Zamboanga’s Pink Sand Beach

With its uniquely beautiful pink sand, Zamboanga City’s Santa Cruz Island is perhaps one of the country’s best island beach destinations. Indeed, as it makes its case by being the only one of its kind in the Philippines.
From afar, the island’s powdery coastline looks blindingly white. But if you look closely, you’ll see glints of pink, especially where the waves crash into the shore. Locals explain that the island gets its pinkish hue from red organ pipe corals (tubipora musica) which have been pulverized by eons of surf erosion.

Although the island is merely 4 kilometers south of the downtown at the Santa Cruz Bank in the Basilan Strait (about a 15-20 minute boat ride), the place has thankfully remained pristine and well-maintained.
While the nearby Little Santa Cruz Island is kept as a military installation, the Greater Santa Cruz island contains a few covered picnic cottages and bathroom facilities for day-trippers. The island is lushly covered with island vegetation, flowering grass that resembles sea urchins, and a big mangrove-laden lagoon—whose beauty is surpassed only by its picturesque coastline.

With its translucent waters, you will definitely enjoy snorkeling and scuba diving. Its underwater scenery and colorful coral reefs, which are just a few meters away from the shore, are awe-inspiring to say the least.
However, the current in Basilan Strait is quite strong, as it acts as a natural channel between two vast seas (the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea), thus swimmers should take precaution.

An interesting aspect of the island is that it contains an old Badjao burial ground beneath a canopy of banyan and frangipani trees. The Sama Badjao, known as “sea gypsies,” believe that the journey continues in the afterlife. Thus, relatives of the departed decorate the tombs with carved vintas or wooden boats. Women from the Badjao Village sell some handicrafts and souvenirs on the island, as well.

Text by Kara Santos