Date: April 28-29, 2012

Buffalo Negro decided to go up North of Luzon (after a series of South Luzon trips for the past years) last October. But due to other concerns, we just pushed through with this trip for this summer’s annual outing. 12 of us went in this trip.

Anawangin Cove is turning to one of the popular destinations in Zambales. It is a 4-hour drive from Manila as we left Pasig at 4:30AM. It is surrounded by pine trees and carpeted by volcanic white sand from Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption from way back. Behind its forest of pine trees, is a stream that actually flows to the sea.

We took a 20-30 minutes pumpboat ride from the Pundaquit shore in San Antonio to the cove. Though there is also another way to get there through trekking via Mt. Pundaquit and Mt. Anawangin for at least 4 hours. (200/pax RT trip)

It was such a sight from the boat, Anawangin. We got our place and started fixing our tents.

Once we were all settled, we started cooking for our lunch. Since we had a problem with our cooking stuff, we had to borrow from wherever we could – like our nearby tent or the sari-sari store which lends for a few.

After we had our lunch, we just hang out at our tent until it wasn’t too hot to go around. Me and Jhe actually fell asleep – me at the duyan my friend Nica bought and Jhe at the table/bench we have. The boys played Lucky 9.

We went to the stream at the back of the forest and walked our way to the other end.

Then we jumped into the water.

Then went to the right side of the cove where in there is a nice rock formation.

After we all took a bath, we prepared and took dinner. Most of the girls rested. The boys had a drink until midnight. We all slept early so that we could all wake up early for the trekking the next day.

After breakfast, we walked our way to the left side of the cove where we could start our trek going up Mt. Anawangin. We spent about 2-3 hours trekking and taking pictures on top.

The best feeling in the world is after that trek and feeling the heat of the sun in our skin, was when we went swimming. OOHHHHH I love the water. Refreshing.

It was so tiring going up the mountain. I was breathless climbing up already, but when you see the view, it will totally take your breath away.

We took a bath and packed up all our stuff. Our pumpboat picked us up a little more than 11AM and by 12 noon, we’re heading back Manila.

Tips:
1. Leave Manila early – even earlier than the time we left – so that it wouldn’t be too hot to travel from Pundaquit shore to Anawangin Cove. The boats start leaving at 6 AM.
2. Bargain well with your bangkero. My couple friends already went there last month so we already have a contact and had a reservation. They charged them a minimum amount before as well as bringing them to Capones. The thing is, with us- they were charging an extra hundred each head. Aba, pinagkakitaan. They even gave us a huge problem when they were supposed to lend us a knife and cooking stuff but they didn’t prepared. So they told us that they will bring it to us after 30 minutes. And 30 minutes has passed and we were all so hungry already. Still, no cooking stuff. So, don’t rely on them, try bringing your own or make sure that before leaving Pundaquit, the cooking stuff is with you in your boat. These are part of what you paid for. We ended up renting from the sari-sari store for an extra fee.
3. Bring your own mini gasul, or if you know how to make an improvised ihawan for cooking make use of that because there is no stove available in the cove.
4. There is no electricity nor telecomm signals from any network.
5. Buy all the things you need for cooking, eating and drinking in the market. Although there is a sari-sari store, they charge a lot higher than the normal. Styro plates and cups are 5php each.
6. Bring lots of water. We had 3 gallons of water purchased from our bangkero’s base at I think 45php each. They also sell chunks of ice and gas for cooking at a much lower price than when buying in the cove. So make arrangements with him.
7. Sun block and flashlight
8. Be ready to take a bath in the poso. The lines in the common shower rooms were pretty long during the night. We really took a bath at the poso and dressed up in the toilet. Good thing the toilet has a pail and dipper that we could rinsed ourselves better.
9. Go trekking, island hopping to Capones and Camara islands, play Frisbee or beach volleyball, swim, you can do a lot from so don’t wait time and opportunity!
10. HAVE FUN!

This is the first time I go camping and I really had fun – being one with nature and not relying to more comfortable amenities, technology and gadgets. Our aircon was the air, we left our tent open. Our bed is our blanket. Our home is our tent. Our ceiling is the tent’s top and the sky. Our radio is the singing voices from the other campers. It feels good to be away from my cellphones for awhile.

Anawangin Cove is just one of the 4 coves you can visit – there’s still Talisayen Cove, Nagsasa Cove, and Silanguin Cove. Plus you can also drop by Capones and Camara Island. I’ll just see you soon okay?

By the way, remember the Star Cinema film, And I Love You So – Bea Alonzo, Derek Ramsay and Sam Milby? A part of it was shot there. I couldn’t decipher what part of Anawangin they used. Could you help me, anyone?