Our Escape to Man-made Paradise :)

 

Take a look at the small
Island built by locals of Rizal. 

Bayanihan Island of Rizal Zamboanga del Norte

When I was young, I'd always dreamed of making it to Rizal, Zamboanga del Norte, the place where my mother grew up and where I was born. I grew up imagining this place based on my mother's description of it. It was like a paradise on her stories, a place of her youthful memories.

It was summer 2014, when I took the chance to leave the hustle bustle of the city life. We traveled to Iligan City for 14 hours from Gensan. Then after a day of rest to my Aunt's house we traveled to Dipolog City wherein we rode in a "ro-ro" ship, then by land to my place of birth, Balubohan, Rizal Zamboanga del Norte. It was my first time to go there since my family leave the place after I was born.

My mother's hometown is like a small paradise in the center of many mountains. It's an old urban since it's far from modernization. The locals living in the area are very nice and approachable and most of them are our cousins. One of it's pride is the man made "Bayanihan Island" built by people of Rizal through "Bayanihan" (is a Filipino custom of communal unity, work and cooperation to achieve a particular goal).

Bayanihan Island is in Gutalac and more or less 30 minutes travel from Balubohan. You can reach the Island by riding in a canoe. Its view from the land really excites me; I'm gonna step on a place heartily made by mankind in history.

Boating to the Island.

While boating to the Island, I was amazed by the peacefulness of the sea and its living creature. The sea water mirrors numerous starfish in beautiful colors. 

Beside the swimming pool of the Island :)
If you like to swim and enjoy the water with different fish.

The Island is formed by lots of rocks. It also has a swimming pool in the form of a ship where different fishes freely and solely owned it. The place is slippery for it was abandoned many years ago and was visited less by the locals. But for the love of history, I found the place overwhelmingly impressive. I can't take my eyes off the whole Island and imagine how the locals, hand-by-hand, built it.

Climb up! Breath the fresh air and say hello
to all souls (maybe already departed) who built the Island.

Sunbathing at the top while enjoying the view.

At the top of the high wall made from lots of small rocks, you can enjoy the beautiful view of the whole place or have a jump and dive to the sea.

My brother's first jump :)

I can say that the place is a bit far and hard to find, at least for first-timer like me. But for those adventuresome, no place is far enough!