Islas de Gigantes

I have been seeing these islands  in popular blog sites and travel magazines, and was placed in my bucket list as early as summer last year. The reviews and feedbacks are practically the same, and I may not be much of a help to other travelers, but still, I want to share how we did it, our own special way.

I traveled with my beyboss, Essa. 

We booked a flight to Roxas (Negros Occidental), as according to bloggers, it is the closest airport to Gigantes Islands, though the latter is part of Iloilo.

We arrived Roxas at 1 in the afternoon, just in time for lunch. 

Roxas is known as the "Seafood Capital" of the Philippines, and the restaurants along Baybay beach serve all types of fresh sea creatures.

Crabs in garlic and butter, baked diwal shells and fresh "lato" (photos above) are some of my favorites.

From Baybay beach, we took a tricycle ride to Lawaan Terminal, where buses and UV Express to Estancia port are parked. Tricycle ride is only ten pesos per head and is 15 minutes away from Baybay beach.

We took the UV Express as it is faster and has less stopovers according to bloggers. Fare is 100 pesos per head and travel time to Estancia is approximately three hours. 

We arrived the town of Estancia at around 6 in the evening, just in time for dinner. We had our dinner at Paon Beach Club, where we also stayed overnight.

We rented a boat to and from Paon Beach Club for 1,500 pesos per head, inclusive of lunch. 

Our destination: Islas de Gigantes. 😎

We opted to book our own so we can control our time and not rely on other passengers. We left the resort at 5 in the morning, the next day.

Places of interest are:

Bantigue Sandar

Cabugao Island

Tinagong Baybay

Tangke Lagoon

and Bakwitan Cave

After one whole day of swimming, trekking and climbing, we went back to Paon Beach Club for two bottles of beer after dinner.

We stayed there for another night and traveled to Iloilo City the next morning.

To Iloilo, we again took a tricycle ride to Estancia Terminal for another UV Express ride to Iloilo City.

Until our next trip! 😎

Bagasbas Surfing

My first trip here was in the 90s and I have always adored their unlimited waves eversince.

Though I am not a newbie here, this year was my first time to surf the waves. My first try was not bad at all. I would definitely go back for more.

After surfing the waves, we spent the rest  of the day with my family on the road back to Manila with few stops, first at Green View, then to Gumaca for dinner.

Life is fun! Enjoy while we can.

Until our next trip!

Calaguas 2015

It's summer, officially!

What is summer without a roadtrip to the beach? Incomplete, right? So here's one long road trip to the 5th region of the Philippines - Bicolandia.

So there's the whole bunch - all smiles! [above photo].

After nine hours on the road, we hit the town of Daet. We stopped by our aunt's place in GreenView, had breakfast and joined the Hullaballoo group lead by sir Melvic Brinas to Calaguas.

Our next road trip to the port of Vinzon's was a thirty minute - DLTB bus ride, followed by another thirty minute -jeepney joyride.

The trip to Calaguas officially began with the boat ride to the island. We left Vinzon's port at 8 a.m. and arrived the island at 10 a.m.

Here [photos below] were some beautiful sceneries on our way to the island.

The Calaguas group of seventeen islands is one big paradise. Their sand is one of the finest I've seen (and felt). I fell in love with the place as soon as I stepped in. I almost forgot that I was all soaked with salt water.

After drying up and setting up our temporary homes, we had few minutes bonding on the beach, not minding the heat of the sun.

Our whole stay was spent strolling on the beach, eating, climbing the rocks, swimming and a lot more. 

The night was capped with a buffet dinner by the beach followed by an open bar until midnight.

This trip was awesome, indeed!

Until our next trip! Up next, Bagasbas surfing. 👍

Ending February with a Day-Climb and A Beach GetAway at Pico De Loro

It's February and we are few days away to summer. We planned this trip last month with a supposed-to-be 5 day getaway, but was cut short due to time constraints. 

We left Makati at 5 in the morning and hailed a cab to take us to the DLTB bus station in Taft.

We caught the 6 a.m. bus and off to Nasugbu we went. The trip was three and a half hours long. We stopped at the bus terminal and hailed a trike to take us to Papaya. It's one hour of joyride to Papaya.

We stayed at my brother's humble abode and had fish and clams for lunch.

After our afternoon nap, my brother's brother in law (with his new boat) toured us around the coves of Papaya.

Our first stop was Hamilo Cove (the only commercial cove among the 13 coves of Papaya).

From the coves, the peak of the pico de Loro can be seen.

We stopped by the Cove of Layag layag.

We stayed there until sunset.

After our beach getaway, we went back to our temporary home for dinner. 🍴

At 5 a.m. the next day, we started our trek to the peak of Mount Pico De loro, with our guides Renan and Omar.

It was still dark when we arrived at the foot of the mountain.

Below was my first shot, one hour after we started trekking.

The first 1.5 hours was easy...

... Until we reached a close to 90 degrees, 6 ft-step, and it's all ascending all the way to the top.

After few more minutes, we reached one part of the summit.

It has a view of the coves of Papaya below.

The wind was gushing really hard so we stopped there for more than fifteen minutes.

There's a rope designed for rapelling but since the wind was blowing really hard, we went to the other side of the bird's beak.

And after a few more ascend, we reached the other side of the bird's beak. 👏

And then we reached the peak. 👍🗻🌄

We stayed there for an hour for breakfast. 🍴

Going down was more fun, but more difficult.

We reached the floor of the mountain after 3 hours, then rewarded ourselves with halo halo.

We passed by the Hamilo Coast before going back home.

Until our next trip! 👍