Image courtesy Juliet Solar

Almost complete, atop the southern arm of Puerto Del Sol Bay, Busuanga, is a new lighthouse that will guide vessels from the South China Sea into Coron Bay. The Lighthouse is not an initiative of the Philippine MARINA Department nor the Philippine Coast Guard but instead a unique resort development by an entrepreneur who simply wishes to assist seafarers to find a safe anchorage.

Puerto Del Sol Bay is the home of the Busuanga Yacht Club and a dozen moorings are located in the sheltered bay, to the North of the lighthouse. Puerto Del Sol Bay is considered a safe typhoon anchorage and through the adjacent, Puerto Del Sol Resort, offers accommodation, restaurant facilities, Internet and freshwater at the moorings. Puerto Del Sol Bay is oft referred to by locals as the bay at the end of the Earth because it occupies one of the least accessible (by land) parts of Busuanga

Image courtesy NCCA

UPDATE 4th October 2010: The replica Manila Galleon Andalucía will arrive Manila Bay from Shanghai on the morning of 6th October and remain in Manila, wharfed at Manila Port, until 9th October. Galleon Andalucia will set sail for Cebu on 9th October. While in Manila she will be open to the public from 8am to 4pm daily (closed for lunch).

Original Article: The Philippines will host the galleon Andalucía - a replica of a 16th/17th century Manila Galleon. Berthing at Manila Harbor, guests and visitors will be able to board the ship and walk through history. With the exception of two diesel engines (for times when there is no wind) and minimal other modern navigation & communications technology, the galleon Andalucía is sailed in almost exactly the same way as the famed Manila Galleons of four hundred ye

Image courtesy NCCA

The Día del Galeón Festival celebrates the unique journey of the Manila galleons and their place in maritime history - spanning the globe and linking the Philippines with Mexico and Spain. For 250 years (from 1565 – 1815) the Manila galleons were a conduit for global trade and cultural exchange between Europe, the New World and Asia.

In October 2009 UNESCO recognized the unique part the Manila galleons played in the globalization of trade and cultural exchange by declaring 8th October as the international “Día del Galeón” (day of the galleon). Motivated by Senator Edgardo Angara, the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in conjunction with the embassies of Spain and Mexico, spearheaded the creation of a month-long series of events that will span the traditional galleon trade route through the Phil