Bolinao-Alaminos, Pangasinan

February 2014 - Bolinao, Pangasinan

We did not have an itinerary. We did not plan where to go and what to do. We just read several blog posts about the place and decided which date to depart from Manila. It was Friday night, Dan, Rachelle, Sette and I boarded a bus to Bolinao. We took the last trip at 11 pm so that we could just sleep through the travel time. In 6 hours, we reached our destination and it was still dark, so we stayed at an open store or carinderia to have our morning coffee and breakfast. When the tricycles were arriving, we talked to one driver and asked him to take us to Patar. He offered to take us to the Bolinao Falls, Enchanted Cave and Bolinao town market before heading to Patar Beach and we agreed.

Early morning coffee

Our first stop was to see the falls. We did not actually notice how far it was and when we got there we had to trek our way down to the falls. 

way to the falls

It was so nice that there were no people around. We had the place for ourselves. Kuya said many people come during weekends and we were lucky to enjoy the privacy that day. The water was very clear and cold!

Cold morning at the Bolinao Falls

We spent almost an hour there I guess then agreed to go to our next destination, to the Bolinao Market. I think it was a 50-minute tricycle ride to the market. We ate our early lunch there and bought some food and drinks.  

Clean Market

When we were all set, we went on for another 30-minute-ride to the Enchanted Cave. The weather was so nice and sunny, we just enjoyed seeing the sea, the blue skies and the coconut trees along the way. When we got there, we were also by ourselves! A caretaker guided us to the cave and we had to pass through a beautiful and rocky garden, it was said those were once corals thousands of years ago. Woah, that means the area we were stepping on was under water before. 

The company L-R: Sette, me, Rachelle and Dan

And then we had to climb down again to get inside the cave. There is a pool of natural spring! We realized why it was called enchanted, we were amazed to see that the water was very clear! Then the caretaker turned on a lightbulb and stayed to watch over us. He said we must follow and hold on to ropes to move around the cave. We walked through rocks and floated in the water through the rope to explore the cave. There are rope segments because the water gets very deep in some parts. We reached the end of the rope but decided to get back and stay near the stairs, LOL. 

We reached the end of the rope! But nope! x))

We stayed for an hour there. We did not want to leave the cave. However, there were new comers and so to give way to others privacy we agreed to go. We continued our bathing rituals in the hot springs outside the cave though! Haha. When we decided to head to Patar, we saw some lovely hammocks along the way to the exit. We tried lying on them and unexpectedly, gave in to sleep.

Nap time zzzzzzzzz...

Finally, our time to go to Patar beach has come. We got there around 2:40 pm and guess what, we had the beach for ourselves! Oh how I missed to feel the sand on my bare feet!

Patar Beach - OWNED!

We just paid a fee to pitch our tent. I had a hard time pitching because it was too windy. Anyhow, after doing so, we ran to take a dip in the sea! We had a lot of fun playing on the sand. We waited for the sunset and was in awe to see it in this part of the country.

The Bolinao setting sun

Lights were out at 9 pm so after we had our dinner, we dozed off to sleep. The next day, we had our breakfast prepared by some locals. It was very appetizing! On our way back to the highway, we visited the lighthouse and took some very nice pictures.

The lighthouse

Time to head home. We were told that we should take the bus going Manila in Alaminos. There was an ordinary bus to Alaminos at the terminal but it was still empty and needs to wait for passengers. We took the van instead which was luckily ready to go at that moment. While on the van, we were talking about the Hundred Islands in Alaminos. Since none of us had been there, we instantly agreed to go then. When we were the only passengers left in the van, the driver offered to take us to the Lucap Wharf, cool.

Espesyal de hatid

We really did not have any idea which tour or activity to do so we just signed up for an island hopping tour with helmet-diving, haha. The helmet diving activity was the highlight of the tour. We did not plan to do it but right there and then we were already underwater, walking around, waving at each other, seeing the fishes and hearts pounding, LOL.

Being briefed for helmet diving

We still enjoyed the rest of the island tour and we were back at the wharf by 5 pm. After cleaning up we decided to have our dinner before boarding a bus to Manila.

Bye Hundred Islands