Puerto Galera Weekend Getaway

November 10, 2012

I have always wanted to go to Puerto Galera. No matter how much discouragements I hear from my friends. I wanted to see it for myself.

So here it goes.

We decided to take the Jac Liner bus in Taft and head straight to the Batangas pier/port. We left around 7 in the morning and arrived at the pier at around 9AM. What we liked from this bus ride was the fact that the conductor charged us for student fare! haha. So we only paid Php128.00 each.

Upon arrival at the port, we were greeted with a lot of guys volunteering to assist us in getting our tickets. When we got to the Minolo Shipping Lines ticket booth, I was surprised to see that the round trip fare was already Php500.00. It used to be at Php450.00. We also paid an additional Php80.00 for the environment fee and terminal fee.

Before entering the port departure area, we were informed that we need to buy water at the port since water in Galera is more expensive. We got tricked! That was a lesson we will never forget. :p

When we got onboard, we noticed that there were alot of other passengers going to Galera for the weekend. The trip took around 1.5hrs. When we got to the first island, we thought we were going offboard. But we were told that passengers headed for the White Beach should remain at the ship.

While waiting for the passengers to get off the ship, some kids were asking the remaining passengers to throw coins to the sea for them to dive and get the coins. I hated the scenario because it looked like people are thinking of these kids as their toys. Anyways, from the first island, it took another 15 minutes to get to White Beach where we plan to stay.

Finally! We are at White Beach. The first thing I noticed while getting off the ship is the crystal clear water. I didn't imagine it to be this good. After getting off the ship, we were greeted by alot of people offering hotels and water activities. We ignored them and went straight to the table of Minolo Shipping Lines to reserve our slot for the ship back to Batangas.

 

Panoramic view of the beach from the port

After reserving, we then entertained the people offering hotels. We were then escorted to see the rooms at Dreamwave by "ate". But since there is a bar at the ground floor, we decided that we didn't want to stay there because we were thinking of the noise at night. We then asked for another option and were then escorted to Mendelluke's Suite. We were offered the big room that cost Php 2,000.00 for a night. When we saw the rooms, we immediately decided to stay there since it was clean, very spacious. and we wanted to decide right away for us to start our tour.  

Panoramic view of the beach from infront of our lodge

Beach infront of our lodge

 

Affordable meals

We then decided to eat before proceeding with our island hopping tour. We walked a few blocks looking for a good place to eat. But it seems that the menu was the same. So we decided to eat at the next place that we see which was "Food trip sa Galera". Their food was affordable. They had rice meals that range from Php 85.00 to Php 125.00. Not bad.

After eating, we texted "ate" that we were ready for our island hopping. I'm glad that we were able to bargain for this tour. It was initially offered to us as Php 1,500.00. But I was persistent that the trip should only cost us Php 1,000.00. So she offered the tour for Php 1,200.00 including transportation to and from the port, gears and some bread for the fish feeding. We grabbed the offer and off we go!

The trip from the beach to the port only took around 10-15 minutes via tricycle while the trip from the port to the "Aquarium" took around 20 minutes.

One of the nice islands

When we got to the "Aquarium", our boat was approached by 2 small boats. Our boatman and guide explained that since our boat was big, they are not able to "park" the boat where the corals are since it may damage the corals. For a better snorkeling experience, we need to hire the small boats who will be guiding us around the area.

 

Fish feeding - get ready to be bitten!

                                                                             Since we had no choice, we had to hire 2 small boats at Php 200.00 each to take us around the area. Well, it was worth it I guess. They provided the snorkeling gears while the life vest was from our big boat.
 
The small boat brought us to where there the corals and colorful fishes were. We really enjoyed this part except for the part where we saw snakes swimming. Haha. Here are some of the pictures I took underwater.


View underwater



View underwater

 After snorkeling, the "Kuya" from the small boat was convincing us to try the underwater cave since that place is good for picture taking. Being on a budget, we declined the offer. They then escorted us back to our big boat. From there, we went to one of the islands for more picture taking.



Sexy ladies at the beach

 We spent around an hour just taking pictures (which I will not post :p). Afterwhich, our boatman had to come fetch us to say that we had to go back to White Beach.

It was starting to get dark when we got to White Beach. We decided to go back to our room to freshen up then eat our dinner.





We had dinner at Residencia de Galera. We were so pleased with their waitress. She is super nice and accomodating. That's why we also decided to have our breakfast there the next day.


Highly recommended due to their super friendly and accomodating Ate Joy

One of the many groups of fire dancers

While waiting for our dinner to be served, we watched some of the fire dancers. It was entertaining and exciting since they allow the visitors to have their pictures taken with the dancers. We also had our pictures taken with the dancers. But we weren't able to give some tips since we didn't notice that they have a container where you will just drop your tip. haha
 


 

The famour Mindoro Sling

 After eating, we went to Dreamwave to try the famous Mindoro Sling. The price was consistent for all bars. A pitcher costs Php300.00

While drinking, my friends tried their henna tatoo which only costs Php100.00 per design.

Some vendors were also roaming around selling "pulutan" which was way cheaper than the ones offered in the bars. it was practical to buy from them since there is no corkage fee.



Now, it's time to go back to bed and get ready for the next day.


Our room at Mendelluke's Suite (Php 2,000.00 per night)



Banana Boat Station where you can leave your valuables

 The next day, we tried their banana boat ride. It was now at Php200.00 per person. The ride took around 15 minutes with 3 drops.

Before we were able to ride the boat, we had to wait for 6 more people since the boat can accomodate 10 people.

Banana Boat

When a group of 6 were willing to share the boat with us, we immediately paid for it and wore their life vests.

Before settling in, I asked one of the "Kuyas" to take our pictures using my water proof camera. So we had to be in the front of the boat. Haha.

It was fun! Though we had to take in a lot of the super salty water with every drop.
After the ride, we didn't have anything else to do but to swim and enjoy the beach.

It was a short but fun vacation indeed.

-End-