Puerto Galera vídeo

Aquí os dejo un vídeo de Puerto Galera complementando al post de Kat.

Puerto Galera - A paradise stone-throw away from the city

Heading to Puerto Galera was a little bit incomparable with our travels to some beach places in the Philippines. The difference was, we don’t need to ride the airplane to go there. We ride the Jam Liner Bus from Cubao Quezon City and travelled almost 2 hours to reach Batangas Port. From there, you need to ride a ferry to reach Puerto Galera. Inside the Batangas Port, there will be “fixers” and vendors who will persuade your attention, you don’t need them as you just need to go with the flow of people walking towards the “terminal”, and right before you enter, you will find the ticket booth for your ferry ride. At the time we travel, (10-13 August, 2012) my husband and I paid Php 500.00 each for the round trip ferry ticket and Php 50.00 for the environmental fee, which seems to be a part of what we always pay when we visit the islands. 

 

On board, as we travel in the ferry around 5:00pm, the ocean wasn’t peaceful at all. Be careful with seating in the front and far end of the ferry, as the big waves can enter the boat. I suggest that you choose to be seated at the middle portion of the boat where benches are made available. Experience-wise, my husband, me and at least 4 other people (all foreigners) touch based the shoreline all wet from head to foot. 

There are 4 major entry points to Puerto Galera namely Sabang Pier, Muelle Pier, Balatero Pier and White Beach. Most of the ferry though, like the one we had will take you to Muelle Pier then they have free shuttle that will take you to White Beach. Take note of where your hotel is located.  Usually, there are tricycles in the Pier that can willingly take you to everywhere in the island but they are quite expensive (Taking the tricycle from Muelle to Talipanan, where our hotel was located, cost us Php 150 after we bargain from 200).  Then my husband and I decided to do the experiment on the second day, we walked from Talipanan to White Beach (which is Php 100.00 when you ride the tryke for 5 minutes) and we only spent 20 minutes doing it.  There are also rented scooters in the area and you can ask the locals if you opt for a longer stay and much more convenient way to travel in the island.

We woke up the following day with the sound and smell of the ocean, very serene and quite inviting. The first hotel we had was 5 minutes away from the beach. We decided to walk from and to the both ends of the shoreline. Talipanan is the barangay next to White Beach where you can also find a river connecting to the ocean where we saw lots of species of insects we have never seen already in the city. It’s more fun walking to this part of the island because there are not much of tourists around, especially this time of the year. Muelle and White Beach however, are the place to go when you want some drinks with your friends and enjoy the night life. We spent a total of 4 days, 4 nights in the island, just frolicking around, getting tan, going back to basic, enjoying the sunsets, going out for some beer and drinks. Just the kind of things we needed.

Third day in the island, we decided to go on for some adventure and pack our bags heading to the infamous Tamaraw and Tukuran Falls. Of course, we won’t let our adventure end without visiting some of the iconic spot in this part of the globe. When we were reading on how to go to these natural wonders, we were only given info about packages that will mostly range from Php 2,500 – 3500 per head. So, we came up to the challenge of travelling there without spending too much. We decided to go on a hiking trip, but upon talking to the locals, there will be around 3 km dirt road upon entering Tukuran falls. Not much of information about the destination, we thought it’s a little risky to do it on our own but we still headed to Calapan to ride the jeep / FX that will take us to the falls. Luckily, while waiting for the FX to be full, we had our luckiest shot of the day when a local tricycle driver offered to drive us there for only Php 600. Upon hearing this, I immediately agreed on the price he asked.

It’s a long and winding road to reach these bodies of water. First stop, around 30 minutes ride away from Calapan, we reached Tamaraw Falls, located at Brgy. Villaflor, Puerto Galera. The driver asked us if we wanted to stop and take pictures but knowing that we will also drive the same road when we go back, I decided to stop-over Tamaraw Falls after going to Tukuran Falls.

Situated in Barangay San Teodoro, around 45 minutes away from Tamaraw falls, lay one of the hidden wonders of nature.  After the main road, the Manong (Filipino term for an elder guy) driver turned right in the narrow dirt road, and continue driving for about 10 minutes where we stop at a basketball court before a shallow river.  Reaching the place, we knew our stamina would be tested from there as we need to use our feet to reach the destination. There are locals who will asked you if you wanted to ride a Carabao going to the falls but since we wanted to take this adventure to the next level, we decided to walk. 

There were 2 souvenir vendors who approached us as we were asking for directions and informed us that they are going to the falls since their store is located near that. For Php 100, they guided us to the destination. We cross a total of 5 times in the river, and since it just rained the week before we travel to Puerto Galera, some parts of the river reaches around our knees and the water current is a little too rough. My husband needed to hold me so I won’t fall in the river. But it was a fun walk, much ideal for someone like me who grew up in the city. This kind of adventure thrills me way lot than I expected. We were followed by 2 dogs which we learned are not the pets of any of our tour guide. They were with us from the base until we came back.

After around 30 minutes of walking, we reach the most awaited falls. Gazing through its clear water on the connecting river, I was so amazed and ecstatic when I realize that this is the first ever I set foot in a clean falls.  You need to climb an improvised ladder, which is made of bamboo to see the top view of the hotel. Some tourist took a dive to the 14 feet water at the center of the rock formations. I was like a kid jumping when I saw red dragonflies flying around the big stones surrounding the falls. It was said that those large stones were not visible when a typhoon hits Puerto Galera and the rainfall is very hard. There are nipa huts located at the side of the falls where you can eat, provided you have a packed lunch. There are no food kiosks around, you need to bring your own.  We spent more or less one hour there taking a dip in the falls and taking some wonderful pictures that we shared here. The place was really a hidden paradise intended for those nature-lover seekers like me.  Thinking that we don’t want to go back later in the afternoon, we set again to walk heading to the base where we started. Still, together with the 2 ate’s and the 2 dogs as our company.

Reaching the base, we rode to Manong driver’s tricycle and went to Tamaraw Falls located at the side of the main road.  As Manong driver told us, the part of the falls facing the main road is the front side, wherein the back side, is the one we saw few meters away from Tukuran Falls at the other side of the forest.  We took some photos for souvenir then agreed to call it a day. I told Manong driver that I will just pay him Php 700 and bring us to White Beach instead of dropping us on Calapan. He agreed and we went back to the beach side. (I wasn’t able to get Manong’s driver but you can see him at the FX terminal in Calapan. He is the dispatcher in that terminal.)

Kat's video

Continuamos esperando el artículo de Kat sobre Puerto Galera (Filipinas), mientras tanto un pequeño aperitivo en forma de vídeo.

Katrina queremos leer tu post!!

3 consejos antes de viajar a Filipinas

1/ Antes de emprender el viaje hay que tener muy en cuenta la documentación necesaria que se debe presentar a la hora de pasar el control de inmigración.

El pasaporte, con una validez superior a 6 meses, será suficiente para poder entrar en Filipinas un máximo de 21 días. Si se quiere prolongar la estancia se debe adquirir una extensión de visado. En el siguiente enlace se pueden comprobar las diferentes tasas en función del periodo de estancia.

Se puede solicitar el visado en la Embajada de Filipinas en Madrid o directamente en oficina de inmigración en Manila. En ambos casos se expide en el mismo día de la solicitud tras rellenar un formulario. Recomiendo efusivamente la primera opción.


2/ En Filipinas hay dos estaciones, seca y de lluvias, la primera comprende los meses de diciembre a mayo, siendo el mejor momento para realizar el viaje. Prepárese para soportar mínimas de 25º y máximas que rondan los 40º. La época de lluvias se caracteriza por la aparición de tifones e inundaciones, así que se debe evitar por todos los medios posibles viajar en estas fechas.


3/ Las compañías aéreas que ofrecen mejor calidad/precio son Emirates y Qatar Airways, ofreciendo unas tarifas que oscilan entre los 700€ y 1000€ dependiendo del mes en el que se viaje.

Continuamos con las pruebas

Otro día mas y otro día que tenemos el blog a medio hacer.

Mi mujer y yo creamos este blog para hablar de nuestras experiencias y nuestros viajes por el mundo, para intentar ayudar a todos aquellos viajeros que tal vez se sienten un poco perdidos a la hora de iniciar su particular aventura.

En los primeros post nos centraremos especialmente en Filipinas, país natal de mi mujer, y en nuestros primeros viajes por el sudeste asiático, Singapur y Hong Kong.

Para poder llegar a un mayor número de lectores, yo escribiré mis artículos en castellano y mi compañera lo hará en inglés.

Nuestros principales objetivos son dar una visión general del país o ciudad que hemos visitado, así como hablar de los principales atractivos turísticos, medios de transporte y demás topics que consideremos interesantes.

Sin mas preámbulos me despido y sinceramente espero que esto sea el comienzo de muchos artículos.