***Yes, yes, I know that this entry is long overdue. I ask for your forgiveness, soul sister. But here it is. Kahit late ng 1 buwan. Bwahahaha! Ahlabshoo Mayette!
Went to La Union with my soul sister, Mayette, for a beach-ing and surfing weekend last Feb 5-6. Mayette has been surfing for like 2 months now and I was really keen on learning how to myself.
Anyway, I had my work schedule changed Friday (Feb 4) so that I went to work 2pm to 11pm. Went home to get my things and do some last-minute packing, then met Mayette at Partas Station in Aurora. The bus left at around 1:30am, mag-2am na rin yun siguro. We arrived at San Juan at around 5:45am, just grabbed a quick breakfast at Burger Machine then we tried to look for Surf Camp, which was supposed to be the meeting place of surfers from all over the world. Spent an hour looking for the gudamn place. When we peeked at the beach, we were disappointed to see a lot of rocks protruding on the beach and near the shore. Definitely not the place for beginners like me. So we hurriedly left and decided to just stay at German Sunset resort (where Mayette and some foreigner friends stayed a few weeks earlier). Great place. Simple, clean, friendly staff, good food and nice crowd. Yan, the owner, is German who married a Filipina. Mayette pala texted a few days before to reserve a room for us. Smart girl.
Mayette and I peeked at the beach…and we knew we were home.
Anyway, since it was early and the waves were too small for surfing we caught some shut-eye and then woke up at around 12nn. Ate lunch and then headed for the beach. Still small waves.
Beached ourselves near the water, and started talking about the things we miss the most and all the stories that we haven’t shared with one another. Although we just went out the Saturday before, we didn’t get the chance to really catch up on things. After an hour, still small waves. We swam for an hour or so and then went back to shore. Got rhum cokes from the resort bar and some chips and bonded some more. After awhile we just caught ourselves staring out to sea and being overwhelmed by the scenery before us. It was a comfortable silence. After a few minutes, Mayette asked if I wanted to try to ride a board. Ride a board? Small waves? But what the heck?! Mayette retrieved Big Berta, this long board which she had used before, and then proceeded to teach me. Ang hirap pala. Langya.
* Dapa sa board, then paddle.
* Kneel then anchor yourself. Anchoring is like when you lunge but your weight should be at the back leg and foot placed near the fin. It’s like getting ready for a race…gets?
* Balance, stand up, ride the wave, and stay on!
Astig. Too bad the waves were really small so I didn’t really get the feel of ‘surfing’ a real wave. At least was able to balance and stand. The benefits of being a gymnast and a cheerleader. Haha! By 6:30pm we decided to bid the beach goodbye. Showered, and then to the bar we went for dinner and drinks. Met some surfer dudes and then just made tambay and kwento and more kwento. Mayette and I had around 4 or 5 rhum cokes. Pagdating ng 1am, we were pooped. Said ciao to our new friends and promised to see them in the morning for quality surfing time.
Sunday, woke at around 9am. And bummer of all bummers, still no waves. Argh. Sa sobrang desperado namin, we just paddled, swam and got ourselves a tan. There were some surfers paddling their boards out to sea as well, again, out of desperation siguro. Haha! Hay naku. Naks, parang hindi namin ginawa yun. Haha!
We had to check out by 12:30pm so by 11am we gathered our stuff and then made our way to the resort for a German lunch and fix ourselves for the trip back home to Manila. Rode a jeep to the city proper which was a good 15 minutes. The jeep had to take a different route and would not pass the Partas station so we just alighted on a corner and then proceeded to walk to the bus station. But as usual, our kakulitan got the better of us. We chanced upon this Chinese temple (Ma-Cho Chinese Temple) across the road. We just exchanged looks and we were off towards it. We took pictures and pictures and then we made a short video since I had my handycam with me. Laugh trip sobra. After spending, ooooh, around 45 minutes there, we went off to the bus station. Habang naglalakad, we were saying mukha kaming mga turista in our backpacks and hipbags. :lol:
By 10pm or 11pm we were back in Manila.
Back to reality. Ugh.
