving, and they also have snorkeling packages they offer. In fact, the locals here are more into tourism as their livelihood. They fish for personal consumption, but most of the men here offer boat tours and stuff like that, so even if we expected that this island might offer or sell fish for a lower price compared to our own town, we didn't find any. There were no fish vendors around at all!
We did a little bit of a photoshoot at this part of the island, then we headed to explore more! This island is small; in fact, you can tour around in less than half a day, so at 3 PM we started walking to the interior of the island.
My son was also geared up for the tour! He was holding our Insta 360 camera, and on his hat was the DJI nano, which was later damaged. It was sad, but we can't do anything about it anymore.
A few minutes away from walking, we found this souvenir shop which seemed to be closed, so we just took a group photo outside. We somehow felt like we were tourists!
We passed by the houses and locals, and we even made friends with some local kids. Some of our youth members received flowers from the kids! It was such a cute encounter! We also found the NGCP office, and then finally, we reached this secret paradise! It's amazing how this place is just so near to the beach but they have natural water wells here! This is another source of water for the people in the island.
Super love the trees, and then we spotted a resort! They had set up some nice cottages, there's a cliff at a distance, and it's great as a viewpoint. The wind there was strong too! But it was here that we spent a lot of time just appreciating the beauty of this beach, all by ourselves!
We took loads of photos as souvenirs for this experience!
This is the view of the beach from the cliff:
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There's a cave here, too! And my husband did a few stolen shots from inside. Then, after a few minutes, we realized it was time for sunset! Time was super fast! We walked on the beach this time which was a shorter route and we were also able to explore the beach, seeing the private resorts along the coastline.
The sunset here was super pretty! We literally could see the sun's shape without any blockage; it was a clear view, and it was super amazing to witness it! We even took a few minutes swimming with the golden skies!
In the evening, we had a boodle fight, it was fun, and then we decided to sleep early because we would have our dolphin watching early the next day.
By the morning, we woke up at 4:30 AM to prepare breakfast, we did a quick devotional as a group because it was Good Friday, we remembered Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and we read the verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21 while having coffee and bread!
Then it was time for our dolphin watching!
We were ready for our dolphin watching!
We just sailed for around 10 minutes, then the boatmen spotted the dolphins right away! There were many types of dolphins, according to the boatmen. Some would just stay away, and you could watch them from afar. Some would love to go near the boat and play, while others would love to show their talents, like jumping and all. We were so blessed to see them all!
Check this video:
It was such a remarkable event! We truly enjoyed the dolphin watching; we shouted at every sighting of the dolphins.
I could say that this was the highlight of our escapade! Truly amazing to see these creatures, and we praise God for this opportunity He has bestowed upon us, even to the happiness of being together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, while appreciating the beauty of God's creation.
I am sure this is not the last because we plan on doing the diving part, which we missed during our stay. One night was short, so it's a good reason to go back!
That's it, guys! Thanks for reading! Here's a breakdown of our spending for this escapade per person:
Boat and Dolphin Watching - PHP 550
Food for 6 meals, 50 each meal - PHP 300
Gas for our land trip - PHP 100
Accommodation - PHP 1500
The accommodation was on me, so they only paid a total of PHP 950 per person.
J U N E B R I D E
Boholana | Cebu | Philippines | Travel | Photography Enthusiast | Calligraphy | Art
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