Calaguas Island Adventure - Touchdown! Mahabang Buhangin

On the summer of 2014, me and my office mate friends decided to plan a trip for our then upcoming business unit holiday in the office. At first we were thinking of going to Baler but then we thought we can go to Baler anytime as it is just within Luzon. One of our friends suggested Calaguas Island as the place is becoming more and more popular for beach - goers. We talked things over and unanimously agreed to give the place a shot.

We availed a tour package under Calaguas Island Experience: ala iAdventure Style. The package costs P2,000 per person for a 2D/1N tour. We had to pay the 50% downpayment a week before the trip. We then bought a one way ticket from Cubao to Daet, Camarines Norte via Superlines - during that time the fare was P515 per person. As it was during the summer peak season we booked our tickets in advance.

May 16 - Night of the Trip

Our bus was scheduled to depart at 8:30PM. We chose to travel during the night as it is much faster. luckily, our bus departed on time. Getting from Cubao to Daet took us more or less 8 hours (including our 30 minute stop over on the Superlines terminal in Quezon).

May 17 - Day 1

We just slept through the night. by 6:30AM we finally arrived on the bus terminal in Daet.

This was our itinerary for the day c/o iAdventure Style Tours:

Meet Up at Jollibee, Daet

We rode a tricycle from the terminal to Jollibee. good thing one of our friends is a native from the nearby town of Mercedes, Camarines Norte so we were confident that we will not get lost. We had our breakfast there while waiting for the tour guide.

Head to the Paracle Camarines Norte Port

Our tour guide finally arrived and we were transferred to a nice air-conditioned bus together with other people that were also scheduled for a trip on that day . We were headed to the port to ride a boat that will take us to the island. the bus ride took less than 30 minutes.

Arrival in Paracle Port and Boat Ride

When we arrived, the boat that was supposed to pick us up is not yet there so we just waited for quite some time and bought some snacks in the nearby sari-sari store. We were among the first ones to be seated when the boat came. We chose to sit on the front as it is more convenient and comfortable. So far so good! Everything was going well. We were leaving at last :)

The view from the ocean is amazing! We saw lots of Islets with blue - green waters and white sands. The boat ride took more or less 2 hours. It was a long ride but the beautiful sceneries along the way made our trip worthwhile.

View from our boat

Mountains and white sands from afar

Arrival: Calaguas Island (Mahabang Buhangin)

We were all in awe upon setting foot on the island, it was one of the best places that I've ever seen in my life!

Touchdown

Blue waters = perfection

Upon arrival, we were brought to a small nipa hut to drop off our things while the staff prepared our tents and our lunch.

The simple life

After our delightful lunch, we relaxed for a while and decided to have henna tattoos since it was included on the package :)

Our basic henna tattoos

Free Time on the beach

We headed to the beach as soon as our tattoos were dry. The weather was perfect! We enjoyed the summer heat :) We swam our hearts out, took lots of photos and just waited for the sun to go down.

Sun - kissed 

Sunset in Calaguas

As night came, we just had our dinner, changed into our sleepwear and settled in on our tents as we were very tired and we had to prepare for the activities the next day.

Tired, sun burnt but happy :)