Buffet Lunch at Sumilon Island's Pavilion

Our trek of the island took us about an hour and when we went back to the resort's pavilion, which is also its restaurant, it was already lunch time.

Inclusive to the day tour package was buffet lunch so we helped ourselves to their rather limited buffet selection.  

Of these, I only liked their seafood pasta and though the shrimp looked tempting, it was not fresh as my allergy kicked in minutes after eating it (my seafood allergy only materializes when the seafood is not fresh).  Thank heavens I had my trusty Claritin in my travel kit.

As I am a dessert person, I so looked forward to having dessert but three of the items ran out and they did not do a refill so I had to content myself with watermelon and a small slice of some cake.

All in all, it was a filling but unimpressive meal.  Even our iced tea tasted like commercial iced tea that I ended up having just plain water for my drinks.

Sumilon Island's Baluarte

After climbing the island's watchtower, I inspected the baluarte, which did not impress me at all.  I guess because it looked so fake, so trying hard to look like a ruin when it was anything but.

Inside were trees that are skinny it's obvious they have been there for only maybe a decade or less, further ruining the "ruin" bit.

I do have a liked photo taken from the baluarte.

It's a photo of my friend on the watchtower, the perspective of which was taken when I looked up from inside the baluarte.

Climbing Sumilon Island's Watchtower

During our trek, as there really were no interesting flora or fauna that we could see, I looked forward to seeing the watchtower that according to the guy who did our briefing was the highlight of this activity.

While my three sibling friends were busy taking pictures of the baluarte, another friend started climbing up the watchtower using its side ladder.

Wanting some excitement myself, I followed her and was surprised when I reached the top as the guy manning it  said that climbing the watchtower was off limits for safety purposes.  Uh-huh.  As I spoke his dialect that is Cebuano, I apologized and said I did not know as we were not informed by any of the resort's staff.  He said it's okay as we were already there.

These views of the island below were really amazing.

I was so high up that the sky seemed so near.

From where we were, we could also see the baluarte below but it was partly hidden by trees.

History-wise, we were told that this watchtower was built to ward off marauders who would attack the island during the Spanish era.

Climbing the watchtower was one of two activities I liked best (the other being my massage that I will blog about later) of our Sumilon Island trip.

After our climb, my friends and I shared how we initially thought it would be easy but after climbing about ten steps and losing the adrenalin rush, it was daunting but one had no choice but to continue going up.  Once up though, the view was worth it though  going down was a different story as it was more difficult than going up.  

On hindsight, I came to realize that it was indeed a scary thing to climb the watchtower but what helped me endure it was the fact that on my way up or down, I did not look down lest I get vertigo.