One of the things I love to do is traveling. I love visiting places I've never seen and this is always part of my goals every year. I ensure that I have at least 2 new places to visit. And this year, one of my travel bucket lists is to see and explore the beauty of Anawangin.
So to achieve this goal, I together with my office mates booked Anawangin Tour with DLC Travel and Tour. Week-end package costs 1,599.00 if you are travelling alone, however, since I traveled with my office mates and we were 16, the tour cost only 1,499.00. The tour includes Manila - Zambales (Pundaquit) - Manila via Hi-Ace Van aircon transport, tour to Capones Island and Anawangin cove.
Day 1
- 1:00 am assembly time (since we traveled by group, we requested DLC to fetch us in Makati but this is with additional cost of 500.00 / van)
- 1:30 am departure time from Makati
- 2:00 am departure time from McDonald's, Quezon Ave
- 5:30 am arrival at San Antonio, Zambales market. Here you can buy everything that you need during the trip like meat, sea foods, vegetables, fruits, rice, disposable cups, plates, spoon and fork, drinks (limited only - so better buy before the tour) etc. We spent around 200.00 each for our foods for the 2-day trip. We had three dishes (meat, fish and vegetables) every meal. So if you just plan to have one dish, 100.00 per head would be enough.
- 7:30 am arrival at Brgy. Pundaquit - This is where the the bangkeros are waiting. Upon arrival, DLC coordinator was already there to guide us in going to our bangka.
- 8:30 am arrival at Capones Island. It will only take more or less 30 mins to reach the top of the Capones lighthouse. Ensure that you bring with you your sleepers / aqua shoes as you alight from the boat because the trail in going to the lighthouse is rocky. Be careful as there are areas where the water is so deep, more than 5ft. So if you do not know how to swim, better to bring your life vest (also included in the tour package). The view at the top of the lighthouse is so great as you will be able to see the whole Capones island.
Capones Island, also known as Grand Capon or Capon Grande Island(Spanish: Isla de Capon Grande) is a small island approximately 1.9 kilometers (1.2 mi) long by 0.4 kilometers (0.25 mi) wide, at its widest point, lying some 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) off the coast of the province of Zambales on western Luzon island in the Philippines. It is the largest of the Capones Islands (Islotes de los Capones), a group of three small islands which also includes nearby Camara Island and another islet connected to it by a sand bar.[1] The island is administratively part of barangay Pundaquit of the Zambales municipality of San Antonio.
The island is characterized by huge rock formations and steep cliffs surrounded by white sand and coral beaches. The Capones Island Lighthouse is located on the hillside near the western end of the island. (source - Wikipedia)
- 10:00 am - departure from Capones Island
- 10:30 am - arrival at Anawangin Cove. Free time.
If you love camping, Anawangin is for you as there are limited "bahay kubos" available there and most of the tourists preferred to stay in tents. All of us also stayed in tents and this is already included in our tour package.
Here are the other inclusions of the tour package we availed of:
- Entrance fee / overnight fee at Anawangin Cove
- Set of bonfire - i think this lasted only for 1 hour
- Ice - This is enough only for drinking water. There are stores selling ice blocks there but i think it is quite expensive. So if you have cooler, better buy in Pundaquit
- Charcoal - the charcoal provided was not enough to cook our food. It's good that there were woods scattered on the area where we stayed which we used in cooking our foods.
- Tables and chairs (bench) are free but these are only limited and is not safe in case it will rain as there is no roof. So we rented tables and chairs (bench - non-detachable) with roof for 300.00.
- Distilled water - this is enough for us. DLC provided us 3 slim gallons of distilled water. We used this to cook our food. DLC advised us not to use the water from the drums in cooking our foods as this is not safe.
- Cooking utensils like grill, casserole, ladle, pitcher, pan, chopping board, knife - but you need to deposit 100.00 when you get these.
Anawangin Cove: It is a crescent shaped cove with a pristine white sand beach. What makes the place unique is the unusual riddle of tall pine-like trees flourishing round its vicinity. In fact they are not pine trees; they are Agoho trees (scientific name: Casuarina equisetifolia), a species endemic to the Philippines, some Southeast Asian countries and north-eastern parts of Australia.
There are no roads leading to Anawangin. It is only accessible by a 30-minute boat ride from Pundaquit, San Antonio, or by a six-hour trek through hot, open trails thru the Pundaquit range. (source - Wikipedia)
- Swimming
- Snorkeling
- Beach volleyball - you can rent volleyball on the stores there at 50.00 / hour
- Trekking
- 6:00 am to 1:00 pm - Free time
- 1:00 pm - departure from Anawangin
- 1:45 pm - arrival at Pundaquit
- 2:00 pm - departure from Pundaquit
- 3:00 pm - arrival at Royal Subic Bay Duty Free
- 4:00 pm - departure from Royal Subic Bay Duty Free
- 6:30 pm - arrival at Quezon Ave