Day 3

This is one heck of drive. There road is highly elevated allowing magnificent views of the ocean on your left and ahead while on your right you see the majestic peaks that make up most of the backbone of the Bataan Peninsula. The road was not particularly great and this was obviously due to the many fuel tankers coming to and from the refineries. The Death March markers guide you all the way. In an hour and a half we were on a zigzag road heading down to the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZA).

After looking around and deciding that there were no promising hotels or resorts in the area, we spotted a trade fair in the office grounds of the BEPZA. Being with two women, we just had to stop. What promised to be export overruns of the factories in the facility there turned out to be junk from China available in Divisoria and most tianges in Manila. Still, the girls came out of there with bags of supposedly Christmas shopping. We had lunch in a seaside restaurant and were on our way back by 2 PM.

The seaward view is dominated by Coregidor Island and the distant shore and mountains are actually Cavite. Coregidor Island is so close that you can hire a banca to get there. There are several spots along the road that advertise this facility. Heading back, the road level climbs again past the zigzag and there is a place to stop to take in a fantastic and unobstructed view of the island. The milestone for our stop was kilometer 7 of the Death March trail. There is a good concrete road heading down to the shore along which we parked. Behind you will be the equally fantastic sights of the mountain range of Bataan.

written by  Joey Carlotta on November 20, 2008 from Mariveles, Philippines
from the travel blog: Bolinao – Subic – Mariveles
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