Island Hopping

With 7,100-odd chain of islands in the Philippines, island-hopping can be a high adventure.

There are 3 principal islands which make up the Philippines: LUZON, VISAYAS, and MINDANAO. To the west, the archipelago is bounded by the South China Sea, to the east by the Pacific, to the south by the Sulu and Celebes Seas and to the north cut off by the Bashi Channel from Taiwan. Always close to water, the islands are separated by inland seas at their farthest points and by channels and straits at their nearest.

Palawan, off Luzon, an ecological paradise, offers the visitor a subterranean river, a lake atop a mountain, tropical lagoons secluded by limestone cliffs. Its fauna come small or large, but always exotic. The Palawan peacock is the smallestof its kind in the world and the mousedeer is the world's smallest hoofed animal. The Tabon bird lays an egg big enough for several people to feast on.

In the Bicol region of Albay Province, Mayon Volcano rises to an elevation of over 2,000      meters in its nearly perfect cone.

In the Visayas, scuba diving and snorkeling sites are considered among the best in the world.. The water is warm, the visibility good (up to 120 feet) and the coral gardens and other marine life awesome.

For those who wish to confine themselves to dry land,there are the Chocolate Hills of Bohol: 1,230 haycock hills, shaped like perfect chocolate bon-bons, rising up to 30 meters from a level floor. Nobody knows why they grew to be that way.

Mindanao is the Philippines' offering to the Guiness Book of Records: the world's largest clam; the largest eagle in the world (monkey-eating);the largest pearl (Sulu Pearl, 125 carats); the largest oyster (Pinctadamaxima);the second-deepest trench (Mindanao Trough, 10,670 meters); the country's highest peak (Mount Apo, 2,955 meters); the queen of Philippiine orchids (waling-waling or Vando sanderiana); the oldest traces of Homosapiens in the Philippines(Tabon Man, 22,000 B.C.).

.......Source: The Philippines, A Manifold Land
         Published by the Department of Tourism

The Philippines

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