“Come back on Saturday, we’ll take you to Bagbag beach in Alaminos. You’ll love it there.” This is what Shyne, one of my closest friend, told me when I visited her in San Carlos City, Pangasinan at the onset of December 2015.
Bagbag beach? Never heard of the beach before. As it is, whenever you hear about Alaminos, it’s always 2 things: Alaminos longganisa and the Hundred Islands. Shyne’s husband Joel is from Alaminos and the supposed beautiful beach is located somewhere on its outskirts and also near the border of Sual, Pangasinan.
Since I don’t have any plans over the weekend yet, I decided to block my Saturday for that visit. I thought if the beach didn’t live up to my expectations then atleast I get to eat a lot of seafoods while we stay there. A really good trade off, as far as I’m concerned.
We started off early that Saturday morning and got to the place about an hour after sunrise. This was the view that greeted me after I got off the car.
I thought, “Hmmnnn…nothing spectacular here.” Shyne, sensing what I was thinking, told me, “This is not the place yet. Wait and see.” We left the car at a residential area near the mouth of the beach and walked about a few meters following the shoreline which was abundantly lined with trees. We left our things at a rest house of Joel’s family friend, ate breakfast and proceeded to this supposed amazing place. So we walked a few more meters by the shoreline and went up a small hill that had a fence and makeshift entrance made of bamboo. At the top of the hill there was this growth of bamboo leaves and trunk forming an entrance going down a beach area.
After an easy descend down the hill towards the shore, I was left stunned with this view and mused out loud, “Oh my gawd!”
The beach was spectacular! Even though the beach was littered with seaweeds that were washed ashore, it was still a sight to behold. We’re talking about white sand with coral and rock formations along the shoreline.
I’m one person who’s really not into having pictures taken with some view on the background but this time I wasn’t able to help myself. I had to have this location captured with me on it.
A few more friends joined us afterwards and we took more pictures to satiate our pleasure.
We took a dip in the cool water after taking pictures and headed back to the rest house just before lunch time. Lunch was seafoods as promised and as it is fresh from the market you can imagine how good it was.
After lunch, what do you do when you’re full? Why, take a nap of course. (Hey, I was on vacation anyway.) So I took a nap by the beach and positioned myself underneath the shade of a tree. Ah, blissful nap in the middle of the day. I wish I had more of those.
After the nap, we went back to that beach area and I thought about climbing the bigger hill on the far side of the shore. My friends discouraged me to go up since it was quite steep and the way leading to the foot of the hill was riddled with sharp rock formation. Though the hill was only about at least a hundred feet high, I wasn’t in the best shape and was ill-prepared to climb it so I thought my friends concern for my safety was valid.
But, with me unfazed and feeling a bit adventurous, their chiding was in vain and soon enough I was on my way negotiating the rocks going to the foot of the hill. Good thing I brought my thick sandals or else my foot would have had lots of scratches and bruises. After successfully reaching the foot of the hill, I started to ascend it.
After a few minutes of climbing, a bucket-worth of perspiration and asking myself, “What am I doing? This better be worth all my effort.” (Because you have to admit, you always ask this to yourself as soon as you started doing or already in the middle of doing the act – just because you found out it was real hard work), I made it to the top of the hill and was rewarded with this awesome view.
My afterthought was, “Why didn’t I bring a better camera?”. I was taking photos using my mobile phone and frankly the photos taken here doesn’t give justice to how amazing this place really looks like.
I wish I could have spent more time on top of that hill (imagine how the view would’ve looked like during sunset!) but since I wasn’t prepared and it’ll be a bit dangerous if I descend the hill after sunset, with a heavy heart I made my way back to the shore to where my friends were waiting.
I didn’t bid farewell to his place because after this visit, one thing is certain: I’ll definitely come back here on one of my next vacation.
So, till then. To be continued.
MRViNteractive world 
One thought on “Explorer mode: Paradise rediscovered – Bagbag Beach, Alaminos, Pangasinan”