SOMETHING DIFFERENT UP NORTH
By C. M. Navarro

Boulder-hemmed shores in Mavatuy (photo:BatanesOnline.com)

Batanes is a landmark without even trying by the very nature of its location. We are the northernmost part of our country, nearer to Taiwan than to the mainland of Luzon.

The province is made up of ten islands, starting from the northern tip: Mavudis, Misanga, Ditarem, Siayan, Itbayat, Dinem, Batan, Sabtang, Ivujos, and Dequey. Of these ten, only three are inhibited - namely, Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat. Batan island has four municipalities: Basco, Mahatao, Ivana and Uyugan. The two others - Sabtang and Itbayat - are island municipalities, so the whole province of Batanes is composed of six municipalities with 29 barangays. The population of the entire province is about 15,000.

There are three dialects in the province: Ivasayen, spoken in Basco; Isamurugen, spoken in Mahatao, Ivana, Uyugan, and Sabtang; and Itbayaten, spoken in Itbayat. Of these three, Itbayaten is the most different. Itbayat is also the farthest, most isolated and most unique island municipality because it has no beaches. One gets to the Island by landing along a Cliffside that plunges into a sea five to ten fathoms deep.

Batanes has very distinctive landscapes, different from the rest of the country. The land is marked by windswept hills, undulating plains, and tree-bordered farms that cover the hillside like quilts. The seascapes are characterized by limestone cliffs, alternating with grey sandy shores, boulder-hemmed shores in the next, and still at another turn, white sands - all of them meeting with white foam edging the endless stretch of blue sea. As one cruises or walks on the road running along the shores, one sees a changing view of various shades of green, the blue of the sea and sky with changing patterns of floating clouds.

Even the weather is different: not truly tropical, but not like winter that brings in the snow. The wind is king in Batanes, and when it becomes nasty, everything is captive of its moods. The weather dictates the pace of life in Batanes. In the cold days of December to February, the weather can get colder than Baguio.

The houses are also different - with stonewalls as thick as two to four feet, with concrete or layers upon layers of cogon grass, or the strongest of galvanized iron roofings - to endure the typhoon winds with strength of up to 250 kilometers per hour. The towns in Batanes have frequently been compared to those of New Zealand, Ireland and even some French province like Brittany.

The people are different, too, in that they are generally good-natured and spontaneous, especially to strangers visiting Batanes. Visitors have consistently noticed how everyone greets them when they meet them in the streets. More than the landscapes and seascapes, the people of Batanes, visitors says, are the main attraction - for being gracious hosts, for being a hardy race, mellowed by the harshness of their surroundings.

Just to give you an idea of the quality of life in Batanes, I would like to share with you some data based on surveys on the quality of life in the 77 provinces of our country. This excludes key cities and municipalities considered as domains. In the overall survey of the Ten Best Provinces of the Philippines in the Human Development Index (surveyed by the United Nations Development Program in 1997), Batanes ranked 4th or just behind Rizal, Bulacan, and Laguna, followed by Cavite, Bataan, Benguet, Zambales, Marinduque and Pampanga.

Having given you a bird's eye view of Batanes, I hope I have aroused your interest in making it one among the places to visit in your list of tourist destinations. I do hope to see you in Batanes some day. Then, you be the judge if what I have told you is fact or fiction.