There is nothing excessive about Guimaras, except of course the world renowned sweetness of its mangoes.
Being one of the Philippines' smallest island provinces, many things about Guimaras seem to be reduced to bonsai proportions. It has earned the reputation in the Guinness World Record of having the world's smallest plaza---an area with an elevation of five small steps, a mini monument of Jose Rizal in his boyhood, and a mini stage.
Guimaras temporarily lost its beauty right afer the Petron-contracted 998 ton tanker of the Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation named Solar I sank two million liters or 13,000 barrels of industrial oil on August 11, 2006 and damaged Tablong Island, one of Guimaras' outlying islands, and its National Marine Reserve.
But the spirit of the Guimaraoans pulled through this tragedy, though environmental scientists said that the effect of the oil spill of this magnitude would still be felt by the succeeding two generations.
The good fortune of Guimaras lies in its location---between Iloilo and Negros, hence it is not on the typhoon path. Their mangoes, the sweetest in the world, are said to be the only variety served in the White House and Buckingham Palace.
Being mango country, all products and events are conceptualized and concocted with the mango in mind.
The mango pizza at Pitstop Restaurant should be on everyone's bucket list. The taste is deliciously unique and is worth the almost one-hour wait.
This restaurant also serves mango-inspired Pasta Romeo. The Trappist monks, whose lives are dedicated to these verbs---eat, pray, love humanity and work with their hands and bodies, and also run a school, have expansive mango plantations. They bake their own mango cookies and make mango preserves and jams.
Guimaras is in the same league as Camsur and Subic as they are now the centers of triathlons. In Guimaras though, they call the winner of such events as the Mango Man.
The island hosts extreme wild mountain bike races, on undulating slopes, narrow trails and terrain that go downhill with curves so steep, bikers would have to fly high and do their daredevil mid-air stunts before landing flat again.
Guimaras can be reached via pumpboat that loads up to 52 passengers, at P14 each from Parola, Iloilo. From the Negros side, the passengers alight at San Lorenzo Port, paying P50 for the boat ride.
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