Priam07

It is my second time around here at one of my favorite Camping and beach island destination of Zambales, the Capones Island, the first time I set foot on this island was with my ex-officemates on the summer of 2006, I was captivated and fell in love with the place immediately and promise to come back again, which I did last May 17 2008, with my college friends and colleagues. With it’s crystal clear turquoise colored water, white crushed coral sand, a healthy trek at the mountain top (where you can see the whole panoramic, picture perfect view of the island as shown on many photos on flickr), the average water waves for surfer beginners, the old Spanish Lighthouse and the survivor feeling and warm sea when you go camping at night, who wouldn’t fell in love with this place?

Before we pack for our summer outing to the island, we research a few background information and reminisce our old experience about the place, we do this every time we go to our destinations to lessen the questions and hesitations of my first-timer colleagues and the fact is that, it is my first time to commute going to this place, we also did some research of the place for planning the Iterinary budget, travel hours, activities, food preparation, etch, etch, anyway here’s what we've got:

The place itself

The island is a 2 kilometer, long-boned shape surrounded with white sand and rocky shores which is good for camping and several huge cliffs which may serves as a shade for the summer heat. The island is also known as “Isla de Gran Capon” during the Spanish era and serves as guide for sea faerers because of an old Spanish solar powered lighthhouse (Fura de punta Capones), built way back 1890, its old but still beautiful, with its original red painted brick house beside it. The lighthouse is the only stablishmnet you’ll find there but still it gives a dramatic view of an old spanish style structure which many photographers loved and make your visit there a worthwhile. On the other side of the island is a long stretch of white sand shore where the a famous Telenovela in the philipines, Marimar, was shot. Close to the Capones island is the Camera Island, a two small islands which are connected by a sand bar.

How to get there:

Capones Island is located few kilometers offshore from the shores of barangay Pundakit, Zambales, (where MYMP Get Me, MTV was shot), it will take you 3 hours or so bus trip from Manila passing through Olongapo further north to San Antonio via a VICTORY LINER BUS, The liner is located at Monumento (In front of Ever Gotesco), Caloocan City, board Sta Cruz or Iba Zambales and tell the conductor of the bus to drop you off on San Antonio Plaza/Market, then a 10-15 minutes tricycle ride from San Antonio Plaza to Pundakit Shore and a 30 minutes or so of a bumpy "bangka"(small boat) ride to reach the island. The fare we paid was approximately P270 for the bus, 50 pesos for the tricycle and the boat ride will depend on your boatmen you’ll negotiate with).

After having all this information it is time to go!

The Miscalculated Plan

All are set with full battle gears to camp out, we even have 3 tents, enough money for food supplies, swimwear, ice coolers, sun block lotions, fully charged cameras, etch, there is nothing to block our way to go to the island except one, Cosme, a signal number 3 storm that hit Zambales. Here in Manila the weather hasn’t changed dramatically with its hot humid temperature and a little bit of rains, what could go wrong?, but when we reached the island you’ll see the wrath of the storm, Huge waves and fast winds welcomes us when we reached Pundakit, we cannot even go to the island because the boatmen refused to sail due to huge waves, and the wind blows so hard that it hurts when it touches your skin maybe because of the sands that gushes with it. Anyway the trip was a failure, yet still, we manage to enjoy the misadventures we did, we took some pictures before we left, and on that same day we head back to Manila and laughed at our mistakes.

Will I Ever Go back?

Hell yes!, but this time, I will include the weather forecast to the plan and will never ignore it before we leave Manila. In fact June 8-9 is the best date to go back, so I am hoping that no bad weather will block our way this time.