I am in the process of cleaning out my photos from Flickr and transferring them to Google Photos in order to save money. Because of this, I’ve rediscovered some old memories from a time when I enjoyed taking photos on my DSLR. And, it’s such a waste for these photos to sit on my private folders so I thought of sharing some of them here.

This was from a trip to Bantayan, an island north of Cebu known for its pristine beaches. I remember going back only once after this specific trip (and it was on a stormy weekend). You don’t need to go to Boracay to enjoy such a nice beach with white sand! Caveat though, given these are from over 10 years ago, a lot of things may have changed. Anyway, let’s start the trip down memory lane to May of 2010!

To get to Bantayan from Cebu City, you need to take a bus up north to the port of Hagnaya, which then took around 4-5 hours. Then, you need to take a ferry going to Bantayan Island. I don’t know the exact details anymore but here’s a link to the latest guide I could find on how to get there.

For this trip, we stayed at Kota Beach, which was at a quiet area of the island. We rented one of their small huts (with air conditioning).

We were starving when we arrived so of course we went directly to the food. Food is always good in Cebu (I am biased of course). Over this weekend, we had a ton of amazing seafood and Cebuano classics. Back then, restaurants were few on the island but you can buy ingredients from the market or eat from the karenderyas (local kitchenettes) at the town center.

And for the main attraction – the beach! It’s just so much fun chilling and taking photos of friends enjoying the white sand and blue waters of Bantayan!

We also hit the most famous island called Virgin Island. It was called such because back then, it was really a very local, almost untouched island. We had so much fun taking photos, swimming and eating! You need to rent a boat to get there and the manongs will be the one to prepare your lunch (you can buy ingredients in advance from the market).

After the day trip, we went back to the resort and washed up. And took more photos because you need to preserve moments like this for when your memory fails you. Glad I was such a trigger happy “photographer” back then.

Evening came and we went to bed early as we had to catch the early morning ferry back to the main island of Cebu. It was a fun trip that I’ll always remember!

I wanna go back again with friends once it’s safe again to travel! I don’t know how much Bantayan has changed since but I hope that the beaches are still white and the waters are still clear!