Eight days after our Mt. Batolusong hike, my cousins and I got another opportunity to go out of town again. This time, since we're going to the beach, we invited the whole family along. It's also a chance for us to celebrate Father's Day 2021 together during this time of the pandemic.
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| Unisan Beach Getaway 2021 |
Day 1: June 20, 2021
Our 3-vehicle convoy headed to Malatandang Beach in the Municipality of Unisan in Quezon Province for this beach getaway. My cousin Eloi, booked us for an overnight stay in The Glampbox which was perfectly situated by Malatandang Beach.
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| The arch going to Malatandang Beach in Barangay Kalilayan Ilaya |
Check-in time for The Glampbox is 2PM. It will take us 4 - 4 1/2 hours drive from our place to Unisan so we left early at around 5AM. Because there are anti-COVID measures implemented in different provinces, we were asked by the resort to bring health certificates from our barangay so that we would be allowed in the Barangay Kalilayan Ilaya checkpoint.
The trip to Unisan was fast due to the fact that there were fewer travelers and motorists on the road. True enough, there was a barangay checkpoint for those entering Barangay Kalilayan Ilaya. Just a head's up, they don't accept vaccination cards here. They strictly require you to present the health certificates from your barangay.
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| The Glampbox parking area |
From Padre Burgos - Agdangan National Road, we entered a narrow road up until Calilayan Cove Beach Resort. From there, we had to navigate an almost 300-meter unpaved one-way road to reach the parking area of The Glampbox.
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| Home for the day: The Glampbox |
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| Happy Father's Day 2021 |
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| Lunchtime - Liempo! Yum! |
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed as the parking was outside the resort. It was also unpaved, small, and can only accommodate around 4 vehicles. Thankfully, the locals here were friendly and nice so it lessened our concerns with our vehicles. We arrived a little past 12NN since we had several stopovers along the way. We immediately unloaded our stuff from the vehicles so that we may already eat our lunch.
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| Malatandang Beach |
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| Ella enjoying the Malatandang Beach |
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| The young ones didn't waste time and immediately took a dip |
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| While we explored the southern part of the beach |
After lunch and after resting a bit, my cousins and I decided to explore Malatandang Beach. We walked from the resort going to the southeastern-most part of the beach.
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| Sea creatures we found on Malatandang Beach |
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| Check out what we caught - jellyfish |
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| Sadly, some of my cousins were stung. |
During our walk, we were able to pick up several unique-looking shells, a sea cucumber, and believe it or not, a sea snake. We brought these back to the resort to show the kids before eventually returning them back to the beach. At noontime, we rested and played the card games that my brother Patrick brought like Codenames and UNO.
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| Family bonding time: Codenames |
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| UNO competition |
That afternoon, most of us swam on the beach. However, we soon discovered that it was jellyfish season. Some of my cousins got stung by jellyfishes. Luckily, the kids were unharmed as they were in shallow waters.
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| Checking out our tents |
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| Dinner time! |
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| Family bonding time for the kiddos |
As usual, that night, we had our drinking session/life coach session where we got to share about our pains, successes, and dreams. Everyone was so participative that the next thing we knew it's already way past midnight. I slept around 2AM while the others continued drinking until early morning.
Day 2: June 21, 2021
Good morning, today is a sunny Monday. It means I have to report for work. Thank God, we were only required to attend meetings virtually. I set up a table by the beach where the internet connection was strongest. However, the connection was still intermittent which caused me to come in and out of the meeting.
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| Woke up early to see fishermen unloading the crabs that they caught. |
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| We bought some newly caught crab to bring home. |
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| An early morning stroll down Malatandang Beach |
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| I set up my work area by the beach. The view was awesome but it was windy though... |
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| Time to work! Darn, internet connection is unstable... |
My morning meeting ended a little before noon, perfect timing for lunch. After eating lunch, there was still time before the check-out time. So my wife, daughter and I took the opportunity to stroll down Malatandang Beach.
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| Team Nicerio visits Malatandang Beach |
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| This place is perfect for couples on a weekend date. |
We checked out of The Glampbox before 2PM and drove back home.
Like our drive the day before, everything was smooth and there was little traffic. However, my sister Aya has an exam that afternoon, so we stopped over at McDonald's Villa Escudero until 7PM.
From there, we reached home at around 10PM, officially ending our Unisan Beach Getaway 2021.
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Darn! That jellyfish sting surely did hurt.
ReplyDeleteIt sure did.
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