Do we really have white Christmas in the Philippines? Forget about the snow, Winter in Batanes is just all about the seasonal cool weather which was considered as Winter by Ivatans.

The local winter starts from second week of November to first week of February and during this season locals and tourists both enjoys this once a year phenomenon.

As Batanes winter approaches, SEAIR increases flights to this beautiful northern paradise from 4 times weekly to daily starting October 12, 2009.

Jeepney in Batanes

Due to its proximity to Taiwan, Batanes experiences 4 seasons – spring, summer, fall and winter. As the year comes to a close the weather gets cooler and cooler to as low as 7 degrees Celsius. Read the full story

Honesty Coffee Shop is a one of a kind store located in Ivana, Batanes. What makes this Ivatan store interesting? No one looks after the merchandise so each customer is pretty much free to move inside the store. Everyone is expected to be honest, the store owners trust the people enough to allow them to list the products they bought along with its corresponding price and then leave the payment in a drop box. You can find an interesting sign on the wall that says “This store is too small for dishonest people,”.

Are you Honest enough?

It is a typical Pinoy Sari-Sari store and Coffee Shop combined. Once you enter the shop, you can sit, relax and have some coffee. Each item has a price tag while some item prices are listed on the wall. The Majority of tourists intentionally drops excessive payment to show their support the owner. Read the full story

The town of Ivana is not only known for the most talked about “Honesty Coffee Shop”, it also has a Unesco heritage building that is popularly known as House of Dakay.

Lola Ida January 2005

The house of Dakay is probably the most visited house in Batanes. It is also the oldest house in Batanes which is being maintained by Lola Ida – one of the oldest women on the island. So many things have changed since the first time I visited her house (2004), I noticed that the wooden floor is dusty and the house is no longer well kept. I also noticed that Lola Ida has gotten really weak and nurses painful joints much more now since its “winter” season in Batanes. Read the full story