Wandering Tourist - Local Beaches

Wandering Tourist – Local Beaches

Being an island nation, the Philippines has numerous beaches. There are several swimming beaches close to where we live. They all are similar with brown sand and clear water during the dry season (about the end of March through November). During the wet season the water can be murky and dirty. There are scenic views of San Pedro Island, San Pablo Island and the rocky point of the municipality Anahawan.

Pondol

Pondol

Talisay

Talisay

Bangcas B

Bangcas B

San Pablo Island as seen from Pondol Beach

San Pedro Island as seen from Pondol Beach

An-an in Anahawan

Pondol beach is where we temporarily lived until we got our property bought and made livable. It is about 5 minutes from where we currently live. There is no real public access to the beach, you just have to know which path between houses to take. The access we use is across form the barangay waiting shed and between a couple of houses. Someone has made bamboo benches that can be used.

Pondol beach is where our fish pen is located (see previous post). And since Flor's cousin lives right on the beach, it is a good place to have a birthday party. This March we had JJ's birthday party on Pondol beach. He had friends from Pondol and Talisay at his party.

http://midlifewandering.blogspot.com/2015/09/gone-fishing.html

And we have the beach in barangay Talisay, where we live. It is about ½ mile from the house. It does have public access road and road running along the beach. A lot of fisherman work off of Talisay beach and park their boats there. Watch the parking and do not park under any coconut trees. Coconuts do fall at random and will cause serious damage to things being hit. There are some sheds that can be rented for day use. There is a sari sari (variety store) that has a Karaoke machine that is usually open when there is a group of people on the beach (sorry no picture, battery died). There is a shed that can be rented for day use as well.

Located on Talisay beach is the Las Vegas resort. See following link for information.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Las-Vegas-Beach-Resort/215073191838551

The weekend of March 20 we had a church dinner at the Malaki private beach in barangay Bangcas A. Really nice place with 3 buildings that can be rented. There is a nice road to this beach and parking with no fear of falling coconuts.

Further down from Malaki private beach and closer to Hinunagan there is Seandy Point Beach resort. See following link.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Seandys-Beach-Point/555863247857184

There are families, kids, us and usually a dog enjoying these beaches.

Until next time, thank you for following.

I want my Maytag (followup)

In a previous post we discussed washing clothes (see following link). We are still in the process of building the house and we have a spot for the washing machine. But, we still do not have a machine and continue to do the clothes by hand. However, we do have an improvement (more on that shortly).

http://midlifewandering.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-nitty-gritty-stuff-of-life-here-in.html

Before we left America, we had a garage sale and sold off 90% of the tools I had accumulated over 40 years of living (see following link). This included circular saw, oscillating saw, belt sander and an angle grinder. We sold them due to the power difference between the US and Philippines. The US is 110 volts AC and the Philippines is 220 volts AC. After arriving in the Philippines, I started shopping around to replace these four items. These items are expensive (circular saw for example was about $100). However, I did find a step down transformer here that cost about $70 and would adequately power these tools. In hind sight I should have shipped the tools here instead of selling them.

 http://midlifewandering.blogspot.com/2015/07/major-purging-getting-rid-of-these-and.html?spref=fb

Step down transformer

Bring in Harbor Freight, a discount tool supplier in America (I do miss Harbor Freight, and yes John O, Harbor Freight). I had my father buy the mentioned tools, extra blades, extension cords, rubber boots (hard to find my size in the Philippines), sheet rock screws (I use them for everything, Filipinos use nails) and some thrift store girl clothes to give to neighborhood kids). They placed the items in a balik-bayan box (see following link) and shipped them to us. Cost of tools, step down transformer and shipping was cheaper than buying the tools here.

http://midlifewandering.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-balik-bayan-box.html

After shipping the box, my parents sent us a message that the box was on the way and that there was something in the box that Flor would like. That item was a Universal wash board. It was immediately put to use and was the first item we used out of the box (trying to bring this post full circle now). I think (but not sure) that my parents sent the wash board as a gag. But, it is a very useful item, we use it every time we wash and greatly appreciate the wash board. (Thanks, mom)

Along with our high dollar drying system we are getting along with our laundry. However, we are still planning on getting a washing machine in the future.

Thank you for following.

Wandering Tourist – Saub Beach

Wandering Tourist – Saub Beach

Even though there are beaches where we live and where the fish pen is, we want to explore other places of interest along the Pacific town areas of Southern Leyte. Saub Beach is south of St. Bernard about 10 kilometers. We have passed the sign numerous times on our way to Sogod with fleeting thoughts of visiting the beach. With the start of the Wandering Tourist, we decided to visit Saub Beach on our most recent trip to Sogod, which was 02/29/16. The road to the beach is unimproved and we parked a distance away from the beach and walked on in.

It is a rock and pebble beach so water shoes are in order when visiting this beach. It has 3 sheds that can be used on a first come basis. There is a grassy area under the coconut trees that a blanket could be used on. There is also a volley ball court where a fish net is being used.

I did not take the opportunity to swim around the rock bluff. I waded in to it and it looks okay. Probably need to watch the current and I do not know what is around the point. But it looks interesting to swim around.

We enjoyed our visit to this beach. The water was clear and JJ had a good time swimming. During the week it is probably not busy. We were the only ones there that day. The caretaker says it is crowded on the weekend, especially when rice threshing crews are in the area. She apologized for not cleaning the area especially since the place was full of beach goers that weekend. I guess nobody expected anyone to come to their beach on weekdays.

We paid 150 peso (about $3) for the use of the beach and shed. Even though there was some trash around, it was worth the money.

Thank you for following.