We went to this island years ago on a field trip for our Natural Sciences course. From Tacloban, we took a 2-hour bus ride along a dizzying, winding road. We were then dropped off at a private port in Naval, Biliran where we took a 45-minute boat ride to Higatangan Island.

The island is an unspoiled nook where tiny, colorful fishes swim fearlessly very near the shore. You'd have to be able to swim a bit for you to truly enjoy their waters because the beach is of sharp, dead corals and not sand, so if you intend to just wade around, it would not be much fun for your feet. You'll have a blast snorkeling because the fishes are not scared of people and they actually swim around your legs :-D

The island boasts of their history, having served as a refuge for the fleeing Marcoses back in the 80s at the height of the People Power Revolution. They say that the Marcoses dropped by Higatangan and spent a night (?) before they fled to Honolulu. We spent the night at the actual house they say that Imelda and her family stayed at.

There is very little of the island to explore, because it is very tiny and can be toured by foot in about an hour. We went to the highest point on the island where there was a lighthouse, the significance of which I can no longer recall. On the ascent, you'd notice how their rocks are porous and not solid--telling you that the island was part of the sea bed before it got pushed to the surface, probably by plates shifting rather than of direct volcanic activity.

We spent a night in the island and got drunk on the shifting sandbar. The sandbar is an interesting geographical/meteorological phenomenon because it would arch in one direction if it's Amihan (northwest monsoon) blowing and in the opposite if it's Habagat (southwest monsoon) blowing.

On our second day, we took a boat ride around the island and saw these amazing rock formations. It was a stark realization of how old the island is and it made me wonder how many millions of years of tidal activity had resulted in such amazing formations.

PS the photos are all borrowed because we went there way before digital photography was affordable in the Philippines ;-)