Exploring the Untouched Beauty of Zambales: Mt Pundaquit, Anawangin Cove, Capones Island, and Nagsasa Cove

Seeking for weekend escapade with tight budget?

Anawangin Beach

If you're an adventure-seeking traveler, try to explore the beauty of Anawangin and Nagsasa Cove. There's no electricity there, no cellphone signal, no social media. Just a plain and basic life. Perfect place to escape a busy life in the city!

It's located in San Antonio, Zambales. Just 4 hours away from Manila.

You may go hiking, camping, swimming, snorkeling, and island hopping.


How to go to Anawangin?
Option 1. Ride a bus going to Iba, Zambales and ask the driver to drop you off at San Antonio Market. Victory Liner Pasay Terminal, Cubao, and Caloocan has this route. Ride a tricycle going to Brgy Pundaquit.
Option 2. Ride a bus going to Olongapo and drop off at the end of the route. From Olongapo, there are buses going to Iba, Zambales and ask the driver to drop you off at the public market of San Antonio. Ride a tricycle going to Brgy Pundaquit.


OUR 1st DAY OF TRIP:We meet at Victory Liner Pasay Terminal at 1am and the bus departed at 1:30am. It's been a sleepless night since we still have work that Friday night. We arrived Olongapo at 5am and rode another bus going to San Antonio. We ate breakfast in the market and buy goods. We bought raw chicken, pork, fish, egg, tomatoes, and charcoal for cooking. We then rode a tricycle going to Brgy Pundaquit, at the house of our boatman. We contact him days before the trip and make arrangements for the fees of boat rentals for our island hopping. He also lend us kitchen and cooking utensils for our camping.

You may ride a boat going to Anawangin Island but you may also go on a trek via Mt Pundaquit going down to Anawangin Island. From Brgy Pundaquit, it's a 2-hour trek to reach the summit of Mt Pundaquit and another 2 hours going down to Anawangin Island.

View of Anawangin Island from the summit of Mt Pundaquit

If you prefer hiking for more thrilling adventure, you should get a guide because it may be dangerous specially for newbie. You have to cross not more than 10 rivers during the hike. The current depends on the weather but usually, it's knee deep.

River current are not that strong.

At first, the mountain is a flat terrain but as we go, it's getting steeper. Soil has varying color from brown to dark brown, to red, and to black. There has a lot of rocks and high bush. Sometimes it's hard to see the path because of the very tall grass. Good thing is it doesn't have sharp edges. The strike of the heat of the sun adds more stress in climbing the summit but the wonderful view of the nearby mountains really compensates all the tiredness we felt.

View of the nearby mountains as we almost reach the Mt Pundaquit summit.

You can drink fresh water from the rivers. It's clean and cold!

After 2 hours of trekking, we finally reach the summit! It's really worth the climb.

At the summit of Mt Pundaquit as we enjoy the cold breeze of fresh air.

After an hour of staying at the summit, it's time to go down. It became easier for us to go down because of the excitement we felt upon seeing Anawangin Island. It gets more exciting as we gets closer to the view of Anawangin beach. You'll know you're almost there if you see a lot of Agoho trees. Agoho trees looks like pine trees that are planted alongside of the Anawangin Island.

The last river we crossed with Agoho trees on the side. From this river, it only took us less than 10 minutes to reach the Anawangin beach.

The Anawangin Island

My hunk friends standing above the big rocks at the side of Anawangin cove.

My boyfie, trying to climb large rock formations.

My cute friend in the picture.
Amazing rock formations, indeed!

After an hour of swimming and picture taking at Anawangin Island, the guide and the boatman fetch us and we now proceeded at Nagsasa Cove - the most wonderful island in the city. It's a 45-minute boat ride from Anawangin Island to Nagsasava Cove.

We set up our things in the campsite and prepared our lunch upon arriving Nagsasa Cove.

Without these couple, i guess we starved to death. Haha!

My friends who lit the fire for cooking.

Grilled hotdogs! Just wow!

Our cottage and tent where we stayed overnight.

Bicol express, grilled hotdogs, and tomatoes for lunch! Yum!

We ate our super late lunch at 4pm. After the very satisfying meal, we slept until sunset. Since there's no electricity in the island, we set up a bonfire. After dinner, it's now time for socials! My friends may forget to bring everything but not their bottles of brandy!

Bonfire at the beach!

Grilled tilapia and liempo for dinner!

Our bonfire at the beach while the brandy is on rounds!

We also planned to lie down at the sand while gazing stars but sadly, we only saw few stars above the sky. So we just decided to end our day by swimming despite how dark it is. It's around 12am when we finished swimming.

How tiring our first day of trip it is!



OUR 2nd DAY OR TRIP:

We set the alarm clock at 6am and get up at 7am. We prepared our breakfast and change outfit for swimming.

Coast of Nagsasa

Good morning, Nagsasa!

It's a very peaceful island. This is the best place if you're a painter, a writer, or someone who just want a break from the busy city.
The clear cool waters of the beach is also good for kids, since the sand flooring has gradual uniform slope. It's very clean and preserved.

We're finally enjoying the moments at Nagsasa beach because at 12 noon, the boatman will fetch us for our island hop at Capones.

70 meters away from the shore but still the water is at waist deep.

Trying to form a pyramid. Reality VS expectation it is!

Le boyfie!

The deep blue waters of Nagsasa beach with its mountainous view.
Photo taken by Angelo on the boat approaching the island.

We then break the camp, arrange and carry our bags with us as we island hop to Capones - the rocky island where the lighthouse is. It's a 90-minute boat ride from Nagsasa to Capones Island. The drift of the waves on our boat and an eye feeding views of the mountain and rock formations doesn't made us bored.

Since the shore of the Capones island is too rocky, we have to anchor the boats about 60 meters away from the shore. We just walk down the rocky sea. Remember to be careful because rocks has sharp edges and slippery.

The rocky shore of Capones Island

Capones Island

It's a 15-minute hike going up to the lighthouse. You'll past by the forest and the ruins.

Short hike at the forest going up to the lighthouse.

Sadly, the lighthouse was not maintained. The place looks like abandoned. The stairs is rusty and swaying so we climb our way up at the stairs one at a time.

Rusty ladders of the lighthouse.

The swaying rusty stairs of the lighthouse.

With le boyfie on the swaying stairs.

Trying to do wirings?

At the top of the lighthouse!

Capones lighthouse and the ruins

At the right side of the ruins, there's a way up to the hill of Capones Island. Another nice spot for photo ops.

At the hill on the right side of Capones Island

The boatman told us to hurry to get back on the boat since it's already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we might find it hard to sail back to Pundaquit beach due to strong current. It's a 30-minute boat ride from Capones Island to Pundaquit shores. We carry our bag back to the house of the boatman. We ate merienda nearby their house. After our stomach were filled again, we swim at the Pundaquit beach to witness the sunset. Also, strong waves made our swimming more enjoyable. Pundaquit beach has very steep slope of sand flooring so we wear life vest for safety. Sadly, we weren't able to take some photos in the beach since our cameras were already out of power. We wash up and pack our things. We left the boatman's house at around 8pm. It took us about 20 minutes to wait for the bus going to Olongapo. There's a lot of people also waiting for the bus.

Remember to be extra careful when you're on public places. A group of gangster in Zambales stole my friend's phone on his pocket while we were standing on the bus. Good thing is, we were able to find the phone and been surrendered with the help of our co-passenger who's happened to be a local police in civilian.


We reach Olongapo around past 9pm and took our dinner at Mcdo.

Super tired and sleepy but still has the appetite.

This weekend trip may be tiring, but it's all worth it! Forgetting the stress in the city for few days is good and relaxing feeling. By the way, here's our itinerary and budget breakdown. I include some reminders. You may modify it in any way you want.

Date of Trip: September 5-6 (2D/1N)
Destination: Mt Pundaquit - Anawangin - Nagsasa - Capones
Budget: P1600 - P2000
Activities: Trek, Swim, Island hop

THINGS TO BRING:
-Toiletries (Sunblock, soap, etc)
-Camera, powerbank
-Flashlight
-Lighter/Match
-Blanket
-Trash bag/Plastic Bags
-Water Container (tumbler)
-Spoon & Fork
-Mosquito repellant (katol, off lotion)
-Umbrella

REMINDERS:
-No electricity, no cellphone signal

-No ATM. Bring cash.
-Plan your clothing
- Itinerary may change depending on the weather.
-Pack light, 1 bag recommended ( Bring atleast small bag or sling bag for valuables during tour)

BUDGET BREAKDOWN:
440 = 2 way Bus Pasay-Olongapo
110 = 2 way Bus Olongapo-San Antonio
200 = Contribution for food
60 = 2 way tricycle to Brgy Pundaquit
100 = Trek guide fee
500 = boat
100 = Camping fee
100 = Tent rental
TOTAL = P1,610++


Itinerary

Day 1 - Saturday

12:30 am - assembly time, at Victory Liner PASAY
01:30 am - depart, bus Manila to San Antonio, Zambales
05:30 am - arrive, San Antonio. Eat breakfast, shop for goods at the market.
07:30 am - depart, tricycle to Brgy. Pundaquit
07:45 am - arrive, Brgy. Pundaquit (jump-off)
08:00 am - start of trek to Mt. Pundaquit
10:00 am - summit of Mt Pundaquit
11:00 am - start of descent
12:30 pm - water source
02:00 pm - Anawangin Cove, rest, photo ops
03:30 pm - depart, boat to Nagsasa Cove
04:00 pm - arrive at Nagsasa Cove, superduper late lunch, set up camp
05:00 pm - sunset photo ops, enjoy the beach
06:00 pm - prepare dinner
06:45 pm - dinner time, socials
08:00 pm - stargazing
11:00 pm - lights off

Day 2 - Sunday

06:00 am - wake up time, prepare breakfast
07:00 am - breakfast time
08:00 am - photo ops, explore the cove, enjoy the beach
11:00 am - break camp, freshen up, quick lunch
12:00 pm - depart, boat to Capones Island
01:00 pm - arrive at Capones Island, explore the lighthouse, photo ops
03:30 pm - depart, boat to Pundaquit beach
04:30 pm - arrive to Pundaquit beach, wash-up
05:30 pm - depart, tricycle to San Antonio Market
06:00 pm - bus San Antonio to Olongapo
07:00 pm - arrive at Olongapo, early dinner.
08:30 pm - depart, bus from Olongapo to Manila
11:30 pm - ETA, Manila


And our contact person, the boatman:Kuya JR Agasa - 0917 380 9104


I hope I could come back to this wonderful place again sometime soon.
Happy travels! :)

Feel free to drop questions and suggestions below. Thank you!