Almost 100km off the northern coast of Luzon, BATANES is the smallest, most isolated province in the country. This is a memorable place with otherworldly scenery, where doors are rarely locked and welcomes are warm even by Filipino standards.
The people are different, the language is different, even the weather is different. The coolest months (Dec–Feb) can get chilly with temperatures as low as 10°C, while the hottest months (April–June) are searing. For visitors, the islands are at their best from February to May.
Batanes can be idyllic, but it would be wrong to portray it as a tropical utopia as the realities of life this far away from the rest of the world can sometimes be harsh. Petrol and provisions are brought in by ship, which means they cost more, and when typhoons roar in from the east ( July–Sept) it may be impossible for ships or aircraft to reach the islands.
Boredom can set in and locals joke that during the typhoon season the cargo ship brings 50,000 sacks of rice but 60,000 crates of gin.
Only three of the ten islands in the Batanes group are inhabited: Batan – the location of the capital Basco – Sabtang and Itbayat. The native inhabitants of Batanes, the Ivatan, trace their roots to prehistoric Formosan immigrants and latter-day Spanish conquistadors.
Most still make a living from the cultivation of yams and garlic or the raising of goats and cows; if you visit a village during the daytime, be prepared to find that almost everyone is out in the fields. Some women still wear rain capes called vakul, made from the stripped leaves of the voyavoy vine.
The main dialect, Ivatan, includes some pidgin Spanish: “thank you” is dios mamajes and “goodbye” is dios mavidin (if you are the person leaving) or dios machivan (if you are staying behind).
Getting to Batanes
The quickest way to get to Batanes from Manila is on the SEAIR thrice-weekly flight from Manila to Basco. Book well in advance. Unfortunately, the flights are regularly cancelled at short notice so there’s a good chance that you won’t depart on the day for which you have a ticket; you should allow for at least three or four days either side, or more if bad weather is likely.
There’s also a chance that your check-in luggage will not be taken on your flight but instead brought along at a later date. It’s a measure of the appeal of Batanes that it genuinely is worth the hassle.
An alternative – albeit one which also suffers cancellations due to poor weather – is to take a small twin-engine aircraft from Tuguegarao to Basco. Scheduled flights are usually operated by Batanes Airlines (T0915/940-4823 or 0939/198- 6918), but at the time of writing they had been suspended. It was unclear when they would resume.
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