And so I heard about Virgin Island and how wanton greed turned this beautiful island into a tourist trap with shameless restaurant operators charging around $400 for a meal. And they’re not even supposed to be there! I remember Virgin Island and it’s old name from the boatman from many years back, this sandbar really looked like this. And then came mass tourism when opportunists started offering food service with exorbitant prices and then the pandemic. Everything closed down. Nature really has its way of healing, right? And so the island turned virgin again and I was one of the lucky few to have visited it the moment domestic tourism opened up in the Philippines.
It may sound like a cliche but leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures (videos) even if starfishes are everywhere. As the Starfish Thrower story goes, every life is significant. So no matter how tempting, we returned them to the sea, somewhere deeper so they can survive like we did in the pandemic and now we have this wonderful opportunity to enjoy the island once again.