The weather was not as nice today. It was about what I expected coming into the trip, as it is the low season for tourism and the rains fall heavily during this time of year. Still, yesterday's astounding sunshine gave me hope.
We took a trike up to Nacpan Beach, a 40ish minute drive away. We all voted to rent motorcycles and go on those, but everybody we talked to recommended we have someone else drive us as A) we don't know the way, B) it's an extremely dangerous path as is, and C) it had just rained in the morning and the roads are slippery. If a crash were to happen, we'd be liable on bikes, whereas the trikes were driven by locals as we sat in a ride-along car. So trikes it was.
The ride there was full of greens. We passed by some stunning rice fields where farmers were plowing areas with oxen.
Rice, rice, baby.
When we arrived, we were surrounded by a relatively empty beach. Really something out of a magazine. There were a few huts, a couple tiny restaurants run by locals, and maybe 20 people on the entire beach.
Trekking through hills to reach an empty piece of beach
Nacpan Beach.
Population: Me.
On the south side of the beach, there were some hills with a ridge we could walk upon, like walking upon the back of a dragon. They were covered in bushes and lush grass. We climbed them to get a better view of the beach.
Me and the 3 Germans.
After spending a couple hours in the crystal blue water, we headed over to get some food and drink. It's $1.40 USD for fresh mango juice and rum. Yeah. It was a fun time.
Soon, the clouds crept upon us and it was a clear a storm was coming. We hustled out and left. Unfortunately, our trike broke on the way home, so we climbed into the other one and squeezed together for the ride
Our poor trike driver had to walk his trike home after it broke. We hitched a ride with the other trike and stuffed 5 people in it.
Tonight we ate dinner together with a whole bunch of new backpackers. It seems like they come in waves and we were caught in between them. It is quite common to see backpackers you have seen in other places. Half the group that arrived today had met the other backpackers I had been hanging around with. They all spent time hosteling in other areas of the Philippines. Super neat.
It's 3:29am, and I'm supposed to be rock climbing a mountain in an hour for sunrise. Oops. Hoping the weather turns out. Cheers.