Luzon Region
Where the Philippines begins, and rarely stops, surprising you.
Articles
What’s Really at Stake When You Visit Calaguas Island: A Cultural Perspective
I sat on a weathered bamboo bench outside Ate Luisa’s sari-sari store in Barangay Tinago, watching her granddaughter scroll through Instagram photos of Calaguas Island’s famous white sand beaches. The girl, maybe sixteen, paused on one image: a pristine shoreline ...
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Culture of the People of Calaguas Island: True Respect
Maria handed me a woven bracelet and smiled the kind of smile you give someone when you’ve done this a thousand times before. “For you, sir. Support locals.” Her English was careful, practiced. I looked at the bracelet. It was ...
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The Real Luxury of Eating on Calaguas Island: Fresh, Simple Community Meals
I stepped off the boat onto Calaguas Island expecting adventure. What I got was a reality check on my expectations for food as I ate the first of many Calaguas Island meals. No beachfront bistros with Edison bulbs. No chalkboard ...
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Calaguas Island Meals: The Hidden Costs You Never See
The table looked like something from a travel magazine. Grilled tuna gleamed under the afternoon sun. Steaming rice-filled ceramic bowls. Fresh coconut halves sat ready for drinking. Sliced mango and pineapple made neat rows across plastic platters. This is what ...
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How to Pack Tofu for Calaguas Island: A Vegan and Vegetarian Survival Guide
I watched Maria stare at the menu for a full three minutes. Her friend Jen had already ordered grilled bangus. The cook was waiting. Maria’s hand hovered over the laminated list as if she were disarming a landmine. “Do you ...
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Why Protecting Nature In Mindoro Shouldn’t Mean Displacing People
A Day in the Mangyan Village Lila held a handful of soil and let it fall through her fingers like sand through an hourglass. We sat under the shade of a massive dao tree, just outside the newly erected fence ...
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Visiting Mindoro Island Responsibly: The Truth About Its Jungles
The Trail That Told the Truth The guide stopped at a fallen tree, wiped sweat from his forehead with a rag that had seen better decades, and said something I didn’t expect: “My cousin cut this last month for firewood.” ...
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Mindoro Natural Resources: Why Communities Need Power to Refuse
Maria Santos sat on her bamboo porch, grinding rice with the same mortar her grandmother used. Three men in pressed shirts waited on the dirt road below, clipboards in hand, a white SUV idling behind them. They’d driven three hours ...
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Mindoro Island’s Ultimate Natural Attractions: Why Loneliness Is Part of Transformation
When Paradise Feels Like a Mirror You Didn’t Want to Look Into The dive boat rocked gently in the early morning calm. I watched a German backpacker, maybe twenty-five, stare out at the endless expanse of the Mindoro Strait. His ...
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Why Mindoro’s Natural Attractions Demand You Slow Down and Focus on One Place
I stood on the deck of a small bangka as it cut through the turquoise water off Mindoro’s coast, watching a fisherman named Mang Tomas repair his net with the kind of patience I’d forgotten existed. This is Island Life ...
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Mindoro Gold Mining: Beyond the Gold That Never Existed
I stepped off the bangka in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, on a Tuesday morning that smelled like diesel and dried fish. The pier had more cracks than planks that didn’t creak. A trike driver named Mang Ernie waved me over with ...
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Mindoro Island History: the Mangyan Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Survival
I met Aling Lili on a humid afternoon in Mansalay, Mindoro. She is part of the Mangyan indigenous peoples of Mindoro. She sat cross-legged outside a bamboo hut, fingers moving across a loom with hypnotic precision. Geometric patterns emerged from ...
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