Beyond the Photo: Beach Bumming in Bagasbas

The ultimate beach bumming experience is when you have an absolutely nothing to do except waste the day on the shore under the summer sun - down a few drinks, read a book you've been dying to finish, pick a few sticks of bbq street food, and dive into the wild waves that playfully spit you back out to the shore. Relieved that we survived our one-week romp through the Bicol Region, we savored the downtime in Bagasbas - the last stop in our trip with our crazy itinerary behind us.

Bagasbas Beach. Daet, Camarines Norte - April 2011.

This was our BUSY schedule: We left Cubao in Manila Palm Sunday. Holy Monday we swam with Whale Sharks in Donsol, visited the ruins of Cagsawa, tried to get a glimpse of Mt. Mayon  (she skillfully hid behind a thick cloud) and spent the night in Camsur Watersports Complex after miserably failing at wakeboarding. Holy Tuesday we hied off to logistically elusive Caramoan but finally arrived before sunset despite the transportation challenges. Holy Wednesday we went on an early morning island hopping tour of the Caramoan Islands and had an amazing breakfast on a secluded white-sand island, we headed to Naga right after and caught onward bus to Daet. My sister Marija joined the trip at this point, our shuttle van picked her up in Pili. Holy Thursday we braved the waves on a rickety boat for 2hours on the way to jaw-droppingly-pretty Calaguas Islands where we spent the whole day with JM's clan - which meant we were free to act like kids in a family beach picnic. Which brings us to...

Good Friday - with all to-dos masterfully crossed out of our ambitious checklist, we could finally wind down and take things slow. We allowed ourselves to sleep in late, have a prolonged and lazy breakfast, and play  around with the kids. We headed to Bagasbas to bask in the morning sun, and it was simply magical feeling to have nothing to do looming over you. Finally we could exhale deeply, relax our clenched muscles and just let time run its course without worrying. We could have tried surfing, but we were simply too lazy even for that, and just opted to skimboard. Walked around town after that, went back home and slept some more. Ahhhhhh, a perfect way to end a great adventure.