A Hinterland of Islands (now edited for clarity)

The word hinterland has two definitions. The first: "the remote areas of a country away from the coast or the banks of major rivers / the area around or beyond a major town or port." The second definition is: "an area lying beyond what is visible or known". 

I'm traveling, in a way, to both, but it is the second hinterland that I am interested in. 

Next year in February of 2020, Dan and I will be meeting my mom in Manila, where she will have already been for a week prior to our arrival for a reunion, and from there we will be making rounds to visit my family. My family is spread out across the world but much of my family, aunts and uncles, cousins, still live in the Philippines in various areas, and I'm looking forward to visiting all of them. After this whirlwind of visitations - I've done this four times in my life already and there's no other way to describe it - my cousin Nadine, my cousin Mariz, Dan, me, and my mom will be taking a little plane over the Pacific to fly outside of the mainland to a cluster of four remote islands where an eco-friendly resort has been built. I chose the place, after looking various other attractions in the Philippines, and this place seems to be the closest to a hinterland that is feasible for a trip of this sort. That is to say, I think it's one of the most affordable and remote resorts in PI. We won't have much time there, a little more than a few days. And this visit, I think, may very well be the last of its kind for me, so I chose somewhere I thought plaintive, serene, and blissful too. 

My cousin Nadine wanted to check out the place before our trip (she's the kind of person that would do this, to make sure everything is safe in every conceivable manner and aspect). She went to visit this past week and has been posting pictures on Instagram. I've seen the resorts' social media pages and their marketing team tends to avoid pictures like the ones Nadine took. Hers capture the beautiful of the islands dressed in a sparkling grey (contrary to advertisements that show huge splashes of color). Both sides: the grey whiteness as well as those sharp blues and greens, are needed to really appreciate these islands. 

Islands, as we know from literature, can sometimes be ominous, places that hold a violent potential; a brutality, not just a pretty escape from the urban market (I'm thinking specifically now of Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies). This ominousness, however, need not be malevolent. It merely should be addressed...

I wanted to share these photos with you, and I wanted you to know that though our pilot will be scoping out this place from above, s/he does so only so that we can enter the landscape on the ground, onto the sands and through the rough rocks, the tangles of green... to peer out and into figures that have yet to be defined and named. 

- F