Viaje Camarines Norte | Isla Calaguas

Day 1 - April 21, 2012

In less than 2 hours, our boat finally reached Mahabang Buhangin beach.... my initial reaction, "Wow, andaming tents."

Expectation: A pristine beach with few tents and few people. Just pure serenity and sound of nature.

Reality: A seemingly tent city - more than 20 red uniform tents - was set to dominate the middle of Mahabang Buhangin beach, and the people (tolerable naman ang dami nila) are everywhere.

Well, to tell you honestly, I was a bit disappointed with what came to my sight, it's quite too different from what I really expect on a "virgin island". The tents and the music on the beach, they create a vibe similar to Puerto Galera and Boracay. It's a saddening truth really, but what should we expect on an island getting more and more popular nowadays. The once "virgin island" was raped by the growing number of tourists and tour organizers.

So to all my readers, ngayon pa lang sinasabihan ko na kayo, DON'T EXPECT anymore a VIRGIN ISLAND VIBE in CALAGUAS ISLANDS if you don't want to get disappointed. Maybe you have to go there on the leanest season (weekdays and rainy days??) to somehow still feel the virgin island. To give you a hint on how Calagauas Island currently looks like, visit my friend's post: Nasa Calaguas Parin Ba Ako?


Anyhooo...

At 11:30 before noon, we landed on the much sought-after beach of Camarines Norte. Sun's heat was at its height so we rushed towards the shade of the trees along the beach. My feet fell in love at first step, the sand was indeed powdery and white. I looked around, the beach was pleasing, very pleasing (minus the red tents, of course).

tatalon na ako! excited na bumaba.
(makikita sa kaliwang bahagi ng photo ang ilan sa mga red tents na tintukoy ko)

buti na lang maganda pa rin ang Calaguas kahit may mga eye-sores na.

the sand was just too good.
mapapansin din ang strap ng aking sandals, bakat na bakat. nog nog!

and the water was so clean and blue

The beach was so inviting, ligong-ligo na kami lahat, but it was lunchtime already and our tummies we're screaming loud. So we hurriedly raised up our camp, and cooked our lunch. 

set-up muna ng camp. tumutulong na ako sa pag-set-up, yey

our lunch (c/o master chef Jonas).

on this trip, I used the backpack given to me by no less than Marky Ramone Go of nomadicexperiences.com .. yeeha, thanks so much

Chino of juanderfulpinoy.com with the newly weds... before we dipped into the sea we scouted the place and spotted some friends on the beach, the newly weds, Rowjie and Kaiz of missbackpacker.info

My college buddies can no longer resist the tempting clear shallow sea, they soon plunged and bathed like there's no tomorrow. The sun was still striking badly at that time, but who cares, you simply cannot call a summer trip a summer trip if you do not acquire any tan-lines.   

feel na feel ang pagbababad...

eto rin, feel na feel anf pag-iisnorkel.. e halos wala naman makita sa ilalim kundi puting buhangin. :)

Kevin and friends, they enjoyed playing with the sand at kung anu-ano ang binubuo..

good thing there are some parts na talagang hindi pinupuntahan ng mga tao

kaya naman malayang malaya ako makapag-photo-ops ng solo. woohoo!

Sunset came too fast, which means we need to prepare our dinner soon. There's no electricity on the island so we have to prepare it fast with the aid of our headlamps as a source of light.

fail sunset viewing, bigla kasi nagtago sa likod ng clouds yung sun, kaya hndi namin nakita yung buong bilog na sun.

our dinner was nilagang baboy with buhangin, (c/o Master Chef Jonas again)

After dinner, we spent the night with awesome story telling, and of course horror genre ang pinaka patok. Feel na feel na sana namin ang kwentuhan, kaya lang panira talaga ng ambience yung tugtugan sa kabilang camp, haay... They have this loud music and laser lights which is pretty much disturbing, lalo na't serenity talaga ang hanap ng group namin, haay...

At around 9PM, we noticed that numerous stars were glittering in the sky, a perfect opportunity to do star gazing. We laid down on the sand and waited and waited and waited until I saw a shooting star. Then I can't remember what happened next, kasi I soon fell asleep on the beach. The next thing I could remember was that Kevin was waking me up because it was drizzling, it think it was 12 midnight. Before I entered the tent, I noticed that the party was still not over (oh well mabel...), I don't wanna ruin my vacation because of them so I just ignored them and took my needed sleep.


Day 2 - April 22, 2012

I woke up at 05:30 AM, just right in time for the sunrise. I invited everyone to join me hike the nearby hill, which I think is a very good vantage point to view the sunrise. Only three showed interest to my idea, others were still sleepy I guess.

5:30 in the morning.. daybreak at Isla Calaguas.

Chino, Elal and Kevin said they want to join me in my "mini hike" up on the nearby hill. But they were walking really slow. I told them to hurry up because the sun is almost up but they're still maintaining their very low speed.

double time guys..

I still walked, hopped over the rocky shore, then climbed the rough rocks. I tried to wait for them but when I looked back, no one was following me anymore... I smiled, it seems that I'll be doing a solo hike again...  


continue reading here...

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Viaje Camarines Norte Series, April 21-23, 2012

Viaje Camarines Norte | Preview Post
Viaje Camarines Norte | Calaguas Islands via Paracale
Viaje Camarines Norte | Isla Calaguas
Viaje Camarines Norte | Solo Trek to Calaguas Hills
Viaje Camarines Norte | Surfing at Bagasbas Beach
Viaje Camarines Norte | First Rizal Monument
Viaje Camarines Norte | Malatap Falls