Category: quezon province

Padre Burgos is a municipality in Quezon province named after Jose Burgos of the Gomburza. Such a tragic name origin, but the municipality itself is peaceful. Padre Burgos was formerly known as Laguimanok due to the shape of the coastline, which resembles a chicken’s beak. In fact, the town was getting ready for the Laguimanok festival the weekend we were there. (On the way home, we stopped to watch a group of children practicing the “chicken dance” inside a covered basketball court.)

We ended up in Padre Burgos because a colleague of mine has an uncle who owns a beach house, and the house was available for us to use for the month of February. I’ve never been to Quezon before, so I have no expectations. (All I knew was that we would be having tequila, which for me was a good enough reason to go.)

We hired a van to get to Padre Burgos, which is an hour or so away from Lucena. We visited two islands, Borawan and Dalampalitan. J and I and two other colleagues decided not to go to Puting Buhangin because it started to rain very hard and we were freezing our asses off. I did not plan for a rainy weekend at all. Philippine weather, you big weirdo!

Borawan: pro, impressive rock formations; con, expensive huts (PhP 700), wild beach.

Dalampalitan: pro, quieter, more affordable huts (PhP 200), no waves; con, because there was no current, it was pretty muddy, making it hard to swim. Look how serene the water is. We had these for lunch. I learned how to crack these crabs open out of necessity. (I know — I grew up in a fishing town and I never learned how to properly crack crabs.)

Yung pose na parang pupunta lang ng office. We saw a bunch of tiny hermit crabs and some weird tentacle plant or animal thing. I don’t know what it is. Please enlighten me. Pine trees by the beach. Back to the house, shower, dinner, endless conversation, Patron tequila that seemed bottomless. A brief drama as I suddenly broke out in hives. Not sure what the trigger was. More tequila.

The next day, the sun came out and we took a walk along the shoreline. Starfish! Somewhere in that landscape is the house. Oysters stuck to the rocks, glowing like gold coins. The walk back, then a bus ride home. We took a jeep (PhP 35) to Lucena Grand Terminal and got on a bus at 1 pm to Cubao (around PhP 200).