Conquering Corregidor Island 1

* a map of Corregidor Island showing its key places: structures, museums, as well as the locations of the batteries installed there, etc.
* the ferry that brought us to Corregidor Island
* a first view of the land that is Corregidor

* northward while in transit, one can see the beautiful Bataan Peninsula;
Mount Samat is partially concealed by the clouds

* landing point: a first look at an old structure - the island's power plant;
taken at the South Dock

Corregidor Island is one of the few islands in the Philippines I have visited so far which is not easily associated with leisure or beach resorts. Its historical background proves to be a stronger package of description for this island. My revisit to the island is a fortunate one for my first trip was not that as informative as this second one – the first one were lost in the busy-ness of running to catch the tranvia and in keeping up with local relation which was supposed to be the highlight of the visit. I can say that this revisit enabled me to appreciate more Corregidor. But I still say that a one-week stay in the island would help me to know more the island. Well, perhaps in the near future I can do that.

The trip was sponsored by our school, but the actual tour is managed by Sun Cruises. Different tour packages are available and the tour we had differed from my first visit in terms of some places visited and the lunch. This time, the food was included in the package.

As to the island, it is located at the entrance (or mouth) of Manila Bay. Its location tends to confuse a first observer; as it seems to be closer to the shores of Bataan one would think that it is part of Bataan. Corregidor Island is actually part of the province of Cavite. And that is one fact that a visitor should learn from the trip.

Corregidor is curiously shaped like a tadpole (some playful minds have thought of something else) and is joined by smaller islands like Caballo, Carabao, and El Fraile Islands.

Its name (literally “to correct”) describes the island’s original function: to warn the people in Manila of any possible hostile ships arriving or to check necessary paper of the ships entering Manila Bay.

* our dear tour guide, Mr. Pol Curato

* entering the War Memorial Zone

* just as we were starting the tour, we saw this beautiful sight: our ferry going back to Manila Bay to fetch the next batch of tourists
* a far view of one of the islands’ water reservoir during the War; if I remember it right, there were three water reservoirs at that time, some of them were destroyed, making life more difficult for the fighting soldiers

Our Tour Guide

Tour guides are always fascinating people. Besides employment, I think one needs a heart and passion for what you are talking about. This trait I found in Mr. Pol Curato, our elder guide who seems to have a treasure chest of information about World War II and Corregidor Island. I could have said to him that World War II is close to me, having written a short article about it. Perhaps the general interest of my fellow visitors to the sights and not the historical backgrounds dampened his enthusiasm to really share more of the details of the places that we visited.

There was one thing that he said though that I feel is quite debatable. It concerns his affinity to the invasion of the Japanese, opining that we could have been better off under the Japanese. His argument sounds good but it still falls within the bounds of speculation. Nevertheless, I found him an engaging person, ready to answer any question, however naïve they might be. This may be just an after-thought, but I think it is good to have a heart of tour guide in every one of us.

More on our Corregidor Island tour on next entries.