The way I see it.
Call it the mystique or lure of places like Siargao.
It is simply a confluence of a couple of very strong drives.
First, the foreign young and impressionable tourists who are lured to the islands looking for thrill-heavy adventure in environment very different from their own, where they can feel and are treated like royalty by the locals.
But unlike before, many of them are now coming not because they belong to the rich elites in their own countries but as regular folks able to travel because of mobility and overall affordability, helped by the lower costs of living in the islands.
Second, the local boys, whether as potential Lotharios, swains, or simply as indolent beach bums with not much else to do, who are quite beside themselves in friendliness and helpfulness. This they show in their ready and easy patronizing ways with these Westerners, who we have to admit must appear very attractive and desirable to them.
All this must conspire whether wittingly or unwittingly - their very fair and smooth skin, well defined physical attributes, light-color hair, cute English accents, highlighted and accentuated by their very revealing beach wear. All dovetailing to the typical Filipinos' standards of pulchritude. It must appear as like Eden for the locals. Like surreal living in the movies. Or as dream experiences of a lifetime.
Put these two irresistible forces together, and who knows. Anything goes? The locals never had it so good. So do the foreigners.
Brings me back to the memories of Pitcairn Island, as it figured in the book, Mutiny on the Bounty, which account was based on real-life events.
The all-male mutineers led by Fletcher Christian hid themselves in a remote island in the Pacific and intermarried with the natives. Now Pitcairn Island is peopled by the descendants of those men and their native spouses.
Who knows in the near future Siargao could be peopled by a new strain of Filipinos, unique and distinct from the rest.
