Out in the mouth of Manila Bay, is Corregidor Island. I’ve always heard of it and it’s been on our list of places to visit. Ok, it’s been on Randy’s long list of sightseeing. Our friends Joel and Sarah came to visit us this week and we finally got to go. Ok, Randy had to go to work and I left Adam at home. But I got to go.
We drove out to the ferry which leaves once a day at 8. It’s an hour and fifteen minute ferry ride out to the island. Luckily we all have our sea legs because it was a bit rocky out there. We’ve officially entered rainy season over here and there were definitely some clouds on the horizon.
On all the islands we’ve been to, the water has been so beautiful and blue. It was so sad to see how dirty the water here in the Bay is. It was full of garbage. It’s easy to forget that we live in a developing country sometimes, but moments like this really bring it back.
All that in between the wave and the boat is trash.
All that on the shoreline, trash.
When we docked, the island looked beautiful and there were trolleys waiting to take us around.
A little history for you. Because of it’s location in the mouth of the bay, Corregidor island was the largest of the islands that formed the harbor defense of Manila. The Americans fortified the island to defend Manila from attacks by enemy warships during the American occupation of the country.
During World War II, Corregidor was heavily bombed by the Japanese and in 1942 the Battle of Corregidor was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Philippines. Corregidor (and the Philippines) were under Japanese rule until it was recaptured by American and Filipino forces in 1945.
The ruins left on the island now serve as a military memorial to American, Filipino and Japanese soldiers who served or lost their lives on the island.
Sarah explained it best when she said she felt like she was in a Lost episode. It’s exactly how it felt. You’re surrounded by a green lush forest and then out of nowhere is an old bombed out military barracks. It was so calm, quiet and gray from the rain and had it’s own special eeriness about it.
There were old gun storage buildings all around the island. I’m not much of a scaredy cat, but I actually had to go back and get Joel and Sarah to walk through this one with me. It was so dark and I kept having flashbacks of Blair Witch Project. We made it out alive, only seeing some bats along the way.
Who was with us on our tour you ask? Well, we had two priests on our trolley and the entire Mr. International Philippines.
Another sign that you live in a developing country is when they let you walk around dilapidated ruins with no concern about injuries or lawsuits. Our tour guide did warn us very sternly to stay away from this sign due to…..bees.
But we were allowed to walk around here….
and here…
and here…
Even the lighthouse involved climbing these stairs. But I made it to the top!
But the view was worth the super steep stairs.
Don’t worry, no one was injured in the taking of these pictures and no rocks fell on us.
Our tour guide had some coins from the Philippines during the US occupation.
One side is Filipino and the other side American. The coins were even minted in the US!
The island was beautiful and even though it was a rainy day we got to see all of it and learn quite a lot about the history of the island and the Philippines.
It’s always great when visitors come and you get to sightsee with them and remember that you live in a country with so many things to see. Thanks Sarah and Joel! See you in a week and have fun in El Nido.
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