Thursday, August 04, 2011

In the Island of Calaguas at Last!

budget diy day-tour beachbumming
May 21, 2011 Saturday

objective: to be able to experience white fine sands at a very low budget.
additional tasks: to confirm if this island is a threat to the world's famous boracay island.

I have once again hitched another set of unknown friendly and very accommodating group, c/o Yuri et al in an online travel forum, to satisfy my eagerness in visiting this popular underrated white beach. If you really want to go on an adventure mode of budget traveling, knowledge of schedule on earliest and last trip of public bus bound to destination is very essential. In this case, we went to an air-con bus of Philtranco liner in Pasay City. For a Camarines Norte trip, the following are the last trip from Pasay on daily basis (as of May 2011).

Daet - aircon bus - 2000H - php580
Panganiban - aircon bus - 1830H - php580

Since we arrived at 1930H, we have no choice but to avail the Daet bound. Supposedly, Panganiban is the top priority but we didn't researched the departure times. Fortunately, there were 3 passengers that didn't arrived which was the exact count of my group. And so there it goes, we left Pasay at 2000H. Around 0100H we spent 1st stop-over to Gumaca, Quezon and left after 30 minutes. at 0400H, we dropped-off to Talobatib, Camarines Norte. Then, rode a tricycle bound to Bato-Balani crossing. By the way, if you ride the Panganiban-bound trip, bus will drop-off exactly to Bato-Balani crossing. But the bad news, you will be there as early as 0230H.

Marine Bay Sands skypark cloud formation above calaguas


one of calaguas islands

mahabang-buhangin tent pitchers

our boat in mahabang buhangin

At 0600H we went back to Bato-Balani crossing (visiting 1st one of my travel-mate's residence nearby) and rode a tricycle bound to Paracale port. A new adventure has experienced by having my 2nd top-load joy ride but this time above the tricycle. After around 30 minutes we arrived at Paracale port and immediately saw our boatman with his fisherman-boat type.

Another observation, if your journey will start in Vinzon's port, you have to spend over 3 hours boat ride going to Calaguas island. This is also the spot where package tours heads-on. In our case, a minimum of 1.5 hour only from Paracale port to "Mahabang Buhangin", the longest sand bar in Calaguas Island and the entry point of all boats going there.

The excitement was still on the rush as we passed by pacific ocean. waves were so calm, clear sky and winds were in normal condition, definitely the right time to visit.

As we were entering the calaguas islands, we felt the serenity and fascination on the hills and waters around. we saw green pastures that looks-like in the hills of batanes and the clear waters as clear as in the aquarium. around 0830H, finally, the moment we'd been waiting for, our first step in "mahabang buhangin" (local term for longest sand bar). photo-ops of group shots, jump-shots, moment-shots, action shots, candid shots and skin-dipping were one of the typical pinoy's activities in beachbumming.

cottage for rent in mahabang buhangin, calaguas islands
fine sands of calaguas islands

fine sands of calaguas islands

We took our packed lunch on a rented php150/day cottage beachfront. Afterwards, we searched for this local cemetery nearby then continued on group shots and shore swimming. around 1400H we've decided to go back to mainland and made our activity done for the day on this Camarines Norte's best kept nature wonder.

CALAGUAS ISLAND BUDGET DAY-TRIP ITINERARY:
day 0: 2000H ETD philtranco pasay (bound to Daet) php580/pax
day 1: 0400H ETA camnorte (drop-off to Talobatib)
             rode a tricycle bound to bato-balani crossing php50/pax
             rode a tricycle bound to paracale port php20/pax
          0600H ETD paracale port, boat ride to calaguas island php600/5pax(php3,000)
          0800H ETA mahabang buhangin, calaguas island
             pay for php75/pax reg fee
          1500H ETD calaguas island
          1700H ETA paracale port
camnorte ETD options (philtranco pasay terminal bus sked): php580/pax
          1830H panganiban (early morning next day)
          2100H daet (early morning next day)


boatman: ROBERTO NAVARRO
boat type: with katig and cover
contact no: +639108460639
max passenger: 6-7pax
rental fee: php3,000
starting point: paracale port (1.5 hr min travel)
remarks: highly recommended for being kind and accommodating, calaguas resident

fine sands of calaguas islands

fine sands of calaguas islands

mahabang buhangin of calaguas islands





3 comments:

  1. hehe ikaw na ang layas sabi ko na eh mayaman ka talaga haha. pupuntahan ko palang napuntahan mo na :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for this, especially the contact number for your boatman. Much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete

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