cagbalate island

I am really not a fan of camping and any other things that is related to that..

The trip was really "10 years" in the making.

I'm a nature lover, I love the beach and the mountains, the rivers and the islands but I'm really not a fan of camping and stuffs that you should not be doing when your on a vacation-like getting so tired but miraculously I ended up enjoying.

It was Cagbalate Island. Located in far far away island in the province of Quezon.

Going there was really EASY, you take a bus from Buendia going to Lucena and from Lucena,  take a non-air condition bus (regular bus) going to Mauban. From Mauban, take a tricycle going to the pantalan. From there, you will ride a small ferry-like the ones in puerto galera. The boat trip took us around 30 to 45 minutes. The whole trip took us almost 7 hours. quite easy right?

As I saw the island from the boat, I really can't find anything extra ordinary. It looked like Talim Island (a place where we had our Lay Apostale during college days). So as I waited for the boat to dock at the pantalan, there were a lot of "local kids" swimming around our boat. It came to my surprise that there was no official dock in the island. So a small balsa picked us up from our boat to the shore, it was really crowded and looked like it would sink because of overloading. I was really perspiring since it was in the middle of a hot sunny day (tanghaling tapat), then we had an option on how do we go to our resort- first we could have our bags transported by a small boat but for a price and the risk of loosing our things. second, we could walk.yeah walk for 30 minutes or more in the middle of the burning sun. well we got no choice.

When we arrived at the resort, it did not look like a resort. It looked like a village of nipa huts. I got really stunned (in a bad way) since we were suppose to sleep in a cottage-did not even look like a cottage to me. so we complained to the manager, then they transferred us to a better cottage. but I got stunned again because it still did not look like a cottage fortunately there was an electric fan and a foam to sleep on. lucky us!

Well, its not all that.. as I have said miraculously, I did enjoy the traditional vacation my friends had in mind. 

First, we had a complete set of meal. We had crispy pata for lunch and other viands. we had merienda, dinner and breakfast. all included in the 2k-resort package. Second, there was camp fires-laid on the long shore. Third, star-gazing! For a long time I had not seen so many stars-it was really heart melting. Fourth, the unlimited karaoke-which my friend and I got interrupted by a group of photographers. my fault- because I was so loud and out of tune and too friendly and so hot! haha! Fifth, I was able to do what I love-taking pictures. we did an amateur photoshoot. Sixth, importantly-if not the most important, the beach!! although the beach was consistently warm even its not hot, but it was really great! Lastly, I was able to be with my friends.

Going home was more easy, almost the same rides. But it was more convenient and comfortable.

My first overnight camping trip in wild was really fun and I will definitely put a check mark in my bucketlist. :) 

ishy,