Zambales Trilogy: Camara Islands, Capones Island, and Anawangin Cove

Yes, my boyfriend and I are losers this summer. We don’t (and can’t) have plans of going to the beach nor going to the water parks and resorts. We’re trying hard to be misers to be able to save money. *sigh* We can’t be in our wanderlust mode for like the next 3 summers. Hahaha! So now, we’re stuck reminiscing…

Last 21 March 2009, my boyfriend and I went to Zambales for a beach trip. There are a lot of people blogging about their experience at the Camara Islands, Capones Island, and Anawangin Cove. Morever, I wanted to see the Capones lighthouse because I really heart lighthouses!!! I find them fascinating and romantic. ♥♥♥ 

We joined a tour group since we’re not pretty familiar on how to get to those places and the packaged tour offered resort accommodation. Call us high-maintenance, but we can’t see ourselves camping out. We still prefer the comforts of a bed, an air conditioner, and a private toilet & bath. We’re not YET ready to camp out. Maybe someday…

We checked in at Canoe Beach Resort in Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales. Pundaquit is the jump-off point to get to Camaras, Capones, and Anawangin (and Nagsasa Cove, too — this was not part of our ITIN though :(). After having lunch in Café Pundakit (the resort’s restaurant), we went island hopping. We just passed by Camara Islands and headed to Capones Island. Unfortunately, we did not go up to the Capones lighthouse because there was not enough time. The boatmen told us that it would be about a 1 hour-trek up to the famous lighthouse and besides, we still had to go to Anawangin Cove. Packaged tours suck sometimes. They mislead you that you’re going to here and there, but more often than not, you would just end up passing by the place.

our bed and bags

view of Camara and Capones Islands from the shores of Canoe Beach Resort

During low tide, you could see the sandbar connecting the 2 islands of Camara

Capones Island

zooming my camera's lens to get a shot of the lighthouse

It took us around 30 – 45 minutes to get to Anawangin Cove from Capones Island. And the cove is not the usual beach. Its shore has agoho trees instead of coconut and palm trees. Anawangin Cove also has a stream with a “forest” of agoho trees.

view of Anawangin Cove from our boat

Anawangin's stream

Anawangin is known to be a dangerous beach. I’ve read a lot of blogs about people drowning there. My boyfriend and I are not really excellent swimmers so we brought our own life jackets with us. We know how to swim but we’re not really good. Hehehe… And since we have our life jackets, we also brought our snorkeling gears. However, there’s nothing much to see underwater! Hahaha!

snorkeling

underwater

Anawangin's shore

We went back to the resort at around 4:30pm. Bitin! So we decided to swim in Canoe Beach Resort’s beach and planned to watch the sunset. But I got stung by a jellyfish so we had to go back to the shore. Hehehe… Good thing the said resort has a pool so after having our dinner, we decided to take a dip in the pool.

Canoe Beach Resort's pool (view from the resort's resto)

The beach trip was very bitin. We headed back to Manila the next day. 😦 It was lunch time when we reached Subic so we decided to have lunch in the home of the famous jumbo tacos, The Coffee Shop. The taco we ordered was good although I did not like the shell because it was obviously a fried lumpia wrapper. Hehehe…

The Coffee Shop in Subic

jumbo taco with sour cream

When we reached Manila, it was still kinda early so we had time to hear Mass in Gateway Mall at around 6pm (or 6:30 PM — I forgot e).  We had dinner after the mass and had Razon’s halo-halo for dessert. Sarap!!!

Razon's halo-halo

I really miss Zambales’ beaches. Zamba is such a nice place (and the mangoes are yummy, too!). *sigh* I miss going to the beach…