Anawangin Cove-A piece of paradise in Zambales.

180 degree view of Anawangin Cove

On my previous post I've mentioned that the journey from Camara island to Capones Island is one of the most frightful trip I've ever encountered. I have gone island hopping on the the islands of Bohol, Coron, puerto Princesa and Puerto Galera but nothing beats the fear I felt while travelling from Capones Island to Anawangin Cove. The water is so wild and the waves are monstrous. I pretended that I'm having fun while the waves are almost crushing our boats but deep inside it really scare the hell out of me because i don't know how to swim should our boat flip upside down. I wasn't really afraid of huge wave, I actually love them, I love the feeling when the boat kinda ride over a huge wave  during our island hopping tour in Bohol and Palawan but when I read something about boats flipping upside down on the way to Capones I became paranoid.The waves started to become calm as we approach a place with huge limestone formation.



Anawangin cove (View from the top of the mountain)

Anawangin Cove is a crescent shape cove with a pristine white sand beach along Zambales coastline.It is known for it's unique combined Boracay shore with Baguio Pine look as described by most of the travel blogs I've read. As we are approaching near the island the first thing that caught my attention was a huge limestone formation that looks like a high wall synonymous to the limestones of Coron Palawan. For me Anawangin is a combination of Boracay's White sand beach, Baguio's Pine trees and Palawan's Limestone formations.

fenced camp site

We traveled along the coastline of high wall-like limestone formation over a more friendly wave and calmer sea. As we draw near the end of the wall our bout turned left and from there a view of pristine white sand, turquoise water, high towering pine trees and lush green and brown mountain came to our sight. It somehow reminded me of New Zealand form a milk commercial I saw on TV during my younger years. The moment was magical, I felt like I was about to cross another country. All the fears I felt during our travel melted away. I automatically took my camera out and started taking photos the moment I set foot on the sand.Our boatman carried our things to the fenced beachfront campsite and started fixing our tents while I was trying to feel the sand under my foot. The sand was a combination of white, black and crystal like pigments that glitters when the sun shines on it but the dominant color is white. The place is pretty much convenient to stay though its beauty is preserved there were waterpumps, comfort room and stores that sell everything you might need during the stay.

Exploring the forest looking for the waterfalls

We followed the river at the forest

We took more photos of the site and decided to eat our pack lunch afterwards. We bought adobo and beef steak for our food so we didn't have to cook so much in the camp and it will not spoil overnight. After eating  we decided to explore the forest at the back of the site cause we are pretty sure we could hear waterfalls while we were eating. We saw a slightly drained river at the forest and followed its trail deeper into the forest to search for the water falls. we saw some tour guides along the way and ask them if there really is a waterfalls there but unfortunately it was drained due to the hot weather. They told us to climb the mountain instead to see the full view of the cove but due to the extreme heat of the sun we decided to go back to camp and take a rest and climb the mountain at around 5 pm instead. We just took a nap at the sand and felt the serenity of the place.

Island girl havin a hard time going down

at the top

Sunset

When the clock strikes five we automatically prepared ourselves for mountain climbing. The foot of the mountain is located at around 1 km away from our camp, it is located on the other side of the cove. I didn't have a hard time climbing, we reached the 3rd peak in no time took some photos and decided to climb the next peak to wait for the sunset there. When we reached the top we got to see the full view of the cove and see another cove on the other side of the mountain. After taking the photo of the sunset we decided to go down and start cooking our rice for dinner.