I heard about Calaguas Island back in 2009 from my friend, Marvin Tayo. Initially, he told me to keep this a secret so that not so much tourists could flock to this place.
During the past years, I tried planning to go here. I was told by some friends who already went to Calaguas that the trip would be inexpensive if there were many of us going there. 3 years after, it was only Marv and I with my college friends, Migs and Chi who decided to push through. Our trip was scheduled on May 5-6, 2012.
We researched about the place and found out that the island was about a 2-hour boatride from Vinzons and these boatrides usually cost from PhP 5,000 to PhP 10,000 because of the distance and because these are very big boats, created to withhold big strong waves. We were told that boatrides from Paracale would be cheaper because it is nearer to Calaguas. But in the end, since none of us was familiar with the place and there was only four of us, we decided to go on a packaged tour c/o Sir Melvic Brinas. This way, the cost of our trip will be fixed no matter what happens. Inclusions of the fee we paid for the packaged tour will be discussed at the end of this post.
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| Melvic Brinas' Tour Group |
Day 0
Friday
We were given instructions to go to Amihan Bus Terminal at 8:30PM since our bus will leave at 9PM. We will be meeting Migs there as Chi will be picked up at Shell Magallanes.
Migs was always known to be very very punctual. I think he was already there by 7:30PM while heavy traffic made us arrive there minutes before 8:30PM. The bus left around 9PM-ish. Bongga!
Day 1
Saturday
We were asleep during the whole bus ride. We arrived at Jollibee Daet at around 7AM and we were met by Melvic. Bus ride lasted for 10 hours. He gave us ballers which we needed to wear as this will serve as our identification tags that we were part of his group.
We had breakfast at Jollibee before we were told to take a van going to Vinzons port. We waited for a long time for others passengers of Boat D, where we were assigned. We left Vinzons finally around 9AM and since we were so tired we slept during the trip.
We reached Calaguas Island before 11AM and the only thing that we could say upon approaching the island was, "grabe ang puti ng buhangin!" Hahaha.
One thing I didn't like about Calaguas was the lack of shade. Sabi nga ni Chi, ipil-ipil nga ata ang mga puno dito. So ang liliit and then kelangan mag-share ang ilang tents sa iilang ipil-ipil haha.
It was so hot that we could not even go inside our tents to rest. Migs and Chi found shade underneath a coconut tree while Marv and I decided to cool off and swim.
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| Aryana! |
It was around 3:30 PM when Marv and I got tired swimming and decided to explore the island even if it was still so hot. Migs and Chi were finally up from their nap and were about to swim. And what do A&M do best? Edi pictorial hahaha!
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| Powdery white sand |
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| Rock formation at left side of the island |
You can see more of his amazing Calaguas shots here: http://projectmagellan.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/calaguas-islands/
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| Team Calaguas on top of the hill |
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| Hindi pwede mawala ang jumpshot! |
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| Team Calaguas chasing the sunset |
The day went by and soon it was dark. The group had our dinner. The tour package, by the way, is inclusive of buffet lunch, dinner, and next day's breakfast, snack, and lunch. I will not forget their very very spicy yet mouthwatering Bicol Express. I downed several glasses of softdrinks just to lessen the spice in my mouth hahaha.
Melvic Brinas also brings his mobile bar to Calaguas for his guest. What I like about this is that it was an open bar. We get unlimited cocktail drinks for free! Pero what I didn't like was the blaring party sounds. Most of the guests enjoyed dancing but siguro, this wasn't for us.
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| Emperador-based Coffee |
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| Flaming Blow Job |
Day 2
Sunday
I woke up at 5AM again to catch the sunrise. I waited at the shore while the three slept. Our guide told us that we could not see the sunrise from our place because it was being blocked by the mountains but I was persistent. Around 6AM, still no sunrise. I woke Marv, Migs, and Chi so we would still have time to have coffee and take photos of Calaguas while most were still sleeping, dahil mga lasing kagabi. Here are some of the photos:
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| This is my favorite pic in Calaguas. Great job, Marv! |
Around 11AM, our boats arrived as we had to go to Bagasbas beach to surf. This was also included in our tour package. The four of us had made a big mistake of climbing in Boat C. We did not know that we had to ride the same boat that took us to the island. So we had to go down. Unfortunately, we could no longer get our bags since these were already inside the boats "baggage area" (haha chos!) at natabunan na ng ibang bags.
Nakakahiya rin kasi nagpaparinig na ang ibang mga nakasakay na, "may mga hindi dapat nasa bangkang ito". So pwes kami yun, so bumaba na rin kami without our bags. Kung makaparinig naman sila hahahaha!
The travel from Calaguas back to Vinzons port took more than 3 hours because the river had dried up (lowtide ang dagat) and our boat was stuck to the seabed! When we got to Vinzons port, we were really really worried about our bags that we left sa Boat C. That boat was bigger, had more passengers, and is more prone to get stuck to the seabed. We were worried na ilang oras kami maghihintay bago namin ito makuha.
We also saw that the bags that other passengers in our boat got wet, we knew that our bags will obviously get wet too. So lungkut-lungkutan ang drama namin. After a few minutes, Boat C arrived and guess what, all our bags were dry!!!
Our misfortune was a blessing in disguise!!! Thank God!
We rode a van going to Bagasbas. We had our lunch at Surfer's Dine-Inn in Bagasbas. And this is what we looked like:
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| Lunch served in Surfer's Dine Inn in Bagasbas |
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| Wasted and hungry |
Rates of surf instructors and board rentals are listed at the end of this post as these are no longer included in the package. We all went surfing so no one was there to take our pictures hahaha bongga. Nakailan din akong mga tayo pero super pagod and sakit na ng katawan ko.
What's best about our surfing experience was Migs' 1st-time to surf. Initially, Chi told us that he was kinda nervous but at the end, I think he was the one who enjoyed the most. Yey!
All of these photos were from Migs since Marv didn't bring his camera:
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| A&M |
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| Ex daw niya si Luke Landrigan |
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| At ito ang pinalit niya ke Luke HAHAHAHA! |
Chi's friend recommended Catherine's restaurant in Bagasbas as well. It was owned by her friend's friend. So we decided to have dinner there. But we no longer had much time to eat as our bus was scheduled to leave at 8PM (we thought it was 9PM). These are some of the pictures:
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| Laing |
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| Kinunot |
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| Grilled Fish with Mango Salsa |
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| With Chi |
Contacts:
Melvic Brinas
09065144444
http://calaguasislandtour.weebly.com/
Packaged tour we availed was: (2D/1N) with RT Amihan Bus Ticket, Vinzons, Camarines Norte PhP 3,200 inclusive of food, tents, water, and all transpo
Surf instructor - PhP 200/hour
Board rental - PhP 200/hour
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