Im Back to again one of my favorite place to visit. North! Where the breeze are cold. The winds are chilly. And the clouds touch your feet. Im back at Sagada! I was once again invited by my good friend Kuya Dhenver to go on a trip at Sagada along with my new found friends. They call themselves Aftersix club since they go down drinking after six pm. Anyways Im just grateful they keep on inviting me along since Kaladkarin naman ako. So anyway. Here we are at Sagada! We stayed at Sagada Sunrise View Homestay. Now its operated by Red Doors. You can see them at agoda.com
The view of the sunrise makes you wanna cry if youre a sensitive prick. Its really beautiful. By the way this photo is not staged at all. I just went outside sipping coffee and I found this. These are the moments that being alive is simply amazing. Its like flying but your feet is on the ground. I really love this place. If ever you wanna go to Sagada, this hotel got the view that ur looking for.
By the way, its also my first time to step foot on the Highest Point of our highway system. The last time I went to Sagada is by bus. We had no stopovers and were on another route. This time we went by van and this is a different route. I asked our driver , Kuya Abe, to stop so I can take some photos. I needed to pee as well.
Driving up north really takes balls of steel. Slippery roads. Almost zero visibility. Plus hard rain causes landslides. Just be thankful if you reach Sagada in one piece. I am. We're on a Toyota Super Grandia compliments of Dewen Transport. That van can really punch it. Its darn fast and powerful. And the comfort inside is superb. Makes me wanna have one someday.
One thing I really miss In Sagada is the food. They have this dish called Pinikpikan. I know the way it was prepped was somehow inhumane but thats the way the locals cook it. It has this certain taste. Its different. Its more flavorful. Plus in this soup, they added Etag meat. Its really good.
Of course Sagada wont be complete if you aint gonna go exploring. The place got too much too offer. You got rice fields from left to right. Caves. Waterfalls. One thing that I learned is, always wear comfy shoes. Comfy hiking shoes. I wore sandals from Sandugo by the way. Its nice wearing them though since ur feet usually gets soaked by water. It also has traction. Useful if ur walking along mud and rocks.
This is actually the first time I visited the hanging coffins. Its kinda a creepy and amazing. You got to put a lot of hardwork and effort to place those coffins. In my opinion, i think they did this kind of burial coz maybe.. mountains are abundant in the area and I think cemetaries with flat land seems far so they just kept their dead hanging on the cliffs. I dunno. Just my 2 cents. What do you think?
There was a surprise at the end of this trekking journey and it was sweet. Theres a lagoon! The place is beautiful. The water came from the mountains. Its freaking cold actually. What a way to recharge after that long agonizing slippery walk. Stayed there to cool down and went back to our hotel.
I just hope Sagada stays this way. Simple. Enchanting. A place free from the busy world where chaos is the norm like Manila. A place to recharge as you sip your morning coffee. A place to think. Clear your thoughts. Meditate.
When your mind is full of traffic. Information overload. Stress. This is the place to unwind. Just by looking the clouds pass through sunrise is a very relaxing feeling. Its one of those moments that I really miss and looking forward to seeing the next time I visit Sagada.
This is actually my 1st trip that is well documented on video. Like I said. I am lazy doing these kind of things. I just realized that life is short and these moments should be treasured. The only way to do that is document it. So, I am now dedicated to make an effort to make videos on my next trips! I hope u like this one.
Many thanks to Kuya Dhenver fot once again inviting me on his trips. Thank you boss KD. Till our next adventure my friend. Just tag me along!
Fast forward 2025. I have to admit, I have honestly forgot about this blog. 3 years without a blog post. Did I get busy? Well yes and no. Just lazy. Anyway., ived been through a lot of riding the bike lately thats why. I will post some of them soon. And of course, my yearly Calaguas tour. The Island is like the same as ever but better. What do I mean by better? There are less people. The Island is now in population control. Regulated by the tourism department to preserve its natural beauty. Few years back it was getting ugly due to pollution, over population of guests and the un controlled number of resort operators. Now, Calaguas Island became stricter, Only major resorts are allowed to operate. And the rules became stricter. Hence, the beach is again, worth visiting.
Like before, I still pitch my tent under the tree. As I write this blog, I still remember the fond memories of Calaguas. The time I met Abby. How good it was just chillin by the beach. Drinking while having some bbq. Anyways., it was always good. Always be. Even in memories. Now, i have to make new ones. New memories to cherish. And Calaguas is always a nice place to start. I really love this Island. For me , the best beach in this country. Been here 22 times.
I met new friends thanks to my good ol friend Kuya Dhenver. Met Kuya Dewen and his wife Ate Owen. Engr Ronald also tagged along with us! Fresh from Siargao. He really wanted to come with us along with his family. Nikki was also there who just came from US. Mariko and Greg also joined us. Its a fun bunch. Many thanks to our tour org Josh for making this happen.
there goes Nikki enjoying her tan.
What better things to do in the Island? To drink. Good thing Josh provided us a huge tent where we can pitch our tent. Gave us shade and protected us from rain. Nice!
As always, food was great. My favorite bicolano dish, Sinantolan was served. Also the buttered seafood platter is always a favorite. This is actually my favorite part in the trip, eating. They serve really good food out there.
Many thanks to Calaguas Paradise Resort once again for having us. One of the best here in Calaguas Island. If you are not into camping, there are a lot of villas to choose from. They offer good food and their common bathrooms are clean. If you happen to visit Calaguas, i do recommend this place.
No doubt, Calaguas is still my favorite beach so far. Yes Palawan beaches is really beautiful. But generally going to Calaguas is definitely on top of the list. Why? because the place is basically spectacular but will not hurt your wallet. This is just me. An ordinary citizen who earns enough. Going to places like Palawan, Siargao, Siquijor is quite expensive due to the surge of ticket prices and hotel accomodations. In Calaguas, i just spent 6,000 pesos all in for 3 days and 2 nights. With this kind of place, its definitely a bargain.
Here's a video I made from that trip. Thank you once again. Promise. I wont be lazy this time.
Good evening everybody! I tried downloading the app for blogger and I just want to try it. Sometimes I am too damn lazy to open my laptop. So why not blog on your phone! Anyways. I had a shoot earlier for Sir Jay's house blessing and his son's birthday. His newly built house is really amazing!
I really love his music room where he keeps his guitars, amps and pedals. That rack over there where he hangs his guitars is pretty amazing! Did you know that Sir Jay makes and designs guitars? Oh yes! That guitar on left, he made it! Its like a Gibson SG design on a fender strat body. Thats craftsmanship. He also makes pedal amps. Sir Jay is a member of the band Overtone and he plays the guitars. A damn good one. He is actually my boss when I was working at Ensogo and SBM.
Also, its his son's birthday. It had a Roblox theme which is pretty cool though! Look at thos cupcakes. Looks good. They also have candies! A lot of candies to choose from!
And the Food was great! I really love the pasta and the roast beef and the Crispy Pata! So good! Went 2 times actually with a full plate! Damn full! Just look for Majesto Food Catering. They are based at the south.
I really love driving at Skyway 3. Its expensive but it gets you to south really fast! Imagine my travel from Commonwealth all the way to southwoods is just an hour and 30 mins?! And im driving just under 80.
What a day. My friend saw me at SLEX and took a picture of me driving... Snob daw ako. hahaha. Anyways, i just wanna try this app and i think if its good, im blogging this way na.
Can you imagine going to a place 16 times! Yes that many. Theres something about this place that keeps me coming back. It's simply beautiful. Welcome to the island of Calaguas in Camarines Norte. Before anything else, I would like to say sorry for the people who follow this blog. I actually don't know if theres any... Hahaha but any way im sorry its been a while. Imagine my last post was 2 years ago! I had a blog post about my trip to Siargao. That was the last. Pandemic came and suddenly my world stopped. All my trips got cancelled. All those events gone. Basically im just stuck at home doing nothing. But i didnt even wrote a single blogpost. What have I been doing? Sleeping mostly. So here we are now. Blabbing again!
This is actually my 3rd Calaguas trip of the year! It wouldnt be possible without my good friend Paps Dhenver of AutoConnect Transport Services for hooking me up for this trip. Also to Josh of El Viajeros Travel and Tours who coordinates trips to Calaguas. Thank you sobra! There wer so many new things in Calaguas after the pandelmic. It recently openned its doors around feb this year. You can see a lot of changes! Camarines Norte tourism made sure that Calaguas should be rehabilitated. So they cleaned the beach bigtime. They made sure that theres order in maintaining the island and not turning it into a cesspool like kinda place like.. Boracay. So they made sure that crowd control must be enforced. You cannot cross Calaguas Island without registering your name at the Tourism office in Daet. You must first coordinate to your local trip coordinator for you to submit your valid ID and Vaccine Card. Once you're cleared, you can now sign to the manifest and go on to your trip. Now, the jump of point to Calaguas has a new port called Centennial Wharf!
Its a brand new port in Bagasbas, Daet Camarines Norte. It is way much better than the old Vinzons Port. This one is a brand spanking new. Its not fully built yet. Construction is still going on. Soon there will be restaurants there. I even saw a hotel by the side. And probably more restrooms to shower at after that long trip from the island. You can also park you car, your van here . Its much safer. Much cleaner. I just dont know if its free.
If you're planning to visit Calaguas, please do consider contacting El Viajeros Travel. Look for Josh. Good quality service. They serve great food and will take care pretty much of everything. This year, I have been to Calaguas three times already all assisted by El Viajeros. Many thanks also to Auto Connect Transport most specially to Kuya Dhenver.
This is the place where we stayed. Calaguas Paradise Resort. Unlike before, you can pitch your tent anywhere you wish. Now, there are protocols that you should pitch your tent inside the resort. Good thing this resort has a wide space to pitch your tent. They also have a decent bathroom. You can also avail their Aircon villas depending on how many are you. Fan villas and open cabanas are also available.
an areal shot of Calaguas. Again, if you want to take a photo of the beach, take it during high noon. Because thats the time the waters is at its bluest. Its really an amazing site to see. Just looking at it makes me want to look back.
nothing really special here. Just me :P So there it is. My 3rd calaguas trip this year. Its quite an experience! I really enjoyed it so much. The other guests were really friendly. They brought a lot of booze! Jack , Johnny and Jose were always present. Alfonso and Miguel were there as well. We were all hammered that night. It was fun. Always remember to book your trip 3 days 2 nights. Coz 1 night is not enough i tell you. After all that long travel, its not worth it to end it real quick! 3 days is fine.
It rained that night. Somehow disappointed because I really want to take a photo of the Milky Way. Why? Its just, shooting a galaxy in a place free from pollution is really something. So when it began raining, hassle naman. Then suddenly, it stopped! Sky was clear! I took out my small tripod and went to the darkest part of the beach. Free from light. Took my trusty camera and set it to 30 seconds long exposure at iso 1000. Set it to the widest aperture my lens can do w/c is 2.0 and there it is.... Love it.
I just want to leave you with a video that I made. enjoy!
Areal shot of cloud 9 taken at 600 feet around 6 in the morning
At first I thought it was all hype. All of them said that its one of the best place to go. You can see it on vlogs. Instagram posts. Facebook. Celebrities flock. Some even moved in for good. I thought it was all hype! And I was wrong. Siargao is truly one of the best attractions, Philippines has to offer. I was hooked by Siargao's Magic!
Never had a chance to surf. Imagine I went to Siargao and didnt surf? Stupid me.
This is the famous Cloud 9. Its the popular surf spot where surfers from beginners to pro athletes go. Young, old. As long as surfing is in your blood, this is the place. This is the sanctuary. I have my drone with me that time and I really wanted to take a photo of the place from top. I flew for about 600 feet and took a shot. It was really breath taking. I never saw Cloud 9 anything like it. You can see the waves crashing as surfers go crazy attacking it. I never had a chance to surf though due to the tight sked we had. But i did tried something better!
Im just so happy i rode a bike again. Now Im having thoughts to buy a motorcycle
I rode a motor bike! Its been a while since I rode one. The last time was when I was still in Highschool and Im just riding mountain bikes ever since. I was really anxious and I had that fear I may crash. Then that quote hit my head saying " Everything that you ever wanted is on the other side of fear ". So there. Right at that moment I was cruising!
Bike has no registration. 1st ticket in Siargao. Ride impounded
We travelled almost 50 kms all over Siargao with our bikes! One of the most unforgettable moment was we were riding early evening and its dark. You can see coconut trees on your left and coconut trees on your right. And theres this one straight road ahead and theres the moon shining at its fullest and its brightest in top of the road. Too bad i never had a chance to take a photo. Its all in my head now.
The calm after the storm. Wer just so happy our trip was smooth even after the storm.
When we arrived in Siargao, it was raining. There was actually a typhoon and our departure flight from Clark actually got cancelled. We actually lost one day of vacation. Well, theres nothing you can do for things you cant control. And its better to be safe than sorry. Good thing my brother, Kuya Bam and his wife Ate Ley opened their doors for us and let us stayed at their home for the night. Early next day, we went on our trip to Siargao.
The rocks are so sharp its hard to move around.
We went to the famous Mangpupungko Rock Pools! Its like 30Kms away from the main city of General Luna. It was a long ride. It was fun though. I havent cruised that far using a motor bike. We arrived at the place and there was time restrictions when to enter and went to get out.
This place is jampacked with people!
The pools are only swimmable during low tide. If the tides hit, its gonna be nasty. Coz the rocks, corals there are razor sharp. I swam a little. But my main concern is again to take photo of the place. Its really beautiful from the top. Im just glad i have a drone to capture this images. Im so happy. Weather was really nice as well. Bright and sunny.
This place is best probably for a pre wedding venue
We went to this place called Corregidor Island in Dapa, Surigao del Norte. Its really amazing coz you can see the rolling hills! Its a beautiful place. It has grass not that tall. You can see cows grazing. Its kinda like Batanes actually...
Thats nico and ara sweet-sweetan sa damuhan
Theres a little trek though I don't mind. Its good exercise actually. I really like the slight breeze... what I dont like is when the sun is out, there is no shade so good luck getting your skin burned. Its all worth it though.
Im not sure if this island goes underwater during lowtide. Probably. Sobrang init dito.
We also went to this place called the Naked Island. You dont have to get naked to go there unless u want to... haha. The island has no trees whatsoever so goodluck getting toasted. You can swim there. You can also snorkel around if you want to. Its one of those destinations if you pay for island hopping. This photo is actually unedited. It came straight out of the drone.
I really wanted to swim during this times kaso sobrang init! Kumain na lang ako. Haha
Then we went to Daku Island to get some lunch. The island is a long stretch of white sand beach! Its really beautiful. Theres cottages there to hang out. The locals serve lunch there. They prepare it there as well.
This is too much effort! We were staring at Kuya Tata kung kelan ba sya matatapos. Haha
I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks and promote "The Best Siargao Tour Guide " led by Kuya Tata who organised our island hopping trip and also prepared this amazing lunch for us. Search them at facebook.
A photo with Kuya Tata. He's the guy to bump into if you want to go around the island.
Just look for Kuya Tata thebestsiargaotourguide on IG. Amazing isnt it. We had fish, BBQs, shrimps, kebabs and fruits for dessert. So good! Diet ruined. Haha.
Guyam Island! An island with the best Mango Graham shakes! Tattoed in my head
This is Guyam Island! We stayed for here for a while and had snacks. Tried one of the best Mango Graham shake I ever had. Swam a little. And yes took photos of the island.
Im dreaming of this right now.
The shake is so good. Really refreshing. According to "ate", this is their best seller. So i tried it and true enough it speaks for itself. For hundred pesos (around $2) for a glass, its really good. You have to try it once you visit the island.
At first I wanted a shot with no people in it but it wouldnt be that interesting.
We also went to Maasin River! The famous river where you swing around a coconut tree like tarzan onto the river. I saw kids doing 360 dives up there! Its really amazing. You can actually ride a raft here and paddle your way and explore the river. Due to lack of time and its getting dark, we skipped that part and moved on to the next spot...
I forgot to mention that this place has a lot of beautiful ladies.
Sugba Lagoon is one of the most visited place in Siargao. There, you can jump of a 15 foot high plank, paddle the kayak, go snorkling..
I envy people who can float at their backs. Hindi ako marunong eh.
Since its a lagoon and the place is surrounded with small islands, the water is very calm. We have to cut short our time there because its getting dark and the place is about to close. We really had fun there..
I forgot the name of this island. Will edit as soon as I remember. :P
If ever im going back to siargao, im gonna buy another gwapitos shirt and go surf.
I really miss this place. If I ever I have a chance to go back, i'd definitely would. What I like about Siargao is the people. Everyone is smiling. Everyone is chill. It has a pretty laid back environment. I also love the food. Its very diverse. The place is packed with foreigners a lot of the locals serve different kinds of food. I also like Siargao being traffic free unlike here in Manila. Its really fun riding a bike there. One of those things that I really enjoy.
Here in Manila, 1 liter of Red Horse is already priced at 200 pesos. Its absurd.
Best part doing in Siargao is drinking at the beach. Listening to the sound of the waves as you finish that bottle. Staring at the sea. Burying your feet into the sand. Lying down at the sand. Looking at a gazillion stars. Watching it fall. Simple things that you dont do in the city.
Everytime I look at my own pic I laugh.
I really love travelling. If I have a ton of money in the world you wont see me in one place for a really long time. Id probably go travel around the world. See different cultures. Eat different kinds of dishes. I never wished of anything else actually. I just wanna go around. I promised to myself after the quarantine, I'd go travelling. As of now, out of the 82 provinces in the Philippines, ived been to 40 of them. Thats almost half. Im hopeful to have more projects in the future. Projects that would set my foot to different places.
Yessss the travel group. More lakwatsas to all of us after quarantine!
Shout out to my friends who were with there with me. From right thats Dan, Nico, Ara, PV , me.. then Mark and Meg. Thanks guys! Lets do this again! Where next??? We really had a blast out there in Siargao. I cant wait to go back. They say that its better to wander when you are able.
When we go old, we might lose that chance. Thank you for reading. Its quite long. hehe
