Ever tried beach camping.... Survivor style?

Since it was a long weekend last week, we planned to go to Hundred Islands. We've been planning to go since two long weekends ago but something always kept us from going. So we headed off at 5 in the morning, this is actually our fist overnight trip that we actually didn't have any plan at all. By plan I mean we don't have a reserved hotel, no idea what's in store and most shockingly Gio only looked at the instructions to get there the night before the trip. This is a first and it was actually a risk because what if most people went on vacation and all hotels within the area are booked? We would've wasted 8 hours of driving for nothing. But luckily, there were not so many people and no traffic at all! I guess everybody went for holiday shopping.

And so when we got there, we got scared for a moment because we saw the beach area and there was no hotel or any resort in plain view! We went ahead and asked around and we were pointed at the Tourism reception area. It was there that we found out that you can actually spend the night at the island!

We've never really done anything like this (at least for the both of us). His sister (Faye) and boyfriend (Ave) had at least been through something like this but not the two of us! So you can pretty much imagine the smile on our faces.

So we rented tents, water supply, cooler, blankets, pillows, etc. We bought packed foods for lunch, snack and dinner at the nearby food store (carinderia). Our breakfast will be delivered the next morning via our boat. Once all is set, we headed for the docking area and immediately hopped on the boat. We rented the boat for the day – it will tour us around the 100+ islands before we get dropped off at our choice of island.

This was a picture of me having a hard time hoppin on the boat Hehehe. And below is our picture.

Our first stop was at an island called Governors island. There was a small dark cave there (pic below) and fantastic view of the small islands around at the top (which will require 125 steps to reach). We were panting and can hardly breathe when we reached the top but the view was worth it.

At the cave...

View from the top of Governors Island...

Then we headed off to Quezon Island – this is the island where we were suppose to stay at and built our tents. This is the most crowded island we saw and there were actually cottages and stores around the island but when we saw the island just in front of the island, we were attracted to it because it was just small and there was only one group of people who’s staying there. We decided that’s where we’ll spend the night.

This was the walkway to the huge clams area (that by the way, I couldn’t see!).

After Quezon Island, we decided to go eat our lunch and snorkel. We had lunch at the boat when we got to the snorkeling area (this was a first too!). When we went down to look for corals and fishes, we were disappointed at first because we couldn’t see any near our boat. But Gio and Ave persisted – it was very far from where our boat docked! We were tired from swimming when we got there but it immediately subsided when we saw the fishes and the corals. It was beautiful swimming along with those fishes although sometimes scared that the medium sized fish might bite (LOL).

We stayed there for more or less two hours and then went ahead with the tour. It was close to 2PM and the sun’s heat was burning our skin so we decided to stay at the Marcos Island where there is a shaded area where the waves hit the rocks.

See the waves behind us? The sound of it hitting the rocks is simply beautiful and calming. We ate our merienda here and after another two hours we headed off to the island where we’ll spend the night.

Setting up the tent… I’ve no idea how it’s setup so I let the experienced folks do it. Heehee…

Tent all setup…

This was taken at around 7pm already… I’m all made up and ready for bed oh tent I mean. And by made up I mean I’ve cleaned my face, private areas and am wearing dry clothes. No bathroom!!! We just go to the darkest covered area of the island and change clothes and clean up there. It was extraordinary and fun!

We also took videos of the island and Gio actually had a lot of shots pretending he was Jeff (Survivor host), one of the castaways – where he discusses who he wants eliminated at the tribal council tonight, etc. It was hilarious!!!

After dinner, we just sort of lie at the sand and watched the gazillion stars and the huge moon while listening to the ipod music – we always bring our small speakers. It was so peaceful… I was actually telling Gio it was so nice to hear the waves just crash the shore. I often just hear this from Spa treatment areas! Haha. But now that it’s real, it’s really relaxing and I was content and happy.

And then the survivor experience began…

We tucked in the tent at around 9pm – I guess we were tired after all. And aren’t we glad we slept early?!?! We were because at around 4am, it started to rain! But it was only light showers of rain but I didn’t realize the calming waves can actually become scary when it’s raining and you don’t see it! We were so scared the waves might hit our tents but when we checked it was still 2-3 meters away. But the light showers wouldn’t stop and our rented tents are not that sturdy and water proof! So Gio and Ave went out to look for a covered area where we can keep our things dry. At that point, I got scared that the boat might not be able to pick us up later because of the tides ,that we might got stuck there for however long without food! Of course I can’t forget food! Hehe…

But gladly, the showers stopped at around 6am and when we saw the rays of sun peeking through the clouds, it was priceless. The surge of happiness and calmness in that island can’t be surpassed. I just fell in love with it.

We swam the early hours of the day and our breakfast was delivered at around 830 and immediately after breakfast, we headed off to go home…

This vacation was superb! It gave me mixed feelings (happy, relaxed, content, peace, calm, scared, worried, hungry, etc) in just 24 hours! I guess that’s the reason why some survivors go back. With that, I believe this will be the first of our many more trips here.

Lots of new pics for me to scrap!

Cheers!
Cathy