Holy Road Trip 2007 - Day 3

Day 3 (Black Saturday, April 7, 2007)

The four of us unwillingly woke up to the rousing efforts of my nieces, as a hefty breakfast of longganisang lucban and pancit awaits us at the dining table. It was around 8:00am and we are waiting for word on the availability of any outrigger boat which will bring us to Mauban’s foremost summer destination and the community’s collective pride, Cagbalete Island.

We were bound to spend the next 30 hours on a private beach house of my first cousin, Fe and Boy Pansacola on the southernmost tip of the Cagbalete Island. Finally at around 10:30am we got confirmation on a private small 30-seater outrigger boat fetching us for the 40 minute trip to the island. Ten minutes through the trip, amidst the mildly bumpy seas, from the boat we got a full view of where we’re heading - a ‘toothbrush-shaped’ luscious green island 30 minutes away. There it nests on white sandy beaches, growing bigger as we approach. The toothbrush head represented the southernmost tip of the island and points the direction where we will spend our day.

Cagbalete is a 1,640 hectare island located east of Quezon Province and part of the Town of Mauban, Quezon, it lies along the waters of Lamon Bay and the Pacific Ocean. While the whole island is privately owned, there are numerous settlements of Visayan fisher folks at the southwestern side of the island.

We arrived at the island a bit past lunchtime to a scene quite unique to the island, because the changing of tides is very evident in Cagbalete, the waters have moved as far back as 1 kilometer from the shore, leaving a magnificent panorama of powdery white sand to envy the shores of Camiguin. Amidst the shades of the trees from the beach, one can see the lengthy white sand bars reflecting the sunrays, revealing pristine clear and calm seas further ahead, bordered by 200 degrees of mountainous coastline of mainland Quezon Province, forming part of the Sierra Madre and topped with a vista of cumulus clouds posted on bright blue skies. Twenty minutes of blank stare into the visual postcard feast and we can’t help but wonder how lucky we are to be there.

Pansacola Beach is unlike any other beach I’ve been to, in here you get the feel of having the island to yourself and having the privacy that you want, away from the staring eyes of the nosy public. Except for the cemented communal toilets, the amenities boasts of all natural materials that gave everyone a real feeling of living in paradise and communing with nature. The tree house, cottages and huts are all made from local bamboo, coconut trunks and mangroves, esthetically designed with shells, plants and rocks common to the island. Perhaps the most satisfying part of our stay in this island was the food and the hospitality that was accorded to us during our brief adventure. We lived and were served like Royalties, parading splendid viands of sumptuous meals and snacks that include, to name a few, pancit, turon, palitaw. crispy pata, spareribs, fish fillet, tuna, squids and crabs - home-cooked to perfection. Each meal and snacks left us wandering and waiting for the next feast of the day, while leaving our taste buds exhausted from not getting enough time to recover. In here you get three full meals a day plus two hearty snacks delivered on schedule right in your dining cottage.

Spending the night in the island is exceptionally mesmerizing to the senses. Pansacola Beach offers some modest comfort courtesy of a generator set to light up the facilities, the fans and the videoke machine located beside the main rest house. After dinner, a staff will light up your own private bonfire fronting your cottage where you can spend a romantic evening with your friends and love ones. Somewhere between the sound of crickets and giant lizards (tuko) and the waves humping the shoreline, between the sight of stars and distinct silhouette of lights hinting coastline settlements and a nearby power plant, between the touch of the salty wind and the scorching heat from the burning wood, between the feel of fullness and wanting for more; we have found restful serenity, sitting along wooden trunks lying dead naked along Cagbalete’s coastline.

And then we’re off to the cottage’s bamboo floor and sleeping tents for a well deserved reprieve. As the patchwork of earthly sounds fades calmly to the background and a symphony of snores takes center stage, ironically implying rest and peace of mind, there you can find me crumpled in my fetal stance like a fresh soul ready to be born.