Nagsasa Cove and Anawangin: In a relationship in Zambales

I was pretty excited, this trip was a first, and the first after a looong vacation from my gypsy mode kind of life. January, my boy friend and I decided it was really time for a real roadtrip. No private car, no hotel accommodation and no airports. I haven’t tried travelling with someone you are involved with. I always travel with friends, family or work colleagues. I once went out of town with someone I was dating, many moons ago, though it was by land, I felt I was travelling first class while I sit on the passenger side of his X5 BMW, reading the news paper channelling the first lady wearing my white linen pants, white shirt and checking my email on my laptop once in a while.

Now, officially in a relationship, happier than ever, huge back pack on my bag, I went to Makati to meet him where I saw my guy sitting inside SM department store with his mountaineer look. If I think my backpack was huge...his was enormous. We went downstairs to the food court to have dinner before catching the 11pm bus ride. After shopping for some snacks Dy and I took a cab from Makati to Pasay Victory Liner bus terminal.
The place was crowded with people going home, travellers, tourists, and vendors. Dy and I settled in one area and waited for almost 4 hours. We did everything to kill time, from whining about my work, to watching videos through my phone, eating “taho” as we alternate in yawning. The bus finally parked in front of us, he went and checked in his mini house (as what I call his enormous backpack) in the bus compartment and finally settled ourselves in our seats while Dy covered me up with his “malong”. I fell asleep right away and besides 11pm is way past my bed time. The swaying of the bus, I was awaken with our bus swaying through Olongapo City. It was pretty scary, I tried to sleep it off but I couldn’t so I woke up Dy, he tried to ignore me but the charm worked eventually.

We finally reached the town of San Antonio at 3:30am. A tricycle driver holding a cup of coffee greeted us if we are going to Pundaquit. The tricycle was fast but not a short ride. I could feel the morning mist hitting my face, I was quivering, I could feel Dy’s arms turning like chicken skin. It was soooo cold, three trench coats will do it.
We arrived at 10 minutes before 4am at Wild Rose Beach Resort. The resort advised us to only pay P50 for the ride, but we decided to just give P100 since it was so early he wouldn’t get any passenger at that time when he goes back to San Antonio. The place was like a house turned into a resort. I called up our contact person, and he woke up and opened the gate for us.
He directed us straight to our room where Dy and I crashed in immediately and fell asleep until 6am.

After breakfast of tocino and sunny side up egg, we went to meet our boatman who was also recommended by the resort. We paid 1,500 for the boat ride to Nagsasa and Anawangin Cove. We left at mid morning and the waves were still manageable.
Nagsasa Cove is an hour away from Pundaquit. We passed through Anawangin and saw campers on the island. Nagsasa is beautiful, we were greeted by the locals and stayed on one of the tables and chairs owned by Wild Rose Resort. Dy and I took a walk with my camera and tripod and walked around the beautiful cove of the island. As I’ve read through some bloggers, the place doesn’t look like your typical beach in the Philippines. The pine trees around the island stood out and I could smell that strong pine scent. After taking pictures, Dy and I went ahead to visit one of the falls near the island. Our guide, Lito, an aeta who lives in the island walked ahead of us, not really caring if we can keep up with him or not. But it was okay, Dy and I had fun while we pass through tall grasses, a stream with huge rocks and a lot of carabao poop. The falls was really small but really cold, Dy never dared to go down, while I did my best jumping style into the water (too bad Dy didn’t caught it in my camera).

After lunch we headed to Anawangin and were greeted by campers and mountaineers. We even saw a friend of ours, Adie who were on a trekking trip with other mountaineers. Originally, we planned to stay overnight at Anawangin, we had our tent and that’s about it, lacking from other things we decided that we will just do our camping some other time.

We left Anawangin Cove in the afternoon. We braced ourselves to a roller coaster ride back to Pundaquit as we hold on to each other and praying we make it in one piece. Several times it felt like we were about to tip over, I was pretty nervous about the ride and thankful that Liv wasn’t there cause it might scare him and not ride a banca for the rest of his life. The waves were big and strong, it was making our trip longer than it should take. Finally almost near the shore, a group of local people helped us to safety by pulling our banca. It’s a warm feeling that I was there to witness that people still help one another. My Gratitude Highlight of the trip. It didn’t matter if Dy and I were soaking wet when we finally reached Pundaquit, we were safe.
The next day, we went strolling down the beach. It was windy, drizzling and dark clouds were covering the islands. As early as 7am the waves were crashing and forming foams on our feet. We took pictures of surfers and watched them enjoying their rides. It looked like the day will be rainy, we just hoped that the campers and everyone there will be safe all throughout their trip. For me, it was still a great day, to be able to experience that trip with Dy. Our first roadtrip was a success and of course, romantic, we couldn’t wait to plan another one soon.
We got home the same day, my ever loving Dy took me home, I was feeling sick and really tired (that very moment, I was soooo thankful I have my boyfriend to take me home). Zambales is another trip we are sure to come back. I will have Lorenzo with me (and his life jacket) and definitely we will stay in Nagsasa Cove for a night.