Sunday, February 3, 2013
This is my long overdue post on Calaguas.
It was such a beautiful, peaceful place! I fell in love with it at first sight, despite the treacherous waves, and the prospect of really roughing it up. I went there with my friends from Ttech and Dell, and though we all had hearts of a woman, I was the only biological female in the group (if you get what I mean, hehehe).
I first heard about this place from a high school classmate, and after A LOT of research, I decided that I wanted to see the place.
Fortunately, I came across a tour group that offered an affordable tour package that included the following:
- Bus tickets (round trip, Cubao-Daet)
- Van ride to/from Vinzon's port
- Boat ride to/from Calaguas island
- Tent accommodations
- All meals during the trip, buffet style
- Unlimited alcoholic beverages (yes, you read that right)
- Electricity on the island courtesy of a small generator.
- Free surfing lessons in Bagasbas Beach in Daet
With all these inclusions, we could proceed with our trip with a minimum fuss, and all for just 3,200php! If you are interested, you may contact the tour group through this site: Calaguas Hullabaloo
Anyway, we left on a Friday night via Amihan bus in Cubao at around 8:30PM and after 3 stopovers, we arrived in Daet before 6am. The tour coordinator picked us up from the bus station and we then proceeded to have breakfast at Jollibee. There we also waited for the other members of the tour group.
We were hoping that there will be cute boys from the other groups but we were all bitterly disappointed that the 2 groups that joined us were both all-girls!
So we left Vinzon's port at around 8am and we arrived in Calaguas at around 10am. I was wowed by two things:
- The waves were BIG on the way so I got kinda nervous.
- The island was just PERFECT! It was beautiful in every way, and exceeded all my expectations. The water was clear, the sand was very white and very fine. The sand felt like powder against my feet!
Our tents were already set up when we arrived so there was nothing left to do but to relax, swim, sunbathe, have fun, eat, and generally just enjoy ourselves. And for a camwhore like me, the place was teeming with perfect photo ops!
Here are the pics:
On our way out to the open sea.
Travelling to the island.
Our first glimpse of Calaguas... BEAUTIFUL!
Did we just land on paradise?
Our 'home' for the next 24 hours.
View from the nipa cottage.
Have I mentioned that the beach was beautiful?
The start of camwhoring! Who can resist with such a heavenly backdrop?
Not my camera.
My favorite pic in Calaguas, taken specifically to be my summer cover pic in FB.
Climbing up the hill. Took less than 15 minutes but damn that was hard! There were rocks everywhere, I was so scared I would slip and fall.
But then again, the view was well worth it. And this photo op methinks so. LOL.
Beautiful sunset courtesy of Calaguas.
An even more beautiful pic of the sunset courtesy of Jess.
Overall, we had a perfect first day in Calaguas. The second day was a different story altogether.
We were woken up by the rain seeping into our tents at around 4am. The rain did stop by morning and we were treated to a few more hours of sunshine.
But I guess if the sea looked like this, it could not mean anything nice:
And how right I turned out to be!
We were supposed to leave the island at around 10AM but the waves were so big that the boat cannot come close to the shore. What the tour coordinator did was to put all our bags inside big plastic bags and let them float to the boat. After all has been packed and 'floated' to our boat, we were informed that we needed to hike to the other side of the island since the waves are calmer there, and we will be picked up from there.
At that point, it was already raining. Not really that hard but enough to make the path to the other side very slippery.
The hike was fun at first, but as we started going up the mountain, going down the mountain, and so on and so forth, it became hellish. It probably wouldn't be as bad had it been a sunny day, but damn, the roads were so slippery and at some points also rocky. Lethal combination, if you ask me.
I would have loved to take pictures but all of us had absolutely NOTHING, except for the clothes on our back. In my case, that would be a pair of flipflops, board shorts and a short sleeved rashguard (because I was planning to go straight to the surfing lessons when we got to Bagasbas.)
Anyway, when we reached the other side of the island, we had to wait for another couple of hours before we were picked by another boat. At one point, I really needed to pee, and I had to do so on top of a rock with some makeshift bamboo 'walls', floor, and 'roof' and where my waste 'materials' fell directly to the sea. Ugh, that was really gross but I had no choice.
One thing that I want to point out was that I really appreciate the fact that the locals offered us shelter in their humble homes so that we won't get drenched by the downpour (it was chilly!). I was very very thankful for that. :)
But then again, no matter how nice the local folks were, I was vastly relieved when we were picked up by the other boat at around 3PM. I think the initial arrangement was to wait at a certain point at sea for the other boat (where our things were) to catch up with us. But after waiting for a bit with no sign of the other boat, we had to make a decision on whether to go back to Calaguas and be reunited with our things, or to go back to the mainland.
The group collectively decided to go back to Bagasbas and then we started our very scary hellish ride!
I have ridden boats on several occasions to get to a certain destination, and this was the very first time that I actually feared that I'll die. The waves were that BIG and the ride was that BUMPY! But when I look back on this boat ride, I can't help but be amused by the following (though at that time, we were scared and worried):
- One of the girls from the other groups was throwing up, and we were scared to death that she will fall overboard while retching.
- One of the girls from the other group actually peed in her shorts during the boat ride, ha ha ha.
- One of my friends also peed on his shorts and had to time his urination whenever particularly big waves would hit the boat.
- Some people seemed oblivious and were actually sleeping during the ride. What the eff????
It was such a relief when we reached the port in Vinzons and our feet touched solid ground: I swear that must be the happiest moment of my life!
Anyway, the problems did not stop there: our things were still on the other boat, and we didn't get them until the following day (6PM!). So we were finally safe but we had nothing: no money, no phones, nothing except the clothes we were wearing!
We were starting to feel depressed because we felt so poor, but good thing that the tour coordinator took VERY GOOD care of us. They made sure that we had proper accommodations for the night, food, and clothes.
By the following day (Monday AM, when we were supposed to be Manila already by that time), while waiting for our things, we were all so bored that we have resorted to playing all sorts of card games, and even patintero! We realized that the girls from the other group (the Cosmo Girls) were so cool and we actually bonded over food and games of patintero. :) And here are some amusing things that were noteworthy during our stay in Bagasbas:
- Angel was wearing a Marimar yellow tshirt so he looked like a fangay, LOL.
- Mike was wearing some construction company shirt so he looked like a pahinante.
- Jess was wearing orange and green so he looked like an overripe ponkan.
- I was wearing a man shirt and have not combed my hair for the longest time so I looked like a butch!
That's when I realized that sometimes, the simple life is nice and that sometimes, technology can be such a distraction from things that really matter. :)
Anyway, we got our things around 6AM, so we had dinner, cleaned ourselves up and the we were off to Manila!
Group shot after we've changed to our own clothes, finally!
Overall, this is definitely one of the most memorable trips that I've ever taken. I want to go back to Calaguas but will make sure to do so when the waves are calmer. I also will still use the same tour group since I felt that we were really taken cared for.
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