The Batanes Island is the smallest and most sparsely populated province of the Philippines. The language spoken here is Ivatan is hardly related to any of the other national language. The inhabitants also called Ivatan build their houses of stone, with thick walls and grass roofs, a style found nowhere else in the archipelago. The extreme climate, with its monsoon and typhoons has shaped the islands and their people. On Batan, the most important of the islands, lush jungle surrounds the dormant Iriya volcano, 3300 ft high, Basco, the provicial capital has a Mediterrance air, with its narrow streets and alleyways, its 18th century church and houses adorned with white balconies. Time has stood still to an even greater degree on Santang and Itbayat, the two other populated island. The Ivatan headgear, the suot, a kind of hat made from natural fibres reaching down over the wearer’s back, giving protection against both sun and rain. The unassuming and friendly islanders live from fishing and raising cattle.