Our impromptu beach trip almost didn’t push through. It was already late Friday night, and we were still looking for a place and van rentals because our supposed trip coordinator told us when we finally confirmed that there were no more vans available anymore. But at the last minute, they called us up and told us, there’s another van that opened for us (with 5 other people to join us).


So, my mom and sister headed to Shopwise to buy food for us to bring. We left Pasig a little past 2:00AM of Saturday to make it to our 2:45AM call time at McDonald’s Mindanao Ave. We left exactly 3:00AM and arrived around 6:30AM at San Antonio town proper.


A little before 7:00AM we were already at the Pundaquit Beach. But it took an hour to prepare the things we will need that are included in our package; and then another hour in the sea to reach Nagsasa Cove (around 9:00AM).



Unlike our trip to Anawangin, there were people (either the boatmen or the people in charge of the camp site we were staying at) who helped us pitch our tents. We unpacked our stuff and started to prepare our lunch. We had to cook in a campfire!



I’ve already went to Anawangin, they are pretty much the same. Both are beauties. But what I liked in Nagsasa is that it has much lesser campers, that is why the beach isn’t that crowded so we were able to enjoy the clear water, that has the perfect temperature. I also went to Anawangin in April a few years back.

Lunch is served. Tadaaaah!



We went out to the beach at 12:00 NOON for more sight-seeing and picture taking. But we ended up swimming. The sun wasn’t too hot that time until around 2:00PM and we headed back to our hut to rest and take a nap. We went back to the beach at around 5:00PM to swim.




We also went to the river part of Nagsasa, too bad the river is dry during summer. But it didn’t hinder us from seeing its beauty.





We wanted to also go to the water falls part, but the first falls is dry during summer and the second one is an hour walk. We didn’t go there anymore because it is getting late. We just went back to the beach and swam more, until the sun set.







When we got back to our hut to prepare for dinner, I took Coco at the shower area to freshen up. This is what we didn’t like in our camping site. There are at least a hundred campers that weekend, and they only have 4 cubicles – bath and toilet together. Kawawa naman those who want to just pee, and have to fall in line with those who are taking a bath in front of them. On my part, I am very patient waiting in line, even Coco was very patient, even if he says it is already itchy and tired. When there were just 2 people in front of me. The girl in front of me called out to her friend from the other line and just like that she cut our line. I spoke to them telling them that I have a kid here, hoping they’d be considerate enough not to cut the line, but of course, there are some inconsiderate souls here in earth. When it was their turn, they took a bath together – while laughing and telling stories to each other. I was getting agitated already. It took them a long time to finish, while the lines in the other 3 cubicles were gone to 1-2 people na lang. Those who just fell in line, nauna pa samin maligo. Anyway. After our turn, I told my family to take a bath since water will be out by 8:00PM (it will be back by 6:00AM the next day). I am actually wondering, how will people survive the night. What if they want to poop or something?

After dinner, I had to put Coco to “bed” in his “room” (tent). I fell asleep as well. Now I have so much regret for not staying up longer, I didn’t see the sky with the blanket of stars, which was so awesome according to my sister and mom. My little camper was so cool with sleeping in his tent, only a blanket and towel underneath him. What he hates, that he actually wanted to go home at 2:00 AM, was it was so hot, he had a hard time sleeping. Mainitin pa naman ang aking Coco bear.

New day comes, while the Coco bear was playing with sand, we prepared breakfast. After breakfast, Vic, Rissey, Claudean and I trekked Bira Bira Mountain to see the beautiful view there is. It’s just an hour trek and worth all the sweat because of the amazing view of Nagsasa Cove.





We packed our stuff and by 10:00AM, we’re off to our island hopping – first stop is Capones Island.

Grabe. We had to go down around 5 FT from the shore because our boat can’t dock at the shore. It was so hard to go down because of the light waves, different sizes of rocks and super daming sea weeds.



Then we climb to the light house. The said light house guide the international vessels coming from the north to northwest towards Subic Bay or to Corregidor Island Lighthouse at the entrance of Manila Bay in 1980’s. When climbing up the light house, you should be very careful and move at your slowest. We didn’t know at first, we excitedly climb it, it swayed around and it actually made us dizzy. But the view from the top of the light house was very breathtaking.


We were also supposed to go to the beach part, but the waves are getting strong so we didn’t go there anymore. We didn’t also drop by Camara Island.

We really really had a hard time going back to Pundaquit Beach. The waves are so strong, I actually feel na babaliktad ang boat namin. It’s also the first time I saw very big waves and we were in it. My son, for the first time became sea sick, and actually threw up 4 times, as well as some of the other passengers of our boat. But thank God, we made it safe to the shore of Pundaquit.

We went to the parking lot by the beach and took at bath at the Php30 shower cubicles there before we all head back to Manila. We left Pundaquit at 2:20PM and arrived Manila at 6:30PM.

All in all we had a great time during our trip even if we hated the shower areas and our scary trip back to Pundaquit from Capones, all thanks to our trip coordinator – Alan Arlantico of Zambales Paradise, you may contact him at 09177790252 or visit there FB page or their blog page, as well as their partner van rental – Jeremy of Project D Marikina for bringing us safely to Zambales and back to Manila. PS. Just two comments, we didn’t have a knife and we only had 1 5 gallon of water (when there are 7 of us, we saw the hut beside us, they have 2 for 9 pax), that’s just it. There package is very affordable and I would really recommend them to anyone.

1. There’s no signal in the cove. Make sure to send important messages before you hop on your boat in Pundaquit port, because once you leave the shore, just give it a few meters away and your signal will be gone!
2. If you have a trip coordinator, ask them the amount of water they are giving you. Also, if in the morning, you’ll want to have hot water for coffee or cup noodles, the store nearby sells them at 10php per cup but they also have 50php for a jug of hot water.
3. Confirm kitchen utensils such as knives from your coordinator, because we thought there’s one included in our package but there isn’t, good thing we were able to borrow from the store. We weren’t able to ask the coordinator again because he was not in the island.
4. Bring as many food as you want. The more the merrier!
5. When asking for rates confirm it or ask about it not just to anyone. We were asking how much it will cost to trek up the mountain, they say we have to pay 100php each for the tour guide or one said it was 30php for the entrance fee. When we reached the entrance of the mountain, it was only 10php per person.
6. Pick up trash. Please take care of our Philippines!
7. For those with kids in tow, bring a portable electric fan. There might be a chance that it would be too hot at night, like what we experienced.
8. Always wear your life vest while you are at the sea because can be pretty rough. Arrive Pandaquit Beach early or leave your cove early while the sea is still calm. There’s no life vest for kids, so I suggest you bring one for your child.
9. Enjoy!

You can watch this video made by my cousin, Claudean: