'Alaminos' is the gateway to 'Hundred Islands National Park'. Amelia and I arrived by bus (from Capas) and found some wifi, to look for accommodation in the area.
Most places we found online were fully booked, due to Easter, which is the biggest Filipino holiday, and also marking the end of the school year.
We found a place called 'Treasure Isle Guesthouse and Restaurant' and gave them a call. Luckily they had vacancies, at a very reasonable cost (turned out to be a clerical error) and offering a free transfer.
We were picked up by a tricycle and taken 15 minutes down the road, towards 'Lucap' (a small fishing village where the boats to Hundred Islands depart from).
Treasure Isle was owned and run by an American and his Filipino wife. They had three kids, one of which helped us carry our luggage to our room. Being seven years old he was only small, but very determined to lift and carry Amelia's main backpack. Eventually he gave up and took one of our day-bags. We were impressed!
Our 'room' was a mini kubo located in what looked like their garden. There were four of these stilted small bamboo huts. They were powered and just big enough to fit a double bed, luggage and an electric fan in, very cosy! We squeezed our belongings into the kubo and went off to find out about a trip to the Hundred Islands.
Hundred Islands (actually 123) are tiny islands, mostly uninhabited, just off the coast in the 'Lingayen Gulf'. Some of the islands have beaches, but many are just coral outcrops. Most people visit the islands on a day trip (by small boat), which is exactly what we were interested in.
After speaking with the owners - 'Alma' a friendly Filipino lady, and her husband who was a typical arrogant American (also half-cut), we discovered the cost of these day trips were set by the government. The cost was 1,400 Pesos (£20) for a small boat, big enough for just five, plus the cost of a 'food package'. The package would be put together by the guesthouse and included snacks, fruit, drinks and the lunch, which would consist of a cooked meal of meat or fish with veg and rice. At 450 Pesos each, it was fairly pricey, but given there isn't really any food on the islands, we begrudgingly agreed.
The American liked his 'pets'. He had two dogs, a cat, a pig, rabbits, a huge turkey, a chicken and a monkey! Bizarrely, and weirdly, they all got along very well, including the cat and two dogs (plus the pig at times) which would playfully fight each other. He called himself an animal lover, but sadly the monkey was chained to a 10ft bamboo pole, propped between two trees, with no food or water! At one point the monkey was crying loudly for a while because he couldn't move. The chain he was attached to had become tangled around a small branch. I mentioned this to the American, who merely shrugged it off. In the end, with the help of his seven year old son, I managed to untangle the monkey and fill up his water bowl.
We took a stroll down to Lucap fishing village/port in the afternoon, it only took about half an hour to walk. There were hundreds of boats, all shapes and sizes, in a broad spectrum of colours. The port also contained plenty of souvenir stalls, and a few food stands to choose from. One in particular caught our eyes, it was busy selling unusual looking deep fried orange balls. It turned out they were tasty battered quail eggs!
By the time we got back it was time for a beer, shower and Alma's famous Bicol Express - pork cooked in coconut milk, soy sauce, vinegar, bagoong (fermented fish) and hot chillies. Instantly we knew why it was famous at the Treasure Isle Guesthouse, it was delicious. Full up from dinner, we squeezed ourselves into the mini kubo for bed.

The next day we awoke early to go on our boat trip to the Hundred Islands. Or so we thought. It turned out the boats were restricted to half day trips, due to an incoming typhoon (typhoon Maysak). Not being rushed for time, we decided to save our money and wait until the following day, hoping the typhoon would change course (which it had done a few times already) and allow us to do a full day trip.
As we weren't island hopping, we decided to make our day productive and catch up on the blog. Little did we know our day would be disturbed by the arrogant American - drinking beer at 10am, and trying to sell his guesthouse to us. Followed by his kids that were uncontrollable little brats! The seven year old, who seemed like a polite helpful young chap at first, decided to deliberately swing into my head on a tyre-swing, whilst I was laying comfortably in a hammock, with his drunken dad carelessly watching by. One of the other little brats, the younger one (around two years old), decided to spit water all over Amelia and her diary, then later proceeded to throw stones at us!
Just after midday the groups had already returned from their 'day trip'. The American asked us earlier if we wanted to join them for lunch, which we agreed to. As we knew they'd paid for their 'food package', we let them go first, assuming we might pay a small amount for the scraps. Before digging in, we wanted to find out from the American, how much he would want. Things then went from bad to worse... to cut a long story (heated discussion) short, he wanted the full food package cost of 450 pesos each, which we obviously weren't happy about. As to eat an average lunch from their menu would cost 100-150 pesos each. So utterly peeved and very hungry, after the fairly long heated exchange, we ate elsewhere to make a point, and avoid paying the same amount the others had paid for their full food package (snacks, fruit, drinks etc). We just hope some of the leftovers went to the poor monkey!
Feeling miffed, we decided we weren't going to hang around. And after speaking with a few other guests about the trip (most of them mentioning it was very crowded and nothing spectacular), we decided to save our money and make other arrangements.
We went back to the guesthouse later to sort our belongings and pack our bags, so we were ready to leave early the next day.

A tricycle took us back to Alaminos, where we took a bus to head north...