My early childhood was spent on the coastal areas of Cuyo. Cuyo only has two municipalities, minute compared to the island of Puerto Princesa City, which was the capital of the province of Palawan, and by comparison to it, poor by a long shot. The main source of livelihood was both fishing and farming, since Cuyo was basically an agricultural land. The island itself is a picture of extremes. It was either mountainous or sanded. Farming of palay, kasoy copra and other vegetables were grown in the highlands, while fishing was prevalent in the coastal areas. Although the island had its fair share of streams and mountain rivers, farming was still fairly dependent on the onset of the rains.

It was not uncommon for us to enjoy white sanded beaches because that was what the whole island was. A gigantic island of white sanded beach. Our house was situated across the beach and as it was, swimming was second nature to us. We swam whenever we could. When we got up in the morning, for exercise, in the afternoon to cool off, and at the end of the day, to relax. Fish and seafood's, the most exotic of them, was common viand to us. Shrimps, lobster, oysters, gigantic tunas, lapu-lapus and other tasty sea meats were plentiful and cheap. Sometimes, if you were industrious enough to look for your own, free. The foresters, themselves had plentiful game although hunting now was strictly regulated by the local DENR. But we still manage to catch the occasional wild duck, usa or maybe the baboy-ramo (wild pig) if we got lucky.

Cuyo Island is a sleepy town. There was a scarcity of night entertainment in it. The town used to boast of one movie house, which later closed down because of lack of patronage. The Cuyonins weren't very particular about watching movies. They however loved dancing and gambling. Cuyo had two disco houses which was almost always, full, a smattering of karaoke bars, and a cockhouse were sabong was held every Sunday and fiestas. My friends and I were more particular about exploring the rather secluded areas of the province. Cuyo, Cuyo see still had a lot of unexplored areas, and we used to spend our vacations going to the farthest area of the mountains were the engkantos, the manggagamots and the tao-taos were said to inhabit. This was real adventure to us.

Electricity used to be a problem, only made available at certain hours of the day, but now it was a straight twenty four hours in town (the barrios however, were a different matter). This itself, we deem an achievement, considering the isolation of the island. Cuyo unfortunately did not have its own water system. Irrigation for the mountain farms was provided by the benevolence of the rains and mountain springs. For drinking and our daily usage, we depended on wells, mountain streams and rivers. Any estranghero or tagalabas may well find himself with diarrhea at the onset of his stay because of the lack of this one very important necessity. I suppose, though, the Cuyonins have developed biological defense for this, I have never heard of any Cuyonin developing diarrhea after having drunk mountain water.