The lone district of Guimaras is composed of five municipalities and ninety-eight barangays. Jordan serves as the capital town.
Anchored on agriculture for its economy, Guimarasnons derive their livelihood from the bounties of the land and its surrounding seas. Farm or agri tourism destination is being set by the province of Guimaras for its definitive tourism image in Western Visayas by diversifying its agriculture and introducing tourism related activities supplementing or enhancing agricultural areas.
The Province's total land area is almost 3 percent of the approximately 2,002,311 hectare regional total, and the smallest of the 6 provinces in Region VI.
According to Guiness Book of World Records, the sweetest mangoes in the world come from Guimaras.
"I've been to most of the resorts and islands of Guimaras but 2 that I would like to mention are: 1. Magic Island - a private resort where one could relax and enjoy the entire island as your own since bookings are only limited. Advance booking is necessary if you want to go there.They can arrange a flat boat for u to travel from main island barangay to magic island passing by mangrove forest. The entire stay is worry free since they can cook all your meals and even serve 2 snacks a day. all included on their price rate as well as island hopping tour 2. SEAFDEC, Igang Marine Station - a marine reserve that is usually one of the destination during guimaras island hopping. It houses 2 giant grouper which is now 16 yrs old as of this post. Fish Pens or cages where placed in the middle of the sea that houses not only groupers but also mother milkfishes that grows a meter big as well as 'labahita' a fish that has a blade like tail.. and others that i forgot the names.. the marine reserve has a garden full of giant clams (oh, it's not only in land we can find a garden but here also.. a garden of giant clams!)I've been there twice one with an island hop and just last DEcember 2014, I was just so lucky I was able to get a permit to stay in their pink cottages that was original built for the scientist and researchers. Somehow they can allow tourist to stay but permit through invitation is required. Great adventure with marine life especially during low tide where I got a chance to stroll the sea beds and check on the different species of live sea shells, star fishes, sea cucumbers etc.. "
There is no direct flight to Guimaras. If you're coming from Manila, take a direct flight to Iloilo City. Located southwest of Panay, Guimaras is separated from Iloilo by the Iloilo Strait, a narrow channel which takes about fifteen minutes to cross by pump boat from the Ortiz landing in Iloilo to Jordan, Guimaras.
Other ferries leave from the Parola wharf in Iloilo to the municipality of Buenavista, Guimaras. The Parola wharf is used exclusively whenever the water is rough. There also is a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry that travels around five times a day.
Weather: There are two seasons in Guimaras, the wet season and the dry season, based upon the amount of rainfall. Based on temperature, the seven warmest months of the year are from March to October; the winter monsoon brings cooler air from November to February. May is the warmest month, and January, the coolest.
"Dominica was another stop on our Caribbean cruise. Here's an excerpt from my blog post about our day in Dominica:
The bus departed from the pier at 10:30am and we were en route to our first stop up in the mountains for a hike to a waterfall. As we drove through town, it looked really poor - more than the other places we've visited. During our history lesson of Dominica we learned that the island is 99% volcanic rock and 1% limestone, that there are 17 dormant volcanoes and 365 rivers - one river for every day of the year, and during leap years they find another river, was the joke.
The bus stopped after the 45-minute drive through the mountains, and we were at the entry point of the rain forest for the walk to Spanny's Waterfall. A few people stopped to use the facilities but the rest of the group began their walk through the rain forest - great tour guide, just leaving us to navigate on our own. The walk was roughly 20-minutes and was a pretty substantial hike through the mud. We saw a lot of interesting and colourful plants along the way, but surprisingly no bugs. The waterfall was absolutely beautiful. Could have spent a lot more time there.
Back on the bus, we made our way down the mountain and to Mero Beach, which is a black sand beach. The drive down the mountain was a little easier to handle than the drive up. Baron sure did like to grind the gears, and take the turns pretty fast. The beach was pretty interesting, seeing that I've never been to a black sand beach before. The water looked really murky, but was surprisingly clear - the black sand makes the water clarity deceiving. Because we were with the tour group, we didn't have to pay for the chairs/umbrella, and we were given a free drink at the bar."
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