Cowrie Island

Cowrie Island was our third and last island to visit on our Honda Bay Island Hopping Tour.

Immediately noticeable was: the sand here, though also "white", is finer/softer than the previous two.

As promised by our guides while departing from Luli Island, the trickshots would continue here. It did!

The sand castles made by the island 'mainstays' (vendors or boatmen) were additional new 'props' as we learned more trickshots! Nice that they write the island's name on their works. Our photos became real souvenirs without the need for any captions or descriptions! No fees for posing beside them too!

But.., the banana boats caught-up and enticed the ceaseless interest of most of my companions!

Not just banana boats. There were jetskis too, that occupied the time of "us, the young once" hahaha!

That meant no pictures! Everyone was busier holding mightily on to a banana boat, or jetski, even the speedboat, that no one could ever still think of snapping photos or videos. This was adrenaline island!

Well, two or three of us still went a snorkeling on this island, but they told us there is considerably less fish or other marine life here, than Starfish Island. We theorized, that it must be because of the jetskis and speedboats, plus people falling off their banana boats, that constantly stir the waters in this area.

Or it could be something else that the fish try to avoid? Like what this sign board seems to imply..,

Jellyfish feed on plankton which many smaller fish also need. And they even also feed on smaller fish, right? They are probably competing, so the fish go elsewhere? That's just another theory of ours hehe.

And OMG BTW, it hurts! The jellyfish sting, I mean. It's a mix of itchy and burning sensation on the skin and you can feel blood pulsating faster inside you. Why am i saying that? Because 5 of us were stung!

It was profoundly commendable that our tour guides came prepared - probably learned from previous incidents. They have this white ointment on a squeeze tube that they immediately applied on our skin. That irritating and painful (burning and itchy) feeling was gone in no time, so I was back on the jetski!

If it was any consolation, good that these stinging incidents happened late in the afternoon, just when our banana boat and jetski rentals were about to expire.., and our time on Cowrie Island was about up. Why? Because my companions immediately got out of, and avoided any more contact with the water!

Look at this.., we were not the last, but as we departed, Cowrie Island was already almost deserted..,

I think the island getting empty like so, was not due to the jellyfish stinging five of us (and some folks from other groups). It was likely because it was almost sundown na, time to get back to mainland na!

But of course.., we could not help but talk about Cowrie Island and the Jellyfish as our boat navigated back to Sta. Lourdes Wharf. Not complaining but just curious and the guides answered our questions.

Example and first question: Why still allow visitors to Cowrie Island when "jellyfish season" is already known? Answer: Closing the island during such a 'season' had been tried, but the authorities received persistent complaints from local businessmen, boatmen, etc., that they were losing their livelihoods!

Thus, you are still brought to Cowrie Island (like we were on this tour), even if all of them know that it's already the season of the abundance of stinging jellyfish! Is that a business philosophy? How morbid!

If it is any consolation (again), we saw a man in a banca rowing around the swimming areas, plucking a lot of jellyfish from the water unto his banca! But remember.., we still got stung, many of us hahaha!

The weirdest part about all that was.., in sum.., we felt we still had real fun at Cowrie Island. Da!