Ticao Island

I was sitting quietly at the front of the van when our guide mentioned, «Did you know that the Manila-Acapulco galleon ships used to make a stop here?» We were passing through the small port town of San Jacinto on Ticao Island in Masbate.

I usually ask more questions when I hear interesting facts about the places I visit, but at that moment, I wasn't ready. Ticao Island is such a mysterious place for travelers, and I was looking forward to the island revealing itself as we continued our journey.

It turns out that the Manila galleon trade route (1565 to 1815) did indeed regularly pass by Ticao Island via Ticao Pass on its way from Acapulco, Mexico, and possibly made a stop in San Jacinto before heading to Manila. The bay at San Jacinto was also the site of the historic 31-day naval siege between the Dutch (in their attempts to invade the Philippines) and the Spanish navies in 1645.

Fast forward centuries later, in 2003, a group of scientists and volunteers came across a school of manta rays in Ticao Pass, feeding on a dense plankton bloom. This led to the discovery of «Manta Bowl,» a submerged seamount where manta rays and whale sharks (with Donsol located on the northern side of Ticao Pass) gather to feed on plankton. In 2012, another interesting discovery was made in Monreal: two irregular limestone tablets containing scripts believed to be a variation of Baybayin were found. These rare artifacts are now the centerpiece of the Filipino Ancient Script section of the National Museum.

This is Ticao Island: you have to go there to uncover its secrets.

Getting there

Ticao Island is not for those who simply visit places to check them off their bucket lists. The island is for the unhurried, as getting there requires patience — lots of it. The quickest way to reach Ticao is to fly from Manila to Masbate, and from Masbate (Mobo port), take a one-hour boat ride to Batuan on Ticao Island.

For those who wish to embark on a road trip, the ports of Pilar (11 hours from Manila) and Bulan (12 hours from Manila) in Sorsogon are the entry points, where roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferries take two and a half and one and a half hours, respectively, to reach the port of