Guimaras Island is famous for its sweet mangoes, I read somewhere that even the US Whitehouse import these for their consumption. So before visiting the beach, we dropped by at the Our Lady of the Philippines Trappist Monastery where these mangoes are hand-processed by monks into various sweet concoctions.

The Trappists sound so mysterious to my ear. According to Wikipedia they were an offshoot of the Monks of the Cisterian Order which follows the strict rule of St. Benedict; living their lives in austerity, manual labor and prayers. This is the only Trappist Monastery in the country and they apparently chose to settle at Guimaras due to the island’s isolation.

I never thought I would get to drop by Guimaras Island during our stay in Iloilo as our real purpose then was to really visit my aunt who would do her Perpetual Oblation as a sister of the Oblate of the Society of Saint Pius X. So it was with much surprise that my nun aunt asked us if we wanted to visit the island right across the city, I was almost unable to contain my enthusiasm.

Nuns were not supposed to be so adventurous, right? Well I guess that doesn’t apply with my aunt. 
 
We headed off to the Ortiz wharf not so early the next day, breakfast in tow right after hearing mass. The cab ride took us an hour from Jaro Church.