Philippines - Puraran, Cantaduanes Island: Majestics Beach Resort

It's sunny this morning, but the wind is still onshore.

View at breakfast

Rice being dried and boards being maintained

We decide we should go to Baras tomorrow morning (PhP 300 Return) at high tide and get a boat (PhP 300) to surf Moing (pronouced "Moo-ning") Point. We need some exercise!

We watch the local fishermen spearfishing - they get into a big cirle and splash a lot with the intention of trapping the fish in their midst. We're not sure how successful it the fishing was today as they're out there for ages and we go in when it starts to drizzle.

Philippines - Puraran, Cantaduanes Island: Majestics Beach

The rain has cleared a bit - so we wonder around the beach and take some pictures, walk to the top of the hill, then it's back to reading.

The rice paddies behing our hut

View from the upper deck

Mike and his new buddy Brad (who guarded our Nipa hut every night)

Majestics Beach Resort

We're enjoying the slow pace...

Mr Popper' Penguins is our movie for tonight!

Philippines - Puraran, Cantaduanes Island: Majestics Beach Resort

At breakfast we meet a brother and sister from Minnesota - she's just been in China for 10 months doing ecology research, and he's a junior in college heading to Beijing for his semester abroad. They're leaving today after a few restful days in Puraran.

We make the most of the low pressure system and consequent rainy weather to catch up on the blog and read.

At dinner, we chat to Tetsuya, a young Japanese man who's been posted to Virac for 2 years doing soil analysis. He stays at Majestics every weekend and has taught himself to surf over the last year. A young man from Manilla also joins us tonight, he's here for a few days to do some photography.

We all watch an old James Bond with Pierce Brosnan before going to bed.

Philippines - Puraran, Cantaduanes Island: The Expedition!

Today we're heading over to Puraran in Cantanduanes.

After another yummy mango shake for breakfast, we tie up Mike's surfboard to the top of a tricyle and head over to the Terminus where we squeeze into a shared van bound for Legazpi (PhP75pp).

A couple of hours later, we take a shared van from Legazpi to Tobaco (PhP 50pp - P50 extra for us to be both dropped off at the pier) where we board our 3hr ferry ride to San Andres in Catanduanes (PhP 292 TBC pp for aircon + PhP 11.20pp terminal fee). The ferry trip turns out to be quite eductional as we're seated right in front of the TV and get to know the latest Filipino celebrities including the very handsome Ding Dong Dantes ;) Interesting name indeed...

We're meant to take a jeepney from San Andres to Virac but seeing how packed they are we opt for a tricycle ride (30mins - P150) instead.

Once in Virac, it's a jeepney to Baras (1hr - PhP 35pp) - it's seems this may be the last one, so our tricycle driver ushers us with our luggage onto the roof for our one hour journey to Baras. Though it's quite uncomfortable sitting on the roof's metal bars, there's actually a great view from up there - we just have to avoid the tree branches once in a while! It looks like it might rain soon, but thankfully we get to Baras at nightfall just as it starts to drizzle and share a tricycle to Puraran with the Hawaiin owner of Angie's, up the road from Irene's Majestics Beach Resort (PhP 500 per night, short order breakfast menu, PhP150pp per set meal).

We're relieved to reach Majestics as it's pretty dark by now. Irene makes us a yummy dinner and it's off to bed early.