Potipot Island, Zambales

Me and my PinoyExchange friends went on an out-of-town trip to Zambales (March 21-22) since one of my girl friends has a relative who owns a resort near the island. 

We met in Araneta Center and left 9:00 PM. We were in SCTEX by midnight along the dark road when the van suddenly broke down. We got down and apparently there was a part underneath the van (please excuse my ignorance in automobile parts) that fell off. So yeah, there we were in the middle of nowhere, midnight with no other vehicles passing by. I thought it was the perfect scene for a horror/slasher movie! After an hour and half or so a patrol arrived. Thank God! They called a towing service which arrived an hour and a half later. I guess Murphy's law was not happy enough when suddenly the towing service also had problems with their truck! WTF! So now we're stuck with a broken van and a broken towing service. Great!

We had to be picked up in two batches by two patrol cars to be taken to the nearest town, which by the way, was like 40 minutes away from where our van broke down. Imagine if no patrols went in the area. We'd be stuck there until morning! I think we waited at a carinderia from 4:00 am to 7:00 or 8:00 am before the van got fixed by the automotive shop across the road. Whew! We thought to ourselves.

But Candelaria was still about two hours from that town and we're already famished! Our only landmarks were 'Iglesia ni Cristo' and a bridge. Nobody said there were about a dozen Iglesia's and bridges there! 

When we got to the resort, we immediately settled in our respective cottages, took a bath, and had lunch. Here's some pics of the resort. No fancy villas or pools here okay?

Our cottage. How cute no? :D

The door on the right is our room.

inside our room

It was already about 2:00 pr 3:00 pm (scorching hot!) when we decided to go to Potipot which can be reached in 5 minutes by a pump boat.

By the way, there's a Php100.00 environmental fee (can't remember if that already includes the pump boat ride) that you have to pay when you reach the island.

the gang at the island

I was surprised that there were lots of groups on the island as well. The island is so small you can circumnavigate the island by foot within 10 minutes!

And we thought the series of unfortunate events ended going there. We were so wrong! We ran out of gas in NLEX and got ticketed by a patrol officer for forgetting to put the early warning device when we pulled over. *doh* 

It was one memorable summer indeed!