I was overwhelmed, it was my first.. it blew my mind.  But I think what really made that trip a success was because we trusted this group of men, who were fairly good looking, I must admit.  But lately, with some of our negotiations online, there came a time that we almost lost our faith to the other party.  But mostly it was me who was paranoid.. I am paranoid.  Thankfully nothing bad had ever happened to our trips, and hopefully never will.. you've got to always know who to trust.  And I trust our manager's judgement.  :)

Seriously though, if it wasn't for PinoyCaravan, (they're the travel group I've been talking about) it couldn't have been that amazing.  They made the trip very easy, we need not to worry about anything; the transportation, the food, the tent were taken care of.. all we had to do was just to relax and enjoy the beach.  There's no electricity and cellphone signal in that place, which makes everything exciting.. even the drinking water were to be brought.  We're totally isolated.

Although many would say that they rather not use tour guides/travel groups because they ruin the moment, i.e. the time spent on the places you visit were very limited.  Maybe if we have our own car, we can consider that.  Plus, we only have very limited resources and time, so as much as possible, we'd like to achieve as much convenience we could get.  We're lazy, I know, but that's just us.  or am I dragging my friends here?  ok, that's just me.  So buses, we're not very much fascinated by them.. except for our trips in Baguio, Sagada, and Bataan.

Yes, the adventure of being in a secluded beach and adding Tom Hanks and Wilson on that thought was pretty nice;  but I won't stress myself from trying to prepare our own food from the scratch and be all so helpless about putting up our tent.  I'll just leave that to those experienced campers.  We have a long way to go.

The road trip was just short, but I guess it depends on what time you leave Manila.  We left at 6am and it took at least 3 - 4 hours and the boat ride took about 30 minutes.  But actually we're late, the call time was at 5am and we arrived at around 6am, but there's another group who call themselves "diva",.. we picked them up in their house!  I really want to call them bitches, but never mind.  So I think it was about 7am when we finally hit the road.  It's really advisable though to leave earlier because the traffic gets worse as you get older.

And then the incident of sort of getting lost happened.  The driver took the wrong turn, apparently he's new.. I'm not making this up, I'm relying on my memory, trust me.  One of the tour guides and the driver were kind of arguing, that he should have turned to this street instead, until finally the driver decided to ask for direction.  I think those were the roads of San Antonio (I googled it).  But if you take the bus from Manila to San Antonio, Zambales, you can just take a tricycle to Pundaquit, or you could hire a jeep if you're a big group and don't want to be separated from each other.

There were 3 groups in the van I think; the fine ladies, the other group, and us.. we were 12 or 13 in a 14-seater van.  But I remember we're not in a very comfortable position.. they-saved-the-fine-seats-to-those-fuckers!  But we didn't share the same van with them when we went home, and we're quite few in the van.. our bags did also enjoy their seats.  They joined the other groups in the other van and we're happy for them.  I heard they were like sardines in MRT.

The battle of groups started in climbing that hill.. I just realized though it's called South Cliff.  But did you know that there's another way of going to Anawangin Cove? --thru Mt. Pundaquit, which could only take about 5 hours.. of trekking.

There was a stopover when climbing South Cliff "the hill" (I apologize if I just jump over my thoughts and write about them).. but after that, those guys in the picture decided not to finish climbing.  It's just a few steps away girls! but more difficult, plus it's really hot, and that some of us almost went down the beach in an instant.  And going down was quite difficult as well.

Anawangin Cove, Zambales

The food was nice; there was adobo, pinakbet, barbecue, sinigang na baboy, itlog na maalat na may kamatis, talong.. nothing fancy, but they all taste good.  They served 4 complete meals; lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch for the second day.  They also brought alcohol, but we didn't see it.. nothing was being offered.  But that was fine, we brought ours.  What's funny about their itinerary though is "social" and "sunset & shotglass" before "dinner".  Maybe that's why we missed it.  That could have been one tasty drink.

Anawangin Cove, Zambales

We roasted marshmallows on a stick and put them on grahams, that was quite fun.. and yeah, also the first.  I know, this should be on the "first is always special" post.

There were decent bathrooms and toilets in Anawangin but were very far from where our tents were located.  There's no electricity, though we have flashlights, but it was still kinda difficult and a bit scary when you need to pee.  So we didn't finish what we brought because it's quite a hassle when you pee every 5 min.  There were stories that there were ghost appearances in Anawangin, but we didn't see anything, and surely we don't want to.. we're not interested.  But I was only told about this ghost stories when I told my then office mates that I went there.  They said their friends did see some.  Thankfully we didn't go with her friend.

I can't recall how long I slept because I remember I wasn't able to sleep even if I was very tired.  I think I was still a bit excited, like I can't believe I was there.  But the next morning, a kind of horror happened.  I drooled.. up to my hair.  I can smell it.  I don't know if they noticed or smelled it, because that's something I don't want anyone to see.  The toilets were packed, and my bladder's about to burst.  I had no other option, mother nature, come rescue meeeee.  And it wasn't only me, I think two of us needed to, and so we just stayed in the water for what appeared to be an early swim.

After breakfast, we went to Capones Island.  The beach there is different from Anawangin, it's quite rocky, and the trek to the light house starts with a very rocky road.. sounds cool, but it's hot.

Anawangin Cove, Zambales

Anawangin Cove, Zambales

Anawangin Cove, Zambales

After lunch, we counted how long we're going to spend on the beach before packing; 2 hours.  So that's just enough more tan to add.. besides, we're there for the sun.