Destinations » Itbayat

The final challenge offered the visitor to Batanes is presented by the island fortress of ltbayat, which is the largest of the three inhabited islands. Remote even by local standards, it takes four hours to reach in a falowa from Basco. Careful timing or per­haps a dash of good luck is essential. There are countless stories of people leaving the crossing too late in the season and being ma­rooned on Itbayat for three months or more.

The island is a huge piece of coral thrusting out of the ocean. There is no natural harbour. Boats moor against the cliff face and as their craft pitches in a swell a metre high or more passengers must leap from the prow on to a narrow jetty.

To survive here you need to be uncommonly hardy and resilient, and the 2000 inhabitants have proved that they have those qualities in abundance. They pos­sess their own dialect, which is shared by the Y’ami people of Betel Tobago Island across the water in Taiwan.

The boat-builders and pilots of Itbayat enjoy an unrivalled reputation for excellence amongst the Ivatans. As befits craft on which many lives may depend, con­struction must conform to precise details laid down by tradition.

Timber from the forests is always cut between the full and half moon, when it is deemed at its hardest and less vulnerable to termites. It is brought to town on wooden sleds dragged by water buffaloes. After drying out for six months, it is fashioned with traditional tools into elegantly curved planks. These are joined together with wooden pegs and sealed with a cotton-like substance known as varuk.

WINDS OF CHANGE
Modern engines are used today, and few pilots are nostalgic for the old days when they had to depend on oars. Retired pilot Viktor Guzman tells his grandchildren of the many capsize tragedies he has witnessed. As a teenager he recalls how his overloaded boat was hurled upside down by heavy waves. He was grabbed by his father and the two of them drifted for nearly a day before being washed ashore near Basco. Most of the passengers perished and he will forever remember the screams of people slipping from the edge of the overturned hull and, later, the questions of bereaved relatives.

There are many other stories of castaways, of a fisherman who floated for four days before reaching Taiwan, and of Viet­namese refugees arriving in Itbayat hope­lessly lost and close to starvation. Nobody will ever know how many others have dis­appeared in the swirling waters off the Batanes islands.

FACING THE FUTURE
Although mechanization and modern communications are changing the pace of life on the islands, progress is slow and the Ivatans are proud of their traditional lifestyle. They respect danger but are not obsessed by it. The weather cannot be controlled, and standing up tall and full of pride in this environment will end with you being broken. To survive, you must learn to bend with the wind, like the wily bam­boo. The lesson has been learned many times on the Batanes. The Ivatans are pre­pared to sacrifice an easier lifestyle to re­main living amid the savage beauty of the land where the typhoon is king.