Road trip to Ilocos, Part 2: Into the deep

Our day started with the alarm going off at 6am. To take advantage of the empty beach for pictures. Hubby and I both said we'll sleep five minutes more. Five minutes turned to an hour.

At 7am, the beach was already teeming with people swimming and taking an early morning walk. Even Jay-jay beat us to the beach. He was already happily playing with his toy soldiers in the sand.


Here are some of the pictures from this morning's early beach romp:







The fourth photo was taken by my nephew Jay-jay.

After playing with the kids for a while, everyone was hungry. We all opted not to eat at our hotel since the food really sucks. We ate at Villa del Mar again and had the usual tocino, tapa and corned beef meal. Except for the tapa, everything was satisfactory.

We were itching to visit a small area that we've visited during our very first trip to Pagudpud many years ago. It's a mangroved area where the stream meets the sea and is accessible both by foot (which is 3 kilometers away) or by boat, five minutes away. The boat it is. We were sadly disappointed that the sand from the incoming tide had closed the "opening". We saw some rock formations near the beach and had decided to snorkel while Jay-jay plays in the sand with my mom and his nanny.

I was extremely freaked out with the amout of seaweeds in the water and found it icky to swim amids the weeds. Perhaps because the bangkero (boatman) warned us that there are poisonous fishes lurking in the water. Fortunately, none of us were harmed, poisoned or killed. We watched carefully where we swam. We saw some interesting fishes there but were unsatisfied. We were perhaps comparing it to our past experience in Dakak where the corals and the many species of fish and anemone are just a stones throw away from the shore. We instructed the bangkero to take us to a good snorkeling area that's not too deep.

The bangkero really knows his stuff. He took us exactly where we needed to go. It was just deep enough for us to snorkel in confidence. I was so glad that the boatmen only drop anchor in the sandy portion of the reef, to avoid damaging the corals. We all voted for Jacob to see the snorkeling landscape first to make sure it's worth our time :-). The water was crystal clear and we can make out the rock formations from above. He quickly came up and said "Ang ganda, you should see it!" Both Angel (Jacob's wife) and I opted to keep our life vests on while snorkeling so that we don't freak out if our masks get some water or something. Jacob braved the water sans the life jacket so that he could dive deeper and get closer to the fish.

It was such a fantastic experience! We saw an assortment of corals in different colors and sizes and multicolored fish that you would just normally see in books and the Discovery Channel. The view from above water cannot compare with the beauty that we found under. I could spend the whole day snorkeling there. Each landscape and fish variety is prettier and more diverse than the previous one. There was even a brain coral that was so huge, we were able to stand on it and the water barely reached our knees! (The water is maybe 25-30 feet). Too bad we didn't have any pictures :(

I was so glad that Tita Socky taught us to snorkel in that Dakak trip! Otherwise, I wouldn't have been brave enough to see the wonders of the deep. Next step, diving...Gulp, kaya kaya ng powers ko?

My mom was getting antsy on the boat and wanted to have a cold soda and she was getting nervous with both her children in deep water. It was also past lunchtime, time to go back and eat. We reluctantly said OK.

Now, getting back up to the boat was the greatest challenge for me. I have zero upper body strength and pulling myself up was excruciating. My brother and the bangkero both had to haul me up while I frantically flap my legs to get on the friggin' boat. I was laughing hysterically the entire time that they were pulling me up. After heaving me to the boat my bro said "Ang, laki ng huli natin!".

Lunch again was at the Villa del Mar. We had "Bagnet" Bicol Express which we all declared as "panalo". We also had inihaw na Liempo which was served with tomatoes and chili, Lemon Chicken which has a weird taste, "talo".



After lunch, hubby and I stayed in our room to rest and blog :)

Afternoon came, I demanded my sunset walk at the beach. Merienda first said my hubby. We saw a fishball/sago/gulaman concessionaire along the beach and we tried that. It was your typical Pinoy street food. They only had kikiam and cheese sticks left. It was ordinary and not very good. I decided to take some pictures instead.

The sunset was very picturesque indeed. As evidenced by this picture. We found a nice spot at the end of the pagudpud cove. Perfect for taking pictures and a great vantage point if you want to watch the surf crash into the rock formations below.


Dinner was at Casablanca Grill at the other side of the cove.. It was quite a walk from our hotel. The menu looked promising, unfortunately, most of the dishes that we ordered were out of stock. The food there though is just so-so. But, they do have the best service in the cove. The staff was courteous and accommodating. The grillery is located within the Terra Rica Beach and Dive Resort overlooking the beach. Nice view, at least.

We have a full day ahead tomorrow. We all voted to immediately retire to bed right after dinner. My husband is already fast asleep as I write this blog. Goodnight...for now.