Discovering Hidden Gems in the Philippines (Bongsanglay Natural Park in Masbate)

The Philippines is known internationally and locally for its natural attractions. Tourism revenue has increased year on year and plays an important part in our economy. You would think that one of our priorities as citizens would be to protect our environment, foster it, and develop it in the right ways. This has not always been the case. There are 244 protected areas of the Philippines. 107 of them are classified as national parks. Yet, ask around and most people can only name a few. Let's change that. Let's celebrate and protect what makes this country special. In this video, I'll take you around one of the least known national parks in Masbate to showcase just that. Tikal Island is situated between Sorosagon and Masbate. You'll have to fly into one of the major cities in Bicol, drive to port, and then take a long boat ride just to reach it. Its difficulty of access has kept it off major tourist routes in the country, but its raw beauty is what intrigued us. We spent a week in the central and northern parts of the island. Getting from there to the Bangsaray National Park in the south of the island will still take us about three hours by boat. I'm going to talk like this because it's really windy. I think we're arriving. There's nothing much around us, maybe some small villages, and there's a bridge right now that goes straight into the mangrove forest. I'm pretty sure that's where we're spending the night. All of this must be the Bangsaray National Park. It's absolutely massive. I can already see some birds flying, so I'm pretty sure the biodiversity that we're going to experience is going to be really awesome and amazing. So a quick little walk on a rickety bridge made out of bamboo, and we find ourselves completely immersed in a mangrove ecosystem. If you didn't know, there are around, I think, 35 varieties of mangroves, and here in this particular park, there are 32 of those represented, which is pretty cool. We're walking right now towards the biggest mangrove tree in Gikol, which will be pretty special to see. Now, this is where the heat sinks into the entire line of the National Park. So this is a big help to our environment. Here on my right, we can see the biggest mangrove tree. This is Api-Api, the Abyssinia officinalis. It measures 1.35 meters and 7 meters in height. This is the largest mangrove tree here in Bongsanglay and probably in Gikol region. The way they look at mangroves is really new, especially the way they take care of mangroves. Actually, they used to conduct a weekly mangrove replantation. As you can see, they have new mangroves planted in the front. They're still small, but I think they'll live and grow like this one. It's really different. Before I became a ranger, I used to plant mangrove in vacant areas. Now, it looks so beautiful because it's so big. It feels like you're the one planting it. So this is called the Garit River. If you guys remember from my Bohol video, if you watched it, we covered that there are actually male and female species of mangroves that intertangle. It's kind of like a love romantic story about mangroves. Going through these river systems within the national park and the mangroves, it's really cool to see how the ecosystem really thrives and self-manages itself. You understand how this could be really important for communities because each time there's a huge typhoon and there's been a couple of big typhoons here, these mangroves are essential to making sure that there are no big floods on the island because they act as a buffer zone to any huge tides coming in. We came here to shoot a video for YOPA, the Year of the Protected Areas, an initiative by the DENR, DOT, DILG, and Biofin of UNDP. Our aim is to promote the protected areas of the Philippines, encourage people to visit them, increase the awareness of their value, and help people appreciate the beauty and heritage we have in the country. Ecotourism is a more sustainable economic driver as it encourages local communities to be more careful of the environment and directly benefit from that level of protection. We face lots of environmental issues and at the core of most of them is the degradation of our ecosystems, climate change, and a reluctance to act on it. Hopefully by increasing low-impact visitation to these different protected areas, people become more aware of these issues and do their part in solving them. All of this will increase the revenue of these national parks and help the local communities maintain the diligent stewardship of the area. These people work hard to preserve what we have left and we should be supporting them in any way possible. As night falls, you can walk around the eerie landscape and quiet mangroves, hearing only the snaps of the forest. On clear nights, the lack of light pollution will give you a beautiful starry show, and if you miss that, you can always catch the fireflies nearby. Good morning. We just woke up. We're trying to get some sunrise shots, but it's looking really cloudy. Some of us yesterday slept on hammocks, some of us on little beds. This is our shack right here. I'll show you. It's really quiet. It was nice and cool most of the night. All right, I'm gonna have some coffee because today is gonna be a long day. We didn't have the best weather when we came here in November. We would actually recommend you visit Dikau from March to September for calmer skies and seas. There are lots of other activities you can do from here, from spotting some blacktip sharks to free diving, kayaking, and island hopping in nearby beaches. We decided to make the best of it and go cook something. Walking around the mangroves, you can hear a distinctive snapping sound. I thought they were branches cracking. Little did I know these sounds came from snapping shrimp lurking in the mud. So first, he looks for a little crab to hook up to his string, and if you walk around the mangroves, you actually hear snapping, and that's what they call the snapping shrimp, which is basically the takala, which they eat here. So he's digging through the mud, finding holes, and then he'll be dipping in his little string with a crab, and the idea is the shrimp snaps at it, and he's able to pull out a shrimp. Here, I thought the whole time you just kind of grab the shrimp from the mud. Clearly, I was wrong. Okay, I'm gonna try to help out. I've lost like two crabs already. So two crabs have died in vain. There it is. So you really hear the snap, but they want to stay there. Nope. So he's gonna catch a few more. I can't catch them, but I can cook them. That's really important. I was an abject failure at catching these, and you can see here that this little orange claw is that first claw that actually grabs the bait and the crab, and then you kind of have to catch it from the back to make sure that it doesn't snap you because these things are pretty muscular and strong. Now, I've never tried takala, so the number one rule when you don't know what something tastes like is to cook it first by itself just to taste it. So a little bit of oil on my wok. I'm just gonna cook one, see what it tastes like, and then decide what I can add to it. Probably my favorite thing in the world to do when visiting coastal communities, a lot of them, especially in the Philippines, have different things that they catch depending on their environment, and for me that's kind of like the best way to eat. It's very sustainable. Okay, now I'm gonna do the very stupid thing of burning myself while trying this. It has less of a shrimp-like flavor and more of a lobster-like flavor actually. It's like a tiny lobster. So yeah, I think I have an idea of what I can do here. We're gonna do like Bicolano meets Tagalog meets Singaporean salted egg without the salted egg kind of shrimp, and it's gonna be really good. Lots of garlic, red onions, a little bit of salt just to kind of saute and sweat out that water from those vegetables. Now we can go ahead and start adding our tecla. So just like any crustacean, this is probably going to take like two to three minutes on a high fire walk to cook through. So this is where we start freestyling a little bit. The tecla now have a little bit of color, brown sugar, a little bit of evaporated milk. Bicol in general is very famous for using coconut milk, so this is kind of like a nice little in-between touch between both cultures, which I think will be really cool. And then to that, we're gonna season it with some fish sauce and then a little bit of chilies just to finish it. So it's really simple cooking. When I make dinuguan, I actually love puto with it, and the chef made some puto. I like to grill my puto first because it gives like a nice exterior crunch to it. Wait for that to kind of develop that crust we want, and then we're pretty much good to play. So that's what you're looking for. Nice little crust, turn it around, do the other side. It already has that kind of like toasty smell, which is really nice. Snapping shrimp are done. A bit of brightness, acidity with our scallions or spring onions, and then we're in bicol, so we need chilies. Green chilies, a little bit of red chilies. We're not afraid of heat here. It just makes it look really pretty and makes it pop. So that looks pretty much done. I'm gonna try it out. So the idea here is the sauce clings to your fingers as you kind of eat everything. That's good. Try a bit of the sauce with the puto. Crunchy, sweet, salty. It's kind of like the hallmarks of Filipino cuisine. We can all agree that our country is gorgeous. People are taken aback by crystal clear water and white sand, but I remember when I was younger, each time I would snorkel, I would see lots of marine life and corals, and that's not always the case nowadays. Let's also not forget that we should have lots of forest and jungle coverage around the country, but we don't as much anymore. All of this to say, if we want to preserve what we have left, we need to appreciate it more and actively take a part in contributing to these conservation efforts. So the next time you're planning your vacation, see if there are any national parks around and visit those that you can. It'll always be worth it. It's very delicious. Oh my god, this is dream come true. I can die right now. It's really good. Approved, chef.