Friday 27 February Romblon

chatting with some of the locals

Romblon church tower

We loved our visit to Romblon. Why is not easy to answer, perhaps it was the warm welcome from locals and expats at the yacht club, a secure mooring ball, the comfortable feel of the island or the restaurants. Or a combination of all of these factors. Romblon is renowned for it's marble, mined locally and turned into high quality end products.

..shaping marble

cutting and..

The fledgling yacht club did give us a very warm welcome and use of their typhoon grade mooring ball, a secure place to leave our dinghy during the day and some very good advice. The minimal fee for the mooring was paid to Bob, an expat from north of England, who runs the Republika Bar and serves excellent food. He was a wealth of knowledge and pointed us to the Japanese restaurant next door for the best value motorbike hire.

Our day out touring this small island was a leisurely wander up the hills past the marble factories and inland through rice fields and more marble factories, waving and helloing to the constant stream of children we passed on our way. By lunchtime we'd left the hills and were back on the coastal road, a fortuitous timing as we happened upon the delightful Reggae cafe run by Rosa Romblon. Her small rest house is still in the process of being built but she was serving lunch and cold beer in her shore side garden. We sat in the cool shade of the trees watching the sea and just kicking back. I could have stayed here quite happily for a couple of days it felt so comfortable. Instead we continued with the circumnavigation finishing in Romblon town late afternoon.

looking towards Sibuyan

lunch at Rosa's

on the road again

We stayed here for four days, our last day spent shopping and provisioning. We couldn't leave marble island without a small memento; an oblong serving bowl and a set of six spoons are small for on board storage. The bigger bowls and carvings were beautiful but impractical on a sea going yacht. At dinner at The Deli (best roast pork and trimmings for a very long time) owner Dave, who also has a marble export business, had brought me a present from his factory of a pastry board and rolling pin. He said they were seconds and a couple of beers in exchange would be welcome. The night before we'd been talking about what to buy and I'd mentioned to him a board and pin would be useful but I hadn't seen any. He remembered and brought them next evening. The board now sits handsomely on the counter in the galley and is used every day.