Pundaquit-Anawangin Escapade...

long weekend offered us a chance to go out and be together again in the great outdoor...

for a time, after some of our friends left for greener pastures, there were just the four of us left... camping, climbing, going to the beach and going "home" to marinduque.. until john left for japan.. then our outdoor life together stopped.. i went into mountaineering and kenneth and nyoy went back to being city slickers..

the long weekend however coupled with john coming home was a great recipe for some fun adventure..

OH WHERE OH WHERE...

it felt like a countdown to long weekend.. monday the guys started asking me where to? and i said.. all up to you.. where do you guys want to go? climb? beach? travel? bum around? and the answer was ALL OF THE ABOVE.. wow, a pretty tall order.. but i had no problem thinking of places to go on a long weekend..

and so i emailed all of them (including those guys working abroad!) ha! ha! ha! i can just imagine them pounding away on their computer keys, and out comes this email from me... CLIMB AND BEACH - LONG WEEKEND ESCAPADE.. sunshine, water, mountains... perfect perfect outing..

TAKE MY HAND.. WE'RE OFF TO NEVER NEVER LAND..

since the guys left it all up to me to make all the arrangements, (a first actually, usually i was just a happy camper following around).. i asked around from bajay and bojo about the pundaquit climb.. i wanted to make sure about the IT since we will be commuting.. this will also be my first time climbing pundaquit so i didn't want to make room for chance.

and so with the IT given by bojo and with some sound advice from bajay, i was ready... night before we left, i had to run with business partners in serendra with igue and jaime coaching... i had to buy groceries... and i had to get my tent from jeng's.. HECTIC! but i was in the groove.. kenneth helped me out with the groceries since they decided to pack and sleep in my house..

by 1am one of our friends came, took us out to eat and the guys proceeded to go somewhere while i was left in the house to repack the groceries.. ugh! by 2:30 nyoy and kenneth came back with a video of extreme mountain biking.. we spent some time watching it while packing.. and my house looked as if a tornado wrecked havoc to it.. we were left with one hour of sleep.. and like military school, i woke them up promptly at 4am! since all of us were excited about the outing, we were at the bus station promptly at quarter to five.. of course i didn't tell them the bus leaves at 5:20am i told them it leaves at 5! hah!

WE'RE HERE!!

finally we arrived at sam's resort in time for lunch and a little briefing from our guide manong bodji..
we made arrangements for some of our provisions to be taken to the beach the following day since we will be spending one night up in the mountain.

initially, i balked at the idea of spending one night in the mountain when the beach is so near.. but i thought about it, and i missed star gazing with these guys.. it has been a while since we last spent a night camping.. so i gave in.

since this was a fun climb in its truest form, we spent some time frolicking in the river and in the mini falls.. we were taking it slow since john hasn't climbed in over a year, except for mount fiji.

kuya bodji warned us though of wild carabaos roaming the land.. i filed it away at the back of my mind. though i had to laugh when he said that if we encountered one, we should run and look for the nearest tree... what the!! there were no trees that were climable in the area! it was a grassland..

THIS LAND IS OURS..

finally, we reached the summit.. and the camp area was small but enough for our two tents.. manong bodji left us after we have settled, and after our ohhhss and ahhhsss.. he must have found it comical watching city people in awe of this view.

he again warned us of the carabaos and pointed to us the general direction going down. i was confident enough in going down since we had with us john's GPS and both he and nyoy were sproting suunto watches.. while me, i rely on trail marks and trail signs.. so no worries..

we had the whole place to our own! we all enjoyed the view so much, it took us a while to finally set up camp.

as usual, we spent the night chatting away.. the guys cooked the meal, kenneth is our "rice cooker" cooks it perfectly everytime - even better that i ever can, which says a lot!.. while nyoy did all the rest.. and all i did was look on.. ahhh perfect time, perfect place!



we shared john's thermarest as our pillow and the four of us star gazed and talked about any and every topic we can think of... until i fell asleep.. nyoy later woke me up around 2am to transfer to the tent.. the one bottle tres cepas we brought along was enough since kenneth does not drink.

GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE! HELLO MR. CARABAO!!

we woke up around 7am and again we were awed by the view, especially me when i opened the vestibule and i saw before me Anawangin cove.. wow! how many people at that moment had the same exact view? only us four..

we weren't worried much about going down since we had john's GPS with us, which he already plotted.. (and to which i really do not have any idea how to read)so we went down a little past 8am... fun climb, slow breakfast, slow in breaking camp..

going down was hot but we had that river below where we soaked for more than 20 minutes. i finally urged my friends with the promise that the beach was something they should see right now!

so off we went... trekking through multiple trails that crisscrossed whichever way.. at one point in a single trail, nyoy went first suddenly he turned around, shouted.."ai! carabao!!!" i was immediately after him, he zipped right past me so fast i didn't know what happened!

an then i saw the hind part of the carabao... it was huge! bigger than anything i saw.. belatedly, i realized i was wearing my red adidas drifit shirt! uh-oh... i was rooted to the ground for about 2 seconds and then i ran back... i remembered manong telling us to look for a tree.. but there were none to be found!!! i couldn't climb a bamboo tree that is no bigger than a shrub! WTF!!!

and then sanity came back... i realized the carabao ran the other way... oooohhhh if only i had a camera at that time.. i would've photographed nyoy and the carabao, titling it "Ready...Set..Go!!!" both looked each other in the eye, realized there was an intruder and ran at opposite directions! funny... well at least now it was funny... but i lost my wits for about a few seconds there.. the four of us ran around in circles for a while.. looking like poor imitations of a slapstick grade B film..

MY TOES JUST TOUCHED THE WATER...

and then finally the beach... ahhhh glorious anawangin! my friends were amazed with what they saw.. and i was proud to have introduced them to this place. i know that they are the kind of people who will know how to take care of the environment.. no messy garbage, no vandalism..

the caretakers, kuya manny and his wife met us.. they were touched that even before we came, i asked permission and that i gave a message to our boatman that we will be arriving on the said date.. kuya manny was even more touched that someone remembers his name.. well, i have bajay to thank for that! :D

so both of them met us, gave us the best table and two benches while other campers had to contend with none.. :)sometimes the smallest courtesy can open so much possibilities.

HOURS MELTING

it rained that night but it did not matter... i had set up a parawing for us and we stayed there rain and wind and all.. eating the pasta i cooked, drinking our tequila, biting on our oranges and laughing our heads off..

as usual, i went into the water for a dip from time to time... nyoy had to set alarm on his watch just so i'll come out of the water..

morning after, we went around once more for a little exploring by the river.. we made a promise to come back to this place one of these days and just chill on the beach.. i asked them to be discreet on who to bring.. although this place has been known to a lot of people already, still i would rather not contribute to its popularity to people who would not know how to care. thus the pact was made, bring only those who know how to care... for which i am glad..


it is always bittersweet to leave such a special place behind.. but reality calls, work beckons and demands.. the real world soon intrudes on this piece of heaven that was found.. and it is time to go back..

but then again, you assure yourself... there is more to come!