Come sail away

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A nice morning adventure on the ocean and a pleasant evening of live music and beer drinking in a popular Pundaquit bar called the Car Wash. I’ll let the pictures tell the story with some added commentary from yours truly. Let’s get started, shall we?

My hosts at Monty’s made the arrangements for the boat excursion. The original quoted price was 3000 pesos, including transportation to and from our lodging. At breakfast, the manager advised she had secured me the discounted price of 2700 pesos for the island tour. At the appointed hour of 0900, a trike arrived to pick us up and carry us to Pandaquit Beach, about a 5K ride. It turns out the trike driver was also the Captain of our boat.

Boats on the beach and islands in the stream
A beautiful morning on the beach, but damn, those sands were hot on the bottom of my bare feet.
Our ride. Yeah, it’s small, and those outriggers looked jury-rigged to my untrained eyes.
But throwing caution to the wind, we embarked on our island tour, leaving the safety of the mainland behind.

I’m not being facetious when I tell you that from out of nowhere, this song began playing in my head:

Spoiler alert–our tour had a happier ending.
The Capones Islands group came later in the tour; we started our journey by heading up the coast.
The skies were clear, and the water calm. That was a good thing because the slightest disturbance rocked our tiny craft, like the wake from a passing boat.
As my mind inevitably considered the various possibilities for disaster, collisions with passing boats was high on the list.
But the beauty of our surroundings didn’t escape me.
Our first island approaches. Well, I guess we approached it, but you know what I mean.
A lot of the coast was just sheer drop-offs
Seeing this was a little disconcerting. A whole other way to perish I hadn’t considered.
I suspect our driver was just fucking with me, but he approached those rocks in a way that suggested a head-on collision was inevitable. I even turned around to look and see if he was paying attention. He was and turned the boat away from doom on the shoal.
Looks like Mt. Doom, only smaller and surrounded by water. Okay, never mind. Still, someone could paint a huge eye near the top just for shits and giggles.
I like it.
Another island
There’s a beach up ahead.
Our driver actually beached the boat here to give us the opportunity to get out and take a look around. I wasn’t in the mood and declined.

The place is called is called Destinare. Having read up on it some after the fact, it does seem like an interesting resort, only accessible by boat or a long mountain hike.

Does that qualify as “glamping”? It looks pretty rugged to me.
Back to the beauty of the wide-open South China Sea.
There in distance we have Capones Island on the left, Pundaquit in the center.
Capones is the largest of the island in this cluster that we toured. It even has its own Wikipedia page.
The Captain of our tour boat.
And my fellow passenger Swan.
Capones is basically two big rocks with a beach in between. I also declined a closer look but almost got one anyway.

Because it was about here that our craft ran out of fuel, and we began drifting ever closer to shore. Our driver did have some extra fuel in the bow and retrieved it to fill the gas tank. He then had difficulty restarting the motor, and my imagination once again briefly ran wild. Until, at last, I heard the reassuring sound of the engine running again.

Underway again and passing by the second half of Capones. Can you see that lighthouse up top?
I zoomed in to get a better view.
The backside of Capones
There is some abandoned construction of a rather large structure on this side of the island. Our driver speculated it was meant to be a resort. He said there are also a handful of squatters who live here.
Up ahead are the final two islands on this tour.
You can maybe make out that they are almost joined together by a narrow beach.
It appears to be quite popular with the locals as a place to hang out.
And a backside view
I’ve seen enough, let’s head back to shore.
Civilization awaits!
The survivors

Back to Monty’s for some R&R. Then it was time to finalize plans for the evening. I had gotten the number for a trike to take us to the Car Wash bar, but we didn’t get an answer or a response to our messages. I messaged a friend who lives in San Antonio that I’d be going to the Car Wash, and he said he and his wife were planning to go later to see the band. I wasn’t worried about getting to the bar; it’s about a 3K walk from Monty’s, but there’s no way I could do that in the dark after drinking. Still, I figured someone at the Car Wash could hook me up with a trike ride home, so I convinced Swan to join me in the walk to our Saturday night outing.

The walk turned out to be painful. I guess the leg isn’t getting better yet. I gritted my teeth and trudged on with the promise of a cold beer providing ample motivation.

About 2K into the walk, I came across a place named after me.
This was an interesting sight as well. I’m not expert on the Star Wars movies, but Storm Troopers and a windmill seemed like an odd juxtaposition. Perhaps it means something to true fans.
This gent was there to greet me as I entered the Car Wash, but I guess it wasn’t my time.
The view from my barstool. This is really my kind of place. Open-air bar, good music, good food, and friendly local expats. I make it a point to visit here whenever I’m in Pundaquit.
The bar features live music on Saturday nights starting at 7:00. I do appreciate the early start. Bars with bands in Barretto usually don’t begin until 9 p.m.–my bedtime.
They also have a pool table if that is your inclination.

Not too long after our arrival at Car Wash, we experienced one of those dreaded brownouts (power outages). I feared it was going to ruin our evening. Soon enough, they had the generator running and most of the lights were back on. Until the generator quit working (I assume it ran out of gas). But, providence was with us, and the power came back on shortly before the band was scheduled to perform.

Chris and his wife Cathy showed up about the time the lights came back on and joined me and Swan at the bar. I did some catch-up with Gary, and we all ordered some dinner.

I went with the daily special rib platter. It was all good. It is surprising to me when a bar hangout features a kitchen that provides more than the typical pub fare. That plate of food was a bargain at less than ten bucks.
And then the band began to play. A group called Star Network. I was quite impressed. I usually don’t like bar band music because it is played loud and not mixed to avoid distortion. Not so with this group; I could clearly distinguish the various instruments and vocals. Very talented musicians and singers, especially the lead guitar player. And they performed the kind of music I like, classic rock and roll from my good ol’ days.

And, oh yeah, the trike driver I had messaged earlier finally responded, and I made arrangements for a 9 p.m. pick-up. So, it was pert near a perfect night out!

I had plenty to drink at Car Wash (and they didn’t have Zero so I was drinking SML) but I was up for a nightcap at Monty’s after the ride home. Alas, the bar was dark. This morning they told me there were no customers, so they closed. Damn, that’s not good for a Saturday night. I hope they are still in business next time I visit.

And that was pretty much my weekend in Pundaquit.

Goodbye Monty’s…
It’s good to be home.

Well, Halloween is right around the corner. Ready for some scary stuff?

Just put some ice cream or whipped cream on top, and don’t think about where it comes from.
Beer is the cure. Or at least it helps you forget about the problem.
But it doesn’t get any scarier than this, does it?

Alright, it’s time to head out and feed those hungry Hideaway gals. See you tomorrow!

7 thoughts on “Come sail away”

  1. Looks like a weekend well spent.

    Beautiful looking sea!!

    Hope you get the knee checked out soon.

  2. Does that qualify as “glamping”? It looks pretty rugged to me.

    Not glamping, but also not very fun-looking, what with a bunch of tents all clustered together in what looks like a lame attempt to re-create civilization. What’s the point in camping while surrounded by people?

    and my imagination once again briefly ran wild

    You strike me as—how do I put this politely—a bit over-concerned for your safety!

    This gent was there to greet me as I entered the Car Wash, but I guess it wasn’t my time.

    Interesting how different cultures treat death. In Mexico, there is a quasi-Catholic cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Lady Death). Fun stuff.

    I went with the daily special rib platter.

    Looks mighty good.

    Goodbye[,] Monty’s…

    Wow, how often does one see green, manicured lawns like that in the PI?

    I guessed that “Come Sail Away” would be the music video, but I wondered whether you’d be enterprising and put up the horrible Cartman version.

  3. Ask Swan or another acquaintance about Marimar, a very popular soap opera series from years ago that was shot in that area and had the islands as a backdrop and part of the story. As these things go, it was actually kind of fun, or at least tolerable compared to most other local TV fare.
    Cheers!

  5. Thanks for the tip. Just did a quick search and saw that it debuted in 2007. It looks like at least some episodes are available on YouTube. Alas, it is in Tagalog…

  6. Yeah, I wouldn’t be interested in camping out there. Some of the rooms look like they’d be okay for an overnight. I think the attraction of that resort is access to the hikes in the surrounding mountains. Having a place to relax after a hard day on trail must be nice.

    Well, maybe I am a bit paranoid. I’ve mentioned before that I stopped hiking in the hills alone because there is just too much that can go wrong, and if no one is there to help you, it could be life-changing (or ending). I had never been in such a small banka boat before, which fueled my imagination of the potential for tragedy. Still, I have the courage to cross the national highway on a daily basis, so there’s that.

    I think the only time I’ve seen grass like that here is on a golf course. What was weird was people drive and park in front of their rooms. It seems to hold up well.

    Thanks for the links. I hadn’t heard of Santa Muerte before, and hearing Cartman makes my singing sound good!

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