Zambales

Stretching 173 Kilometers on the Central West Coast of Luzon Island fronting the South China Sea, Zambales is the second-largest province of Central Luzon and has a one of the less densely populated areas in the Philippines – quite a surprise since the province is just 3-4 hours northwest of Manila. Most of its inhabitants are crammed in the lowland plains toward the coast – the indigenous Aetas (the earliest inhabitants) and the superstitious Sambals (an Austronesian group of people who displaced the Aetas and from whom the Zambales were named after) live in its mountain ranges.
Zambales has great wreck diving spots and it is actually considered as the wreck diving capital of the Philippines – with most of it concentrated in the Subic area, the former site of one of the biggest naval bases of the Americans in the area. During World War 2, at least 25 Japanese ships were sunk off the Zambales coast – some of which were probably salvaged immediately during the immediate postwar period to open up Subic Bay for shipping. Rumors have it that there are at least 10 large ships or more that lie in its waters. Aside from World War 2 wrecks, the remains of the San Quentin (sunk in 1898), a wooden gunboat, lies nearby Grande Island. San Quentin is the oldest known wreck in the Subic area. Other wrecks include the USS New York (between Alava Pier and Cubi Point), El Capitan (Ilanin Bay), LST (near Grande Island), Oruku Maru (near Alava Pier), Patrol Boat (Triboa Bay) and LCU Landing Vessel (Triboa Bay).

Capones Island
Photo by madtrap

When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, to say that Zambales was hard-hit would be a gross understatement. Not only did the ashes destroy a large portion of the reefs in the area, it buried entire towns in a thick layer of ash at least 1 meter deep – some of them basically wiped off the map. In recent years, the visibility on beaches is slowly returning, and the corals are slowly recovering with a few turtles nesting in some areas, a great majority of sharks and dolphins that used to call the coast home never returned. Hopeful signs are on the way though with a number of sharks in the area seeming to go up.
Zambales was first explored and settled by the Spanish in 1572 and founded the towns of Masinloc (1607), Iba (1611 and the current capital) and Santa Cruz (1612). As I mentioned earlier, Zambales came from the word Zambal, a Hispanicized term for Sambali. Zambal or Sambal, also referred to the language spoken by the Sambals. One of the versions says that the name’s etymology was derived from the word Samba which meant worship as the Spaniards thought to have found the natives in the area highly superstitious and engaged in ancestor-worship.

Anawangin Landscape
Photo by Xave Ignacio

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo changed entire landscapes in Zambales. A famous destination amongst campers is the Anawangin Cove near the coastal village of Pundaquit in the town of San Antonio. Anawangin Cove is a curious aberration, it has rough, ash-colored beach (it is not white sand as a lot of people claim it to be) lined with Agoho Trees (Casuarina equisetifolia l.) – a large, evergreen, straight and tall tree resembling a pine tree. These trees stretch inland and the seeds of the trees were said to be brought by ash expelled by Pinatubo. We wanted to go further inland but our local guide said that wild buffaloes usually come down the mountains after a rain and they DO attack people. There is a river a few meters away from the beach and this connects to the sea.
Anawangin is perfect for campers and it does look like a miniature tent city during weekends when hordes of people spend their weekends here. The best time to come to Anawangin is during weekdays at the beginning of the summer months – February-March. The problem with Anawangin was basically it did not live up to its hype. There were no lifeguards (swim at your own risk- I would not recommend the beach for children as there are immediate steep drops, the waves were extremely rough during the rainy season and the rough sandy bottom is too shifty); we were disgusted to see that there was garbage everywhere (the cove has no system of proper garbage disposal at all) which came as a shock for us, as we initially thought that the cove was a clean and peaceful area. We were dead wrong. There was barbed wire and rope fences as well. After the spectacle of having Agoho trees lining up the beach instead of the usual coconut trees (as it is for most tropical countries) wore out, we were ready to leave Anawangin.
Similar coves exist further south of Anawangin like the Nagsasa Cove which hardly ever gets tourists. If wave conditions are tolerable, head to Nagsasa instead of Anawangin. We spied a better beach, around the bend of Pundaquit, just before you turn towards Anawangin. The beach is of course of the same sand quality as Anawangin minus the Agoho trees and the crowds (and hopefully garbage). The main feature of the unnamed beach was that it has the massive mountains close to the shore with two very tall waterfalls (must be at least 100-400 meters high) that then meet somewhere two-thirds down. According to our boatman, you can take a dip in its waterfalls.
Visible from Pundaquit are the islands of Capones and Camara. Capones is a 2 kilometer long bone-shaped island and famed for its lighthouse which is one of the oldest in the country. The lighthouse is inaccessible during the rainy season due to rough seas. During the rainy months, the boatman would usually drop you off around the middle and possibly the narrowest point of this island. The middle has a multi-story abandoned skeletal building that looks like it will collapse anytime. The island is volcanic in origin and possibly remnants of an enormous eruption thousands, if not millions of years ago. It has beautiful cliffs and short stretches of white sand beaches- the island is romantically referred to the Ko Phi Phi Leh and Jeju Island of the Philippines – through its cliffs, beautiful rock formations, and patches of green shrubbery strewn with volcanic rocks – (reminded me of a scene from Easter Island minus the statues). I guess the sweeping vista encouraged some couples in my tour group to sneak in a quick nookie by the cliffs. Now that is some scene that I do not ever want to see on my vacation. Like Anawangin, Capones Island suffers from a lack of environmental concern from the visitors, the locals and the local government – we were greeted by trash on a short trek up the middle of the island – flip-flops are everywhere. The locals told me that the trash came from nearby Subic and washed into the area by big waves. WHATEVER. The trash is in your backyard now, do something about it and clean it up.

Camara Island
Photo by Dave Ryan A. Buaron

The neighboring Camara Island has the better beach in the Pundaquit area. It is composed of two islets, one smaller than the other and connected by a sandbar (okay well, mostly it was corals and stones) during low tide. The smaller of the two has a quirky looking form, on its side it looked pretty much like a huge stone piranha. The waves come from both sides and crash on the sandbar, which was quite entertaining for a bit. Some people camp out here during the day – pretty much noticeable with the amount of trash lying in the area and some people grilling in one corner under the shade of the low-lying trees that cover the island. We also noticed that there were big chunks of broken corals in the island leading us to think that either the waves were exceptionally strong or these were remnants of dynamite fishing in the area.
Most of the boats going to these areas are small and can only properly seat 3 people – and most don’t have a cover to protect you from sun nor rain nor the waves that are usually twice to thrice as big as the boat during the rainy season. And yes they charge heaps and a tad overpriced –Pundaquit boats are generally a big rip-off. A boat to Camara would usually cost you PhP600 pesos (we haggled and settled for PhP500), If there are four of you, a trip to Capones and Anawangin would cost you about PhP300 per person. Camara plus the unnamed beach I mentioned earlier would set you back PhP1000. If you want to arrange for a boat ride, talk to the boatman directly and avoid the additional fees latched on by the crappy resorts in the area. Demand a working life vest. The waves can get pretty freaky.

Pundaquit Waterfalls
Photo by Dave Ryan A. Buaron

Unknown to many, Pundaquit (with all of its trash-strewn beaches) has some noteworthy waterfalls that are often overlooked by people who are mostly excited about going to Anawangin. A short 15-minute trek from the main resorts of Pundaquit reveals unnamed, refreshing waterfalls. There is significantly less trash in this area and an eccentric American was damming some parts of the waterfall (he asked me for some weed too – too bad for him, I am a good boy, hehe) – he put up a sign asking visitors not to throw trash in the area – although I saw one guy pissing in one downstream part of the waterfall – seriously dude, that’s not even close to competition! Warts and all, we were really grateful that our Tour Coordinator Chris from Discover Asia International Travel and Tours suggested the waterfall-hopping on our second day, we really enjoyed the dip and were really happy to be away from the garbage dumps of Anawangin, Capones and Camara.