Suluan Island

Philippines , Philippines

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Suluan Island is a small, peaceful island barangay in the municipality of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, in the Philippines’ Eastern Visayas region, covering about 4.82 square kilometers with roughly 11.77 kilometers of coastline.

The island lies east of Leyte Gulf and west of the Emden Deep in the Philippine Sea, and its name comes from the Waray-waray word “sulu,” meaning a coconut-oil torch, since local fishermen historically used torches to fish at night. Suluan holds important historical significance as the home of the first Filipinos to trade and interact with Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, which anchored on the nearby uninhabited island of Homonhon on March 16, 1521, marking the first recorded European contact with the Philippines.

The island features a two-kilometer stretch of beautiful white beaches on its western side, rock formations on the eastern side facing the Pacific Ocean (including a legendary “Giant Footsteps” formation), and a lighthouse on the southern tip that requires hiking through thick vegetation and climbing 490 steps to reach. The main livelihood of the residents, called “Sulu-anun’s,” is fishing, and the island is about a two-hour motorized boat ride from Guiuan town proper. Because it faces the Pacific, the sea can be very rough with huge, treacherous waves, isolating the island at certain times of year, with the calmest seas typically occurring in May and the first two weeks of June.