Iloilo to Guimaras Ferry
Green Mango Juice, Guimeras Island. January 2016
A new drink
One of the days we were in Iloilo, JRC and I decided to explore Guimaras. He had not been there before and it was locally famous for mangoes. The weather was lovely and there wasn't much else of interest in Iloilo proper for me since I had visited the year before.
We went downtown in the old part of the city and found the bustling ferry terminal at the mouth of the Iloilo River. It was a pleasant, calm day and Guimaras was floating right off shore. For being an official ferry service, we ended up boarding a very local, outrigger-type boat with an outboard motor. No worries in calm seas, but I told JRC that I definitely would not want to be in any kind of high seas in such a flimsy looking craft. No wonder the Philippines was always having ferry disasters - this actually counted as a "ferry".
We got our tickets and were soon on our exhilarating, short ride to the island. Good weather on a boat in the Philippines, especially on the open air ferries, is just glorious. The wind whips by, the views are beautiful, and it feels exciting. Soon we landed and we looked for transport to the island's main city, Jordan. That ended up being a van. We got in and started down a narrow, winding road through a forest canopy toward the town. We had no idea what to expect. After passing a lot of cultivated land, we arrived in Jordan.
Guimaras actually may end up playing a big role in the Philippines' goal of connecting most of the main islands with bridges. Panay and Negros are divided by Guimaras Strait and that is narrowest between the far side of Guimaras Island and Negros. One day, there might be buses that whisk passengers in a short time from Iloilo, Panay to Bacolod, Negros via Guimaras in a more reliable way than the current ferries which are frequently weather-delayed. If that bridge comes to pass, Guimaras may change completely.
Guimaras is an agricultural island and is most famous for mangoes - supposedly WORLD famous mangoes. I am not sure about that, but there were mangoes everywhere! We arrived in Jordan and realized that it was just a small Filipino town without much to it. JRC suggested we sit down inside somewhere to cool off. We ordered "green mango juice" (the island signature drink). I was dubious but open to it. Akin to the first time I had avocado juice as a sweet drink rather than as a savory ingredient, my first sip of green mango juice put me over the moon. Wow, just wow! It was immediately transported into the top refreshing drinks I had ever tasted. How unfortunate it has never caught on globally. I can't believe I missed it all those years in Singapore and Indonesia. Green mango is tangy and refreshing minus all the super sweetness most people associate with a mango. People did add sugar to it, but like lemonade, it was according to taste.
We savored our drinks, went back outside, and had a short look around Jordan. Realizing that Guimaras didn't have that much more to offer, we caught transport back to the ferry and soon were in Iloilo again in time for a late afternoon stroll on the riverwalk [see: Iloilo Riverwalk]. Guimaras was nothing special, but green mango juice - that made that whole trip worth it!
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