An Off-Vespa Ride in Boracay!

Last week was my 4th time in Boracay but my first time to truly explore the island. The first three were just the typical beach bumming, sand-castle-building and mango-shake-sipping. This one was different!

ART VESPA: see details below (photo by: Torn Agustin)

Since my family & my daugther’s Ninong Boie stayed in Boracay Tropics — a nice resort hotel a block away from the beach near Station 3 — going to Station One is quite a walk so we resorted to tricycle rides to and forth. It’s the first time to pass through small alleyways in between beachside resorts just to get to the street on the other end.

It was also my first time to ParaSail (P1,500/pax) and get a bird’s eyeview of the entire island. While up there, I was trying to look for their infamous “Smokey Mountain” of garbage that landed on the news sometime ago. I didn’t see it that time but saw it the next day in another adventure.

On our last day, I decided to rent a scoot and explore the Bora’s other side. Rental is P250/hour for a minimum of 2 hours. We were required to wear a helmet though the locals riders scoot around the place without one. I’ve got no problems with that, except, the helmet they provide is just plastic and provides no protection at all. There are no Vespa for hire there so I settled on a Kawasaki Aura. By the way, motorbikes are not allowed along the beach so passing that area requires you to go down your ride and push it ’til you reach an alley.

Our itinerary is to go to Mt. Luho — Bora’s highest peak with an elevation of 100 meters aboe sea level. But we missed the turn. Good thing another rider was friendly enough to stop and talked to us when we reached a fork and eventually served as our tour guide.

Turns out we were near the caves so he suggested we go to the Bat Cave and Crystal Cave before heading back. It’s a short hike but since were not psyched and geared for some spelunking, we just stop at the mouth of both caves and settled for the mandatory souvenir shots.

Afterwards, we went back on the way to Mt. Luho. It’s a dirt road going up so riding could be a bit tricky. Good thing I don’t have a backride. Here’s where I saw up-close Bora’s garbage dump. It’s not so bad, actually. It’s actually more of a ‘smokey plain’ than a mountain; and the area is covered by a Sawali fence. But no one could miss it.

The viewdeck on the peak are just a few steps away from where we parked. Once on the tower, you could see the White Beach on one side and the Bolabog Beach to the other. There’s a kiosk there selling drinks for tourists who might need one. By the way, fee to the caves and Mt. Luho is 50 bucks each.

It’s cool that I finally got to see the other side, and lesser seen attractions of Bora.

earring’s danglin’,

-o-
{▫}
J0HNRANA

john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com

ART VESPA: The wirecraft is courtesy of Mang Jun. As of this writing, there are only three of them doing that in Boracay. The other two are his father & brother. Jun is the one positioned near the Tourist Center & National Geographic Dive Center at Station 2. He made me three studies of my Vespa logo and only charged me a hundred bucks. The one in the pic above is my fave.