Travel Journal 14-002: Cagbalete Island

Cagbalete Island: Braving the waves of the Quezon!
 
I was riding on on my usual morning travel to the office when I received an SMS from my girl's workmate, asking if I'm interested to join their planned Quezon travel. Hmmm that's quite interesting, but I dunno yet my girl's decision on this as she was already catching her dreams after her usual night shift in a BPO company. I responded with a safe answer saying " I will go if she will go :)".  Then, it's a usual day.

Soon, I received a message from my girl saying she already booked ourselves to the Quezon trip. The information given to me were limited and I only knew when and how long we will be going, but it's good enough to give me excitement as I know I'll be hitting the road again soon. However, the itinerary bothered me as I have to be at the Asia's largest mall by 5am on the scheduled date. Knowing that, my girl suggested if I can ask her workmate who resides near the mall to let me sleep on his boarding house for some hours, but it seems that my usual heavy workload saved me. So, it has a positive side after all :p

It was already two days before our scheduled when my teammates have agreed to have an overnight work due to our backlogs created by system change, upgrades and modifications as a result of legal split up of my company. I was already confused on how I will strategize my trip, when sudden changes made a favorable situation. We will have an overnight work at Friday, the day before our trip.

Friday came, the overnight work was tiring but quite fun, as while working, we entertain ourselves with stories that turned us laughing all night. Then time has come to go. I was already bit tired as I leave the office, but since I learned that our trip includes Cagbalete island, my excitement have beaten the stress.

As I met my thoughtful girl who brought me a breakfast(oohh sweet ^^), I hasten to the changing room and get me a more comfortable clothes. Then we left fast! Cagbalete, here we come!!  The team are all energetic, our service van is full of noise until we got to Sto. Tomas. They are fast asleep, I was not! Oh oh, I can see the future.

It has no traffic in general that made our trip better, but what made our organizer worried was not the traffic jam, but the waves going to the Cagbalete island as informed to her by her relatives. Imagining the waves that I faced back in my Anawangin Cove con Capones Island trip gave me a chill knowing that my girl is with me. But worry not, as she said to as that we will assess once we arrived, if it's feasible or not before continuing.

Touched down! We reached the Mauban. We stopped by a local store to try one of the Quezon Province's pride, the "Pansit Hab-hab". Hmmmm tastes good! Team were not just enslaved by the taste of the latter, but also amazed by the skill of the store owner that just flips everything from serving to wrapping. Then, we continued our journey.

Not too far, we reached our destination, our organizers home place, within less an hour. We settled down a bit and walk by the bay. Wohooo!! The waves aren't too friendly, though it's nothing compared to my Anawangin experience.  Manageable, I think. But, the first timers are too frightened as the waves looks like swallowing a boat not far from the bay. Let's see....

We headed back to the place of our organizer to take our lunch. It was a sumptuous meal, so forget the diet(though I never been into it haha), and say "harabira!!". What comes after a nice meal? Ofcourse, it's the "baboy syndrome"s 2nd stage, sleeping time!hihi. We took a nap and hoped that the waves will get a little bit friendly afterwards. Yeah, it never happened! But, worry not, as I believe the travel won't be that dangerous though expect a bumpy ride.

Time to leave for the Cagbalete island. We packed our things on a large plastic bag and take tricycles. Then, a symbol of blessings, lots of it, came from the sky. It's raining hard! Wohooo!! I'm already chilling as we reached the mini port. Good thing, the rain stopped before we took our boat. It's already bumpy right from the start and it can make you drowsed if you're not used to it. Then, the boat left the mini port.

At first, the waves made us feel like we are in a see-saw. The view were nice, but I can't bring out my cam to take a shot as every high waves causes a splash that can wet almost everybody!(It's a saltwater, I won't take a risk even my water-resistant-phone). Then, we reached the middle of our destination, where the boat begins to dance. I thought my girl will be afraid, but it's the opposite, she's enjoying. WT! haha. What made me worried is when I felt that the long chair we are sitting rocks sidewards. I was too worried that either one the girls sitting at the side of the chair can get thrown outside and others can get a painful hit by something in the boat, if the chair totally collapsed. Good thing, we passed the great waves, and the Cagbalete island started to slowly emerge in our front. Soon, we're almost at the shore. The boat stopped despite it's still too far from the shore, it can't dock, the beach is too shallow. One of the boat jumped at the water and swam to the anchored flat boat. He pulled it closer while walking in a chest-deep-water. We then, transferred to the latter which brought us closer to the island.
 
At the island, we took our snack, "pansit" again? Haha. Then, our usual syndrome attacks, sleeping time!
Then, most of us got up when it's about dinner, you guys really act like your syndrome haha. Unfortunately, this time, my stress struck me. I was not feeling well as I head to the table and take the dinner.

I headed back to the room fast after taking the dinner and brushing my teeth. My worried girl, laid beside me and has slept before. Hey, who's sick? lol. Then, we missed the whole night of fun.

Morning came, and I'm fully recharged! The sun hasn't spread his mighty rays yet when we got up. I took the opportunity to take shots before the lights came up. Then, it's sunrise! We headed to the middle of the sands of the dried sea caused by low tide and took some pictures. Then, head back for breakfast.

After breakfast is a free time. Lots of us took the opportunity to take a dip. We then, take our lunch and pictorials haha, before going back to the organizer's place. The waves were still not too friendly, but the boat can barely feel it as we are heading towards the same directions as the waves.

We took our clean up in the organizer's place before heading home.

BUDGET CHECK:

Sorry unable to provide much cheaper and detailed, as we placed our contribution at around Php 2,300.00 including transportation to and from Pasay, Resort entrance, Lunch, pm snack and dinner for the first day, breakfast, am snack, lunch and pm snack in the 2nd day, cottage, all fees, boat fare, etc.