This Ain't a Travel Blog: Cagbalete Island, Quezon

Cagbalete is an island located six kilometers northeast of Mauban in Quezon Province. It boasts of "turquoise waters and gleaming white sands" as described on their travel brochure.

Electricity in Cagbalete only runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. That means people actually have to put down their phones and talk to each other! OMG!

It's a good place for digital detox and some personal reflection since the place is not commercialized and crowded. There are only a handful of stores on the island. Resorts do offer karaoke and beach volleyball activities. It's the perfect place to get to know your friends or loved ones while lying on the shore, staring at the thousands of stars that are visible because of the absence of light pollution. I swear I haven't seen that many stars in my entire life, and it was mind-boggling and overwhelming. It makes you feel small, in a way.

To get there:

1. Ride a JAC Liner bus from the Kamuning/Cubao terminal headed to Mauban, Quezon. Trips are at 5 a.m. and 12 n.n., but the 5 a.m. bus gets full fast, so it's better to get there as early as 3:30 a.m. Ticket is PHP 277 one-way.

We went there on a holiday, April 9. The bus was full by 4 a.m. so we left an hour ahead of schedule. The trip took four hours.

Alternate route: Take a JAC Liner bus to Lucena (2 a.m. to 10 p.m. hourly) and take a shuttle from Lucena to Mauban.

2. Ride a tricycle from the JAC Liner parking lot (it wasn't really a terminal) to Mauban port.

The trike driver charged us PHP 100 since we stopped by the market to buy toiletries and food before proceeding to the port, but if you go straight to the port I think the charge is only PHP 50 per tricycle.

3. Ride a public boat to Cagbalete Island. Ticket is at PHP 100. Private boats can also be chartered from the port at rates depending on the number of passengers. There were four of us, so we were charged PHP 2,500 for a two-way trip to the island.

We arrived at Mauban port at 8:30 a.m. We had to pay an environmental fee of PHP 50 before signing up for a spot at the public boat.

We waited for three hours before the Mauban tourism person told us that there were only two public boats ferrying people to and from Cagbalete, and on that day, only one was available since the other boat was chartered by a certain resort in Cagbalete. By then there were already more than a hundred people waiting for the public boat that still had not arrived. We decided to hire a private boat because we already wasted three hours waiting for nothing.

The boat ride takes an hour to Cagbalete. You'll be going against waves on a part of the sea facing the Pacific Ocean, so be ready to get wet.

I advise future tourists to take a private boat as early as you can, because once low tide hits at around 12 n.n., the water recedes so far out to sea that the boat cannot drop passengers off at the shore. Instead, our boat stopped at a shallow part of the sea and we had to wade through knee-deep water and seagrass to get to the shore. To avoid this wet and wild adventure, take an early boat ride to Cagbalete when the tide is still high.

To get back to Manila, take a boat back to Mauban port, take a tricycle to the JAC Liner parking lot, and take a JAC Liner bus to Manila at 2 p.m.

Accommodations:

There are eight resorts in Cagbalete Island, and the owners are all related to each other so there's a monopoly on lodging in the island.

We stayed at a Bali Hut in Dona Choleng Resort. The resort charges PHP 50 per customer as entrance fee. The Bali Hut cost PHP 2,000 a night and we had to share a bathroom with two other huts. The hut had a twin-sized bed, a bunk bed, and a wall fan.

Dona Choleng has a restaurant. Their breakfast meals cost PHP 100 while other meals cost PHP 150. You can bring canned goods and have the staff cook it; they charge PHP 100 for paluto. A 1.5 L of Coke cost PHP 85 and a 500 mL bottle of water cost PHP 35. Since they have to bring in their products from the mainland, the food and drinks are a bit pricier than average.

And now, finally... photos!