Finally Off to the Beach!!! Puerto Galera Summer 2009.

The storm before the calm

This has got to be the most stressful vacation preparation I ever went through.

On the day before our scheduled trip to Puerto Galera, I was closely monitoring the PAGASA website for updates on the weather. They lifted the storm signal warnings just in time for me to convince my friends that it's safe to take the boat through the shark infested waters on the way to White Beach, Puerto Galera in Mindoro. :D

On May 2, onboard Paolo's dad's pick-up, we drove to and parked at the Batangas Pier and made our way to the boats. It was a quick enough trip, only about and hour and a half, but that didn't stop Liz and Jenny from taking a nap, and Princess for finishing her "baon" Romance Novel (yep, she was crying like a little girl over it too!)

The Beach

We arrived on the cream colored beach too early for the 2pm check-in time... but the good people at White Beach Guest House allowed us to check in at no extra charge. It was not a beachfront resort though, the place was okay if a bit far from the beach. It's clean and quiet at night. There's a kitchen, and even a place to grill. The path from the beach to the house was a bit difficult to traverse, especially if you're a bit drunk (haha, yes this was based on experience!) and there was this spray of water coming from who-knows-where!

"...the water was a deep turquoise and the islands a lush green..."

We had an early lunch then went straight to island hopping and snorkeling. The water was a deep turquoise and the islands a lush green, but the sky was a bit grey, remnant clouds from the storm that just passed. Nevertheless, the view, the waves and the wind was relaxing, and we were grateful the sun was not too glaring and burning.

We went first to the Coral Gardens, awesome place. Fishies all around. Unfortunately, a few minutes off the boat and I hit my foot on a coral; one small bit of coral punctured the side of my left foot. Ouch. Anyway, we still swam around, fed some fishies some toasted bread (no, really) until they were full. (Basta, Mama! Molto pieno! - sosyal ng Italian fish :p )

After that we went to The Sandbar, this strip of sand with water on either side. After some camwhoring picture-taking, we stayed a bit and had some halo-halo there too to cool down and relax.

Tricky Boatman

When our boatman asked if we could skip Bantayan beach, we thought we were going straight to the next snorkeling spot, but he took us back to White Beach and we ended up just paying him less than what we were supposed to. Bummer, because we still wanted to find Nemo.

We just settled on swimming around at white beach, which was not bad at all, my friends got their massages and Liz and Bing and I went to get our Henna tattoos. Mine was a huge paw on my left shoulder.

"...we were all set for a night of booze and partying..."

Grilled food dinner is always great on the beach! With our stomachs full, we were all set for a night of booze and partying. :p There was actually a beach party going on, something Rubber duckie productions with the featured band being Urbandub.

But we didn't like the music all that much so we opted to go to this bar playing more dance-able music. Turned out it was an all-gay-waiters/waitresses place, and when Buttons by the Pussycat Dolls played, they all went to the front of the bar to dance. Haha! Whoa!

We ended the night drunk and happy, (some of us just drunk, ehem..) and slept like babies, looking forward to a second and more relaxed day...


Read part 2 here - Puerto Galera: The last summer outing