This review of the Corregidor AdvenTour is published in the January 2012 issue of Men’s Health Philippines. It is posted here with permission.
It is crowded and muggy inside the Duck Walk tunnel and our flashlights are no match to the dark. We walk its entire length on our haunches slowly, our breathing heavy from a short run in the jungle before diving into the dark shaft. Someone makes a nervous joke about ghosts. Later we are told that WWII American soldiers had written messages on the walls of the tunnel. Right now it doesn’t matter because we are in a race to find our next clue.
History enthusiasts might find it hard to miss the irony behind the come-on to “conquer Corregidor” in Sun Cruises’ latest tour package to boost visitor figures. Not one easily conquered, the island was the headquarters of the Allied forces and the seat of the Philippine Commonwealth government during the war. Known as The Rock to American servicemen, Corregidor fell to the Japanese after ferocious shelling and bombing, and a bloody defense by Filipino and American forces in May 1942. In March 1945, Gen. MacArthur recaptured the island fortress, making good his promise to return after a harrowing escape with Pres. Quezon from Corregidor to Australia three years earlier. The difficult rebuilding not only of a devastated island but also a battered country was to begin. As if all this sad history wasn’t enough, in 1968, the island would be the site of the brutal Jabidah Massacre. Unless you want to be called Killjoy of Corregidor, all these you forget in a race to the finish line.
For better or worse, the Corregidor AdvenTour package—done à la Amazing Race—is fun. The 2.5-hour race takes place mostly in the parts of Corregidor Island, shaped like a tadpole, known as Topside and Middleside. With an elevation of about 400 meters above sea level, sloping terrain, forest tangle, and scattered ruins and war memorials, these two sectors in the Corregidor AdvenTour offer enough challenging ground to the racers.
Throughout the race, all teams, with an average of six members, must perform each task together, and one cannot move to the next leg of the race unless the group is complete. Apart from stamina, the race emphasizes strategic teamwork. A good dose of humor is also necessary. Teams are assigned their own game marshals to ensure fair play and safety, and a nurse is on standby in case of emergencies.
In Corregidor too, there is no shortage of hidden crevices and tunnels built by American and Japanese WWII soldiers, where one might find the next clue. Or not. Japanese tunnels are particularly hard because they are not so much built with concrete like the American tunnels, as simply dug. The earth is wet and slippery and the “steps” leading out are uneven. At one point you need to climb out of the dark, dank hole, holding your flashlight in one hand to light your way while using the other hand to pull yourself up with a rope, and you think, how is this even possible? Your competitor is at your heels, impatient to climb past you but cannot. And then you test your wits at the creepy ruins of the Red Cross Hospital, shaped like a cross so that it would be spared from the shelling and bombing during the war, but which the Japanese did anyway.
If fun also means forgetting, for the time being, Corregidor’s brutal history and the major role it played in the Pacific Theater of World War II, then Corregidor AdvenTour does it well. Perhaps it provides visitors the necessary levity that is practically non-existent when considering the island’s history, with its ruins, war stories, and suicide cliffs. But only a brief history of the island is actually given as introduction to the AdvenTour, when racers are transported via tranvia from the dock to where the race begins near the Middleside Barracks. At the end of the day, on the boat en route to Manila Bay, one participant and a first-time visitor, wondered, “So, that’s what Corregidor is all about?”
Of course, it isn’t. Corregidor is so much more than that, and one can only begin to appreciate it as one gets to know its history better. Taking a complete tour of the island led by its warm, hardworking, and funny tour guides is a good start. This may also mean staying overnight on the island, which is offered to interested visitors as well. But the adventure tour seems to assume that race participants have been to Corregidor, thus glossing over its rich history. One completes the race a little tired, and maybe knowing less. The question above seems to be the most difficult challenge about the Corregidor AdvenTour, and it is one that is posed to both racers and organizers.
Middleside Barracks, 2009
Entering Battery Way, 2009
Japanese suicide cliffs in the island continue to be unexplored, 2009
Climbing out of one of the island’s numerous tunnels, 2009
Inside the ruins of the movie theater on Topside, 2009
Inside the Malinta Tunnel, taking the lateral tour, 2009
In its April 13, 1942 issue, LIFE Magazine would call Bataan “Thermopylae” and this part of the war “The Philippine epic,” unaware of the tragic fall that awaited it. “Blood stones” at the beach at the South Dock, 2009
Getting There: Daily trips are available via Sun Cruises. The trip from Manila Bay to Corregidor Island takes 1.5 hours. Tickets may be bought online or at the Sun Cruises ticketing office beside Harbour Square inside the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex. A free jeepney ride from the ticketing office to the Sun Cruises ferry dock is available after payment. En route to Corregidor, you can go up to open deck and enjoy the view and the sea breeze. For more details, please visit http://www.corregidorphilippines.com.
