Barangay Imba, Caluya, Antique
Boat on Shore: CALUYA, ANTIQUE
Beachfront of Poblacion Caluya
The Municipality of Antique is composed of several Islands: Caluya, Semirara, Sibato, Sibay, Panagatan, Nagubat and Liwagao
Map of Antique Province. The group of Islands at the northernmost part of the province is the Municpality of CALUYA.
AREA ASSSESSMENT
Caluya is adjacent to Boracay Island. The similarities of the two have both magnificent beaches, very fine white sand, great marine life. The differences are: Boracay is a tourist haven, Caluya is not. In Caluya, people are preserving the place for their livelihood.
There are businessman who are willing to buy some properties of this town to convert into world class resorts but the people living here protested for the plans.
Magnificent beach front of Barangay Imba, Caluya.
In the Island of Semirara, there is a big coal mining company and fortunately it didn't cause any destruction of the nearby islands. Maybe, in the future if there are no strong monitoring in the environment may lead to degradation of the beauty of the nearby islands.
Docked ship in Semirara Port waiting to be filled up with coal.
TRANSPORTATION
Caluya is accessible from San Jose, Mindoro; Libertad, Antique; and Culasi, Antique depending on what ship liner you are going to take. Refer below for the comparison:
Kalayaan:
Route: San Jose-Semirara-Caluya-Culasi and vice versa
Schedule: Tuesday and Friday - 02:00pm from San Jose
Fare:Php350.00
This is the Kalayaan liner. It is made of wood. The chairs are freely placed inside the boat so when big waves occur you will fall from seating. It's a good experience though. It can carry big loads. Maybe you wonder what are those white thing floating on the sea. Those are buoys used on seaweed farming and made of styro foam and sometimes empty plastics bottles.
Banton:
Route: San Jose-Semirara-Caluya-Libertad and vice versa
Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday - 11:00am
Fare: Php350.00
The travel time between Islands have an average of 3hrs but when the weather is not good it will reach 4hrs - 5hrs.
Normal waves. Just try to imagine that I was almost capsized together with the boat last February 2011. The waves are stronger than this during that time due to low pressure area.
ACCOMMODATION
Caluya Pension House
View from Caluya Pension House
This is the only pension house in Caluya. The rooms are all fan rooms and common rest room. It is located at the Poblacion and the staff are very hospitable. They will charge you Php70.00 every meal. But you have the choice if you like to buy canned goods instead of they are going to prepare food for you. The rooms are all at the 2nd floor, the gound floor is a merchandise store that sells everything like mobile chargers, undies, bags, slippers and etc. The room costs from Php300.00 to Php800.00. Or maybe they charged me a high rate, I don't know but possible. Just try your best to ask for discounts when get there.
