Danjugan Island: precious aqua marine

During our long-awaited vacation in Punta Bulata, wonder | wander | women also took the chance to visit the nature sanctuary of Danjugan Island. We booked an outrigger trip; due to the heat, only one of us could go, but we made the most of the trip!

The island was a popular diving spot for decades but gradually became overfished and its ecosystem threatened. When it came out that one of its trees was home to a rare nesting pair of white-bellied sea eagles, a group of divers banded together to buy the island and turn it into a wildlife preserve. They founded the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, which manages and stewards Danjugan till today.

Punta Bulata: shores of paradise

wonder | wander | women grew up in the ocean. Ever since our youth, we practically lived at the beach a few months out of the year. No matter how much we loved our adopted homelands, we yearned for the warm seas of home.

Punta Bulata Resort and Spa is a small strip of tropical heaven four hours' drive away from Bacolod City. The resort is owned by family friends and constructed with local materials like coconut wood, nipa thatch and salvaged driftwood, leaving the impression that you're staying in a garden and not the sterile concrete palaces that are becoming popular in other parts of the country.

birthday bliss

It's been six months and this long drawn visit of wonder | wander | women finally comes to an end - all too soon. Especially as it's been a week closing with several birthday activities. Intimate one on ones, group meet ups, family gatherings. 

It's just never enough - no matter how well prepared or purposefully planned. Stormy weather, blustery winds, and hard rain all week are not the best send off at all. 

clouds clearing overhead

Good thing our little island knows best how to host a fun fiesta and have a blast of fun. Food, food, lots of incredible food. Friends, family, all our relations. At home, out and about, or out of town. Whatever, however, forever! 

home land, home sky

It was nice to be back in the Philippines! From the moment the fields and flats of Negros Island emerged from the storm clouds...

to the moment I murmured a teary goodbye to the lights of Manila...

heart finds, soul food

It's been so long since wonder | wander | women were back on our native island. We have truly adopted and been adopted by our new homes abroad, so it's taking us a while to relearn island living.

There's one thing that never fails to make us feel at home. Food, of course! Ilonggo (or Hiligaynon) food is distinctive from other regions of the Philippines. Each province has its own native flavours.

warm island seas

wonder | wander | women have not been back to the island of our birth since prior to the pandemic. Now that our tickets are booked for our imminent return, we are eager and excited to get back. Aside from family and friends, we miss our warm lush ocean, teeming with tropical delights. 

Bohol Sea marine preserve & ecosanctuary

Both to embrace in wanton abandon and to eat to our hearts content. They say we don't fully appreciate home until we leave it. Our heritage and history were something we lived daily and ignored most of the time. 

Guimaras Straight - an important fishing ground

Now that we have moved away, when we are in the UK and US, we miss the delicacies and treats of the Philippines. Then when we're back there we miss the comforts and conveniences we have over here. 

our island home

In past years this is the time when wonder | wander | women usually fly back to spend the holidays in our home island of Negros, in the Philippines. 

local sugarcane plantations are sadly being replaced by subdivisions

As we prefer not to risk it in these COVID times, we are made acutely aware of missing it this time. Fortunately, a new website launched recently highlights major Negrosanon arts and cultures, heritage and handicrafts, people and food.

inspiring hope and resilience locally

resurrecting deep forests

wonder | wander | women are currently working on a project close to our hearts and our homeland roots - the long lost mystical babaylans of Negros Island.

Concept Art by Mahala Urra

Native precolonial history is hard to confirm as the land was ancient and isolated. Original oral traditions practiced and handed down through generations by its inhabitants were systematically eradicated by a succession of colonizers.

Of particular interest to us are the Pintados and Negritos of our island home. The origins of these people is a much debated topic. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people.

home sweet boondocks

American soldiers, fed up with struggling through hostile jungle in the Philippine highlands, coined the term boondocks in the dawn of the 20th century to denote a backward rural area with 'connotations of bewilderment and confusion', according to Wikipedia. The English word comes from the Tagalog word bundok, or mountain - a word with very different meanings to the wonder | wander | women.

paradise lost

Riding on last week's post. . . .they paved paradise. . . .

Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Island

wonder | wander | women are back in Southeast Asia.

bitter sweet land of sugar

A land divided (literally and figuratively), Negros Island stands separate and at odds with the rest of the country and maybe even the world. 

Local 'panganod' clouds are just like sails full of wind.

In geography and linguistics, history and politics - there is much more than the mountain range at its center that divides the island and cuts itself off from the rest of today.