Valugan is not a beach for swimming. It is a beach made entirely of enormous black volcanic boulders — rounded, dark, and packed together from the waterline up the shore. The boulders were thrown here by typhoons over many centuries, heaved up by storm surges and deposited in dense rows facing the Pacific. The overall effect is dramatic: the black stones, the grey-blue sea, and the open sky make for a photograph that looks almost nothing like the Philippines.
The beach is on Batan's exposed east coast, just north of Basco, and takes only a few minutes to reach from town. Standing here when a swell is running, with waves breaking over the outer boulders and spray flying up, gives you a vivid sense of the raw force that shapes this island. It is worth coming even if the sea is calm — the scale and strangeness of the boulders carry the scene on their own.