sandflies(Magalawa Island, Masinloc, Zambales)

This is an old accounting of my Magalawa Island Experiences, you might like to read the latest Magalawa Island experience here ! libot.blogspot.com/2011/05/beatiful-magalawa-island-in-zambales (May 5,2011)


Ever heard of them? Until a few weeks ago, I must confess that I haven't. We went to to spend the holy week in a place in Zambales called Magalawa Island. As usual all I brought to navigate to this hitherto unknown (to me) place is my gps and google earth on my laptop. Armed with what little info there was on the net, we set out to spend 3 days of sun, fun and sand on what we hoped was another worthwhile gamble. Its really fortunate that our new friend JC was available as he not only lives at the launch port which was Masinloc but he is also an excellent guitarist. Whats a camping activity without a good guitarist eh?

On the way there we passed by quite a number of people participating in the holy week practices. By the time we reached masinloc the car was splattered with blood all over the side doors and mirrors. I lived in Pampanga for a few years and went to highschool there to strengthen my lungs so I could lose my asthma. Its been quite a while since I last saw this spectacle. I'm surprised at how young some of these penitents are. What have they done to merit such drastic penitence anyway? (photos by FrancisAtendido Panasonic Lumix FZ-20, upper left:penitent youth on roads around SanAntonio Zambales, lower left: Magalawa Island south side beach area)
We finally reached Masinloc, parked the car, unloaded the camping gear and 2day supplies and loaded it onto the boat. Being the middle of April, the sun was tremendously hot. In-your-face hot. I have not felt the Philippine summer for about 5 years and it felt great. The boat ride cost a thousand pesos including pickup on Easter Sunday. Not bad realy considering the same distance would cost 2,800 in Anilao since the boat has to do 2 round trips.

There is a small community of fisherfolk on Magalawa Island. Some 200 odd families. Beer is available at 25 a bottle. There are fresh water pumps but only the ones in the village are saltfree. The ones used near the visitors area are so salty its like dipping in the ocean. (photos by FrancisAtendido: right: Magalawa island fisihing community - west side of the island, lower left: camp site on south side beach area 2006/04/14)




We setup camp somewhere on the south side of the island where it was much quiter. The east tip is where the good sandbar and swimming area is. Be careful when you land as the locals, any of them, come up to you and ask for a hefty port fee. We paid only 600 because JC had some distant relatives there.
We left manila at 6am and we were able to setup camp and start swimming by 1:30pm - not bad. The sand was not so bad either, real crushed corals with a slight mixture of common grey sand. There are no live corals to speak of but the waters are clear and there are thousands of starfish. Theres actually so much of them that they become a real nuisance to the beach goers. They have very sharp spines on their backs and stepping on them may prove to be very painful. So we found a lot of them just stacked on the beach either dead or dying. I believe they were purposefully put there by irate bathers or playful kids.
(photo taken by Francis Atendido, lower left: camp site -front view)
The west side of the island has a lot of mangroves, so the sand there is a bit silty, dead leaves are from the sea grass flourishing a few meters from the shore. At night we lit up our coleman, started cooking and lit up a bonfire. Small insects kept biting and at first I thought it was mosquitoes but they were too small and quick. I later found out that these were sandflies and boy do their bites itch!
All in all we really had a great time relaxing, bonding and singing on the top of our lungs (hey, its an island eh?). There were a whole bunch of visitors on the island that Saturday. Huge boats started landing at 7am with hoards of people of all ages. I even saw a few cows but I'm sure those didn't come from the boats. haha (photos by Francis Atendido Magalawa Island Zambales, 2006/04/14 to 2006/04/16 Panasonic Lumix FZ-20 , right: good friend, guide, and excellent guitarist JC)


Over all it was not a bad experience. I wouldn't mind going back