That tiny island called Potipot..
It was a memorable experience to be cast-away and to be amazed by a little tiny island in the Philippines which is known to have 7,100+ islands. Used to have celebrated holidays in resorts and swimming pools, we then decided to try something new and to challenge ourselves to experience what it has to live in an island.
Potipot Island is well known to beach campers around Luzon and has established its name as laid back, far from city and has beautiful sand and water.
Although there are other islands to choose from, we decided to pick this island over hundred of islands in the area of Zambales and Pangasinan. Since this area is already kind of a touristy place, it has been nearly developed to have electricity (powered from batteries), fresh water from deep wells and a couple of cottages and rooms.
Potipot Island is located in the town of Candelaria in Zambales.
We started our holiday on October 3, 2014. Most of my friends were staying in the metro so we decided to meet up at Robinsons Pioneer. We started our travel soon as we finished our breakfast at McDonalds. Total travel time from manila to Subic took us 3 hours, we had a short stopover in a gasoline station then proceed for another 2 hours to reach Candelaria town proper to buy our foods and stuffs to bring in the island. Since there are no stores in the island, we made sure that we bought all the things that we need. Potipot Island is 5 mins away from Dawal Beach resort. We chartered only 1 boat, thus half of our group went there first and the other half needed to wait for the boat to come back.
The ride was not bumpy or scary since the tides at that time is not that huge though there are news that a certain typhoon was hammering the northern part of Luzon. Overlooking the small island from the boat was overwhelming, you can see the both end of the island and how beautiful it is. My friend Arthur still can't stop taking his super selfies from his super beloved stick.
They said that these sands are comparable to that of Boracay and other beaches, but since I haven't yet to discover those places, I can't really say. All I can say is that this is better than beaches in Malaysia.
After tiring and exhausting ourselves playing that ultimate frisbee, we took a quick time to rest then prepare our dinner meals. All of us are assigned to do some chores so we can finished preparing and cooking the meals soon then we can have our dinner right away. While the ladies are cooking Sinigang and the rice, I am preparing and lighting the charcoals for the Grilled Liempo and Tilapia. Just before we start our dinner, one unfortunate thing happened. It rained hard during that time then we realized that there was really a typhoon in the nearby area. Good thing was there are some couple of cottages that can accommodate us and the care taker of the island gave us a battery so we can have light on the cottage. I can't remember how much we paid him for the battery for one night. After calming ourselves because of the rain, we sat down inside the cottage and start our dinner. Even it was still raining that time, we still had a very happy moment when we are finishing our dinner, then followed with a liter of Emperador Light. We just had a lot of laughter when we tried to reminisce our college days, our kulitan days, those boyfriend-girlfriend on again-off again relationships. I hadn't seen these people for a year and we sure have a lot of things to talk about. :)
DAY 2
I actually planned to rise up early in the morning to catch the sunrise and try to take photos of it but then I woke up around 8am, but still, I was not the last person to wake up. :) The ladies again started to prepare our breakfast meals: Scrambled egg and hotdogs! After eating breakfast, we took a little rest then we found ourselves swimming in the beach again. Some of my friends opt not to swim again since the sun was already up there and maybe they didn't want to burn their skins out. We didn't realized that the time was running so fast that it was already 12pm and we have to prepare our lunch before we go back. Hazel cooked the Tinolang manok while we grilled the remaining pork liempo and the gigantic squid. After lunch, we fix our things out, fold our tents and we are already to pack-up. It was already 2pm when we call our boat operator and the rain was about to fall down again.
We left the island with a lot of smiles in our face with Arthur still taking pictures while in the boat. We were all exhausted that we all fell asleep on our ride back to Manila. We just had a short stopover in one of gas stations in NLEX to have our dinner. Some of us including myself were going back to Batangas while the others will just stay in their apartment in the metro. So I just told the driver to drop us in Cubao so we can catch a bus there going to Batangas.
It was a really fun experience to be secluded and away from the metro from time to time. It was really a needed break for all of us. Hazel got to introduced her new boyfriend. Gil in his new job. Neil and Ladee together. My travel buddies: mayor, Gracielle, Arthur and Jerome. Although there was a slight misfortune when it rained, it didn't prevent us for enjoying our night out there. Even before we head back to Manila, we were already planning and talking about what and where our next adventure will be. :)
