There's Danger Ahead - Anawangin

HELP! I'm drowning!

I heard someone say that as I was swimming to shore. From the corner of my eye, I saw two figures struggling to keep themselves afloat. At first I thought it was a joke. But, when the scream came again, I knew it was for real. Suddenly, I realized that the two people were our companions who were just a few meters from the shore where my family was. I tried to swim to them to help but realized I wasn't in a good shape to help and might even cause more trouble if I go nearer. As my thoughts raced through my mind, it occurred to me that Ikee had brought her kickboard with her. "Dad, the kickboard!" I shouted to my husband who immediately acted on what I told him to do although I also asked him to not go too near lest both of them drown. I kept telling the girls to swim toward shore but they were getting weak from struggling and shouting. When I reached shore, I was exhausted and felt my heart beating so fast that I thought I was going to faint myself. It was too scary. Anyway, to cut the story short, the girls got to land safely. We returned to the camp and told our story to the others. It turned out that there was another similar incident that happened that day.

After we had come back from Anawangin, Boyet and I found other stories on the net of people who either died or almost drowned. According to one person, there had been about 6 or 7 deaths over a period of two months. Some say it was the strong waves of the China sea that got so high and so strong at times that engulfed the swimmers. Or, it must have been the strong undercurrent that seemed to pull anyone out into the sea. Or it could also be the sea floor which suddenly becomes deep and entraps the unknowing beachgoer. On both sides of the cove were high stone formations and some mounds of rocks that perhaps had been fallen off the mountain. Anyone could easily be smashed into those by the waves. The fact that Anawangin is a cove and can be reached either by trekking a for 4 to 7 hours depending on the person's skill or by taking a 40 minute ride makes it almost inaccessible to any health or medical facility. What makes it even worse is even if you get to the nearest town which is Pundaquit, it still is a 30-minute bumpy ride by tricycle. Anyone who drowns has only a few minutes to survive. Thus, it would take a miracle to get anyone from danger should something happen.

Nature has its way of preserving itself and I do believe there are beautiful things and places that are best left alone. Anawangin is a good example. During the pre-departure orientation with our trip organizers, we were told that we shouldn't go far from shore because there had been a number of deaths that occurred in the area. But those girls were not even 50 meters away from the beach. Apparently, there is a deep part in the middle of the shallow waters. It caught the girls by surprise because I was even farther from shore than they were and it was just waist deep where I was.

I love Anawangin and I would love to go back to the place. But I love my family and their safety is more important than anything else. So, I guess, it will be a long, long while before we ever go back there. After the incident and after reading the stories, we might not even consider going.

An Outdoor Adventure At Anawangin, Zambales

We're back from Anawangin. It's been a really tiresome and draining trip. But it was worth it. Anwangin is just as it has been described on the net... the water is pristine, the place is enchanting and appears peaceful but has some dreadful secrets at the same time.

Our trip started from the McDonald's Eastwood where we met with our trip organizers. There were about 40 or 50 persons in our group so I could imagine that herding all those was a challenge. We left the place at 12:45, 45 minutes later than scheduled. But that's the advantage of meeting at Eastwood - you can go around the place so you don't get bored.



It took about 4 hours to get to Pundaquit beach where the boats we were to take were docked. Dhang, our organizer, had pre-arranged for the boatmen to meet us. The man assigned to us was Mang Amando who is maybe in his late 50's, a Cebuano, I was told. He brought us from Anawangin to Capones Island too. But I'll tell you about it later.

Mang Amando's boat, named Leonel, is a small and sits 4 people. If you don't mind not breathing well for a whole 40 minutes, you can squeeze 6 people in. Although it had rained the day before, the sea was rather calm and the weather was fine when we got to our destination. A beautiful fir-lined beach wowed us there. It was just 6 am and there were about 4 tents pitched already. It seemed like they had been there the night before.



We were all hungry already when we arrived. However, my family and I took our nap in our tent because I didn't want them to go for a swim without having breakfast yet. The meal was served at about 10 am. It was late but the food was good. After breakfast, we changed clothes and went for a swim at the river at the back of our campsite. The water was clear, got murky when we walked but quickly became clear again a few seconds after.

- continued on Part 2

Heard of Anawangin?

Have you heard of Anawangin? I have. Its a campsite in Zambales on a beach with a campsite. From the pictures in the internet, it looks like a really nice place. Anwyay, we're going there to stay on May 24 to 25. here's our IT:

Day 1 (May 24)
12:00mn Assembly @ mcdo eastwood
1:00am ETD San Antonio, Zambales
4:00am ETA Brgy. Pundakit
5:00am ETD Anawangin Beach
6:00am ETA Anawangin Beach
Free time
12:00nn Lunch
1-5pm Free time
6:00pm Dinner
8:00pm Socials

Day 2 (May 25)
5:00am Wake-up Call
5:30am ETD Capones Island
6:00am ETA Capones Island
7:00am ETD Anawangin Beach
7:30am ETA Anawangin Beach, Breakfast
9:00am ETD Brgy. Pundakit
10:00am ETA Brgy. Pundakit
Shower
12:00nn Lunch
3:00pm ETD Manila
7:00pm ETA Manila
8:00pm Home Sweet Home

Cost:
Min. 15 person Php2,000
Inclusive of: All Transportation (VICE-VERSA), 5 meal
(Sat breakfast - Sun Lunch), Camping Fee, Capones
Trip, Tent.

For those of you who'd like to join, let me know. I'll refer you to our organizer. I'll post pictures here after the trip.

A trip to La Mesa Ecopark

Several negative things have been written about Metromanila - pollution, traffic, garbage concerns, bombings, etc. Well, despite all these, something good has happened in Metromanila - the La Mesa Nature Reserve and Ecopark.

I had recently been to Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and had been so envious about how it has so far been maintained and kept clean despite the fact that it has become one of the major tourist attractions in the Philippines. Mayor Hagedorn has his right foot on the accelerator and the people has responded well to him.

During my younger years, mom had brought me and my siblings to the La Mesa dam. It has not since been maintained well and reports were that the watershed had continually regressed. but, like the forests of Palawan, the watershed had been reforested and restored to more than how I remember it to be. Now there are plenty of tall trees, the grass is greener, there's a proliferation of different animals including butterflies which you rarely see in manila these days, camping ground, swimming pool, and other recreational facilities.

We had a visit at the La Mesa Watershed today. I had previously watched advertisements and shows where the dam had been featured and to my surprise and satisfaction, the dam is more than what has been publicized about it. Bantay Kalikasan must have really done a lot to restore the place. I take my hat off to them. But somehow they should also be able to really reach out to the people in terms of really educating them during their visits. It's a pity to see how some people take their time, money, effort and other resources to build and help something that takes practically years(!!!) to accomplish while yet others who are mere bystanders try to watch what the poor guys do and even contribute to the detriment of the activity. I refer to the trash in La Mesa. Sure there are numerous (and I mean numerous!) garbage bins that are even color coded for the segregation of trash. There's even a fine on littering. But do the people use them? Some do while others - many of them - don't. It is a good thing that the bantay kalikasan has stationed some volunteers/employees to watch over the place.

Perhaps a better option is to have some volunteers give an orientation of the place, how it was before and how it is and should be. The place must be protected and the environmentalists (I consider myself as one) should enjoin everyone especially the guests who go to La Mesa to contribute at least by trying to promote the park and maintain the place as they had found it. I'm sure even the boy scouts and girl scouts would be able to do this. Perhaps the DepEd (and CHED perhaps) should require that the protection of La Mesa be part of the curriculum? How can we contribute to the cause? Can we attain the same success as the people of Palawan? I wonder...

A Camp Out at Laiya Coco Grove: Day 2

It was hard for me to sleep last night. First, because I was not feeling so secure about sleeping by the shore. Next, because the sand was not flat and there were bumps on where I was sleeping on. Another thing is that the people singing did not stop until it was about 2 or 3 am. But as I told my companions about this, Me-an commented that I had actually snored slept soundly when she heard me. To their credit though, Laiya has its guards roaming the place every so often that it was a shame that I still did not feel safe.

I was up at 6:45 am and prepared breakfast. I boiled some water over my "burner" and made some serena starbucks coffee (it was soooo good to drink it there!) using the portable coffee maker. Breakfast included the French bread and some liver spread, hazel nut spread, soy milk and buko (young coconuts) which we had ordered from the resort harvested that same morning. Later on we decided to do some snorkeling and hired a boat to go to the snorkeling area. It cost us 800 pesos for 1 hour but we had a grand time. Me-an who originally didn't want to swim, joined us and held on to the "katig" of the boat while snorkelling.

It was Ikee's first time to really snorkel. While in Palawan, she tried it once but was too scared so she opted to stay in the boat. This time, with her dad and myself, she swam and snorkelled and really enjoyed it. The water was cool and clear. We first fed the fish while we were on the boat and then fed them again when we were on the water. Boyet held a piece of bread close to his mouth and ikee said she saw the fish swarm near him and had passed by her mask so close that she felt comically frightened by it. The area we were at had corals. We were told it was about 10 feet deep but it didn't seem like it because the corals were so high that we could reach them with our feet. It's a wonder that the fish are still there since the corals we saw had been damaged.

The fishing gears that I asked the boatmen to bring were prepared when I went up the boat so I tried my hand at it. My first catch was a grouper but it was so small that I had to let it go. The buko that I ordered at the resort were brought with us so we got to drink them while we were there. I had seen the boatmen throw the husks in the water so I lectured them about keeping the sea clean so that the marine life would thrive and they'd ultimately have continuous income from it. Not sure if that sinked in though. Perhaps next time I should be armed with some pictures and stuff like those for teaching aide.

We had our last meal at the beach again. This time I had asked one of the staff to buy pork and some other veggies for us to cook over the grill. As we didn't consume all of the buko that I ordered earlier, these were added to our salad (to become an instant buko salad which, mind you, was a great hit. You have to check my janecajuguiran.blogspot.com for the recipe). The coconut water was used in place of drinking water, since we had but a few more hours to stay anyway, and to rinse off the pork. That my friends was one of the most sumptuous meals we have ever had. Sand flavored of course (everything fell on the sand even before they went over the coals. hehehe) Then it was time for us to leave.

On our way home, we stopped by at a Colettes' store near the SLEX. It was almost 7:30 and we were still at the SLEX so I suggested we stop for dinner at the bonjour - a gasoline station and complex. We ate at the Grace and Rose Restaurant (or was it Rose and Grace?) where we had some bulalo. It was ok but not as good as I had imagined it to be. Anyway, this complex had some other establishments. One of them is the Seattle's Best. They also have a chowking store and we did want to get some halo-halo but were too stuffed that we decided to go home. Would we go back to Laiya? Of course!

A Camp out at Laiya Coco Grove

We've always wanted to go camping. The time we went to the La Mesa Ecopark we were determined to camp out there. But they have this policy of having a minimum10 paying campers to a group to hold one. There are only three members in my family - myself, my husband and my daughter - and we could hardly find 3 other persons to go camping with us. Also, our car is only a sedan and could accomodate only 2 more persons aside from the family because when going camping we'd need to bring our own stuff and would necessarily require a lot of space in the car. In other words, disappointingly, we were not able to camp in La Mesa - yet. But the choice of a place to camp was only one of the factors that were being considered. The determination to go through the activity weighed heavier than all other factors. So, we did camp. Not in La Mesa, though, but in the picnic area of the Laiya Coco Grove.

I found the website of Coco Grove while searching for a campsite. Desperate to find a place to pitch our tent and do some barbecue, I called several resorts to try to check if they could accomodate us. Coco grove was the only one available and I had to grab the opportunity. So, ater two days, we were on our way to our camp out.

The trip was tiresome. We left the house at 9 am and reached the place at 2:30 pm on April 22, 2006. This travel time was a surprise to us since we knew that Laiya is just in Batangas and that it said that the travel time was 2.5 hrs plus in their website. It turned out that the plus meant 2.5 hours more. hehehe To their credit though, the road to the resort is very good having passed two highways (the South Luzon Expressway and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road). Except for a mere 1 km of rough road, the Batangas stretch is well paved and properly maintained.

Coco Grove is divided into 3 sections - the main resort, the picnic area and the white beach. Although all three places had beachfronts, the white beach had the best shoreline. It was disappointing at first because I thought that if we checked in at the white beach, we'd have access to all three. It was when we got there that I learned that only when you check in at the main resort would you be able to go to the other beaches. But this would cost us 2,100 pesos each and we didn't expect to spend that much. Besides, we were set to camp out and not to stay there in luxury. Although I had a reservation for the white beach, we settled for the picnic area which incidentally is the cheapest - only cost us 330 per person while it costs 650 pesos to stay in the white beach. The Picnic area served our purpose. It had some trees along the coast which had a shady area beneath it where we pitched our tent. We didn't want to spend so much so we opted to use the tent we brought. There's an additional 330 pesos to rent a tent. Besides, that's part of the thrill of the experience anyway.

Getting there was the first challenge. The next was our stomachs. We were all starving as we did not get any lunch along the way. There was a buffet in the main resort but it costs 300 pesos per person. There were five of us (my mother in law and cousin in law were with us) and that would make an additional 1,500 pesos to our expense on just one meal! Luckily and with some charm, I managed to ask from the staff where to get food. So another discovery was made - there is a small marketplace by the beach about 5 minutes away from the resort and there's even an water refilling station and a convenience store just about 50 meters outside the gate. So, off we went to get some chow while my daughter, Nanay and Me An stayed behind to have the tent pitched. It was funny at first when were trying to figure out how to get the food. Ikee volunteered to stay and pitch the tent and was boasting that she really knew how. Of course, I did not want her to stay. Hey, what can I say? I'm her mother! I wanted her by my side all the time. hehehe But with a ton of persuasion from her dad and Ikee herself, I agreed under one condition - that she'd keep her mobile phone within hearing range. There was no way I'd let anything wrong happen to her.

So, off we trotted to the market. nah, actualy we rode the car. We found several things to eat at the marketplace (it's called "talipapa"). There were some stalls where raw (not necessarily fresh but raw just the same) seafood, meat and vegetables were sold. There were also some stores that sold cooked food. While choosing a dish from one store, Boyet noticed a vendor selling some ginataan hipon (shrimp in coconut milk) and other viand cooked in coconut milk (ginataan). We bought some of those too and amazingly spent only 165 pesos for our first main meal which consisted of ginataan hipon, ginataan isda (fish), laing (yam leaves in coco milk), chicken afritada and 5 servings of rice. We also had some raw mangoes for appetizer and some ambrosia salad for dessert. Not bad for an overdue lunch eh? We "devoured" our meal like hungry lions! Perhaps piranhas would be a better comparison.

Ikee and Boyet managed to spend some time in the water. But I didn't. It was time to rest. We spread our mat on the sand and laid down by the shore. Ah... what a life. The a warm breeze caressing your skin, the sound of the waves on your ear, the smell of... naaah... it was time to cook dinner! We didn't have a lamp so we could only rely on the sunlight and our trusty flashlights. We were not that prepared for a camp out because that was technically our first. The first time we tried, it had rained and we had to sleep in the lobby of the multi-purpose hall of th ayala greenfield subdivision. So, armed with just some charcoal, handy grill bar, newspaper and a match that I had bought from the talipapa, I started to cook dinner. I had built a 3-burner cooking stove, mind you, with the rocks I found around. Talk about being a girl scout. Ikee tried to help so I let her. She fanned the charcoal till the ember spread out. It was a grilled lambchops and chicken dinner for us along with some charbroiled mussels and some broiled sweet peppers and tomatoes - sand flavored! Some pieces had fallen off the grill and I just rinsed them a bit and put them right back on to the grill. That's part of the thrill, isn't it? hehehe

Of course, we can't do away with dessert. Boyet and Ikee went on an errand to fetch some drinking water. they were giggling when they came back. I knew right there that they had bought some ice cream. Ikee was surprised at how I knew. I merely shrugged my shoulders and laughed.

After dinner, Boyet and Ikee started the bonfire while I went with nanay and Me an who were assigned to do the dishes. We had been hearing other guests at the karaoke and I had asked both Me an and Ikee to go with me so we could belt out some tunes. Ikee was willing to go on the condition that she would not be asked to sing because she had some allergic cough and might lose her voice. When we got there however, we were told that they had rented the machine for the whole day! which explains why they had been there forever. Soon after, it was time to call it a night. And the Sandman cometh.