zambales secret: anawangin cove + capones lighthouse sidetrip

i am a bit frustrated lately since I have not been to an out of town trip ever since my january surfing trip to crystal beach. partly of my own doing because i enrolled in basic photography class for five saturdays until the first week of march, so weekend road trips are out of the question for now. the day trip i was looking forward to - hot air balloon festival in clark - i was not able to go to because of work. =(

so until i finally finish my 5-weekend photography class, i content myself with researching on new places to discover, planning trips for the summer (and the rest of the year) and reminiscing about the places i have been to and long to go back to, one of which is anawangin in zambales.

anawangin is one of zambales' secret spots - well not so secret anymore i guess. it used to be known to a handful, mostly mountaineers who trek through Mt. Pundaquit (a 5-hour trek) or Mt. Balingkilat (a 2-day trek) and commences in paradise that is anawangin cove. nowadays, even adventurous beach bummers are in on this secret and head to anawangin for a weekend of serenity in the sun, sand & sea.

i have been to anawangin a total of three times last year - march during holy week, may to end the summer & november. it is so accessible and easy to find - from subic, it is around an hour away, taking the straight road to iba, zambales and the only major turn is upon entry to san antonio to reach brgy. pundaquit. bancas can be hired for around P800-P2500 depending on the size of the banca, the number of the passengers and the stops you want to take (capones or camara island stopover), this is where haggling skills come into play. after a 30-minute picturesque banca ride from the shores of barangay pundaquit, the banca makes a turn and from afar you glimpse the white sandy beach and the pine trees of anawangin cove set against mountain ranges.

anawangin is not for the resort-type, 5-star hotel vacationers as there are no resorts in the cove. there are makeshift restrooms -4 plyboards nailed together to provide privacy from the rest of the camp but offers a view of the blue skies or moonlit sky while you are doing your thing . there is weak or no cellphone signal at all, no electricity, just the light provided by the moon & the stars at night, no sari-sari stores or restaurants, just your personal provisions and food that you cook on your campfire. but the essentials are there, sun, sand, sea, pine trees, hillsides and deep well water. on the right side of the cove the caretakers charge P150/person, while on the middle part they charge P50. they say this is for keeping the cove clean and maintaining the deepwell. but P50 or P150 is a small price to pay for paradise. these caretakers sell potable drinking water, sometimes ice and chopped wood for cooking & bonfire if you don't fancy walking around the forest and collecting dry twigs & leaves.

necessities to bring for an enjoyable anawangin trip - tents, sleeping bags, light jacket, flashlight, drinking water (lots of it), food & utensils, first-aid kit, off lotion (although i haven't encountered any mosquitos the three times i was there), waterproof blanket or bag to keep essential things dry, like cameras! of course never forget the cameras! non-essentials but nice to have - marshmallows for bonfire, board-games, rubber shoes for trekking the nearby hillsides, acoustic guitar, body board or skim-board, a nice big ice chest filled with ice, sodas & alcohol!

to maximize an overnight trip to anawangin, arrive early, before sunrise and leave early afternoon-around after lunch the next day while the sea is still calm and to give you time to detour to capones island to visit the lighthouse. a stopover to capones can be tricky, you have to ask your boatman of the wave and tide conditions since the shore on capones is rocky and difficult to dock during low tide or strong waves. but once you manage to reach the shore and take the kinda steep climb to the lighthouse, your efforts will be rewarded with a unencumbered view of endless horizon on one side and the majestic mountains of zambales on the other. the lighthouse itself also provides an interesting subject in photographs.

i can't get enough of anawangin and i definitely will go back. maybe the next time i go i should try trekking via mt. pundaquit. anyone interested?

indayguapa: my wandering sole

through the years, i have unknowingly gained the reputation of being always on-the-go, always up to something and constantly planning trips and adventures to experience. i say unknowingly because i do not go out of my way to be and do these things. its in my nature to move - i cannot sit still, i cannot NOT experience new things, i simply cannot bear to let adventure pass me by.

looking back at the past couple of years (just the couple of years and nothing later coz that would be a litany of travels), i realized that the reputation is well-deserved, i have really been to a lot of places - albeit mostly in and around our wonderful country, and experienced stuff that i could store into my box of 'the last time i did something for the first time' or in my chest of 'things i love doing over and over again'.

2007 brought me home to cebu a total of 6 times! for sinulog, for family reunions and mostly for frolicking in its beautiful beaches and as stopover to other destinations. moalboal, malapascua & bohol offered great diving, bantayan was reminiscent of boracay in the yesteryears - quiet, serene & clean. i had numerous diving trips for this year too - apo island in dumaguete (with side trip to pulang bato falls), wreck diving in subic and of course the easily accessible batangas with numerous resort choices like balai, dive & trek, outrigger, pier uno & the lesser known but quite lovely vista aplaya. for this year, i drove as far as palaui in cagayan valley and in nearby quick-vacation destinations like tagaytay for food tripping, taal for wakeboarding, clark for hot air balloonfest and zambales for beach-bumming & surfing. i also went on a quick trip to boracay and this was also the year i discovered the 'boracay' of cavite - the calumpang marine base beach on a cove near puerto azul and inside a military base which is open to the public for a mere P50 entrance fee.

i thought i couldn't top my '07 but 2008 proved to be another year of endless travels and 'first times'. i had return trips to cebu for sinulog and family vacations - to olango island in mactan for bird-watching, went back to clark for my 2nd year of hot air balloon fest, anilao for diving - tried planet dive and solana for the first time. for holy week i did a fun and uncharted road trip with my friends which took us camping in anawangin in zambales as our first stop, dropped by capones before heading to do another overnighter on one of the uninhabited islands of the 100 islands in pangasinan, then to la union for surfing and had our last stop in bulacan for the holy week salubong. as a break from the tiring but fun road trip, i rediscovered metro manila - spent a day in quiapo and la mesa ecopark in the succeeding weekends. no sooner had i recovered from the holy week road trip, i was off to donsol in sorsogon to go swimming with the whalesharks.

a highlight of this year is my first tubbattaha live-aboard trip - 7 days of unadulterated diving - flew to palawan to catch apo explorer, spent 7 days on the boat cruising from tubbattaha, cuyo and quiminatin islands, apo reef and then back to batangas. i took a short break from travel and tested my physical strength and endurance at the TNF100, a 100km race through the hills and mountainsides of cavite and batangas, and survived. but i really cannot stay put for long, in to time i was organizing dive trips to galera and verde island, was invited by my good friend kat to her hometown in davao for kadayawan and arranged a trek to pinatubo & side trip to the taksiyapo wall in tarlac for my best girl friends. i was quite content to sit out the remainder of the year since i've had my fair share of traveling already and loads of work came in during the last quarter (yes, despite all the trips, i work hard too!) but wanderlust truly finds me, a few days before the year ended i was invited to visit the mangyans in foothills of mount halcon in mindoro.

my only regret about all my wanderings is that i did not blog about it. yes i uploaded tons of pictures and short description from my various travels in my social networking pages, although i willingly share my suggestions for things to do, places to see & information, details and budgets for trips when friends ask for it, i just realized that it was a bit selfish of me to keep it to a chosen few. but it is never too late to change, hence this blog.

there's still so much to do and so many places to see right here in the philippines. my wandering sole has brought me to the farthest corners and yet i remain insatiable. maybe its high time to plan bigger, grander things. maybe i should go a little further. instead of round-the-corner, why not round-the-world.

oh yes, why truly not.