Exploring Philippines 80 - Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro (Post 1)

I was suddenly invited by my friends for an out-of-town escapade. I tried to asked them about our destination but they were still in a limbo about the exact place. They originally planned to go to Zambales and there were more than 20 of them. When I came over to their place after midnight, the group was trimmed down to 9 and they had not yet made up their mind about our place of destination.  They were eying for a beach activity and the choice changed from Zambales to Batangas until someone suggested Puerto Galera. Since majority of the members have not yet visited Puerto Galera nor ride a boat, they readily agreed and were quite excited. For the two of us who had experienced Puerto Galera before, it was not a good idea because at this particular time of the year, everything is expensive.  But since majority of them already agreed, I was hoping that something wonderful will happen in the course of our stay there.

We took a bus at EDSA in Kamuning area, JAM transit to be exact. The bus fare from the bus station to Batangas pier is 175 pesos and it took us nearly three hours to get there. At the pier, we rode a boat to Puerto Galera with a seating capacity of more than 120 passengers. A round trip fare costs 500 pesos while a single trip is 275 pesos as of this writing. There are other charges like the entrance fare and environmental fare that costs 10 and 80 pesos, respectively. 

Since we will travel in the morning and our boat was bigger, there was an air of comfort to some of our group mates. During summer, most of the time, sea travel is a comfortable and enjoyable one. Though in our experience here, there were some slight bumps on the water because of the open channel between Batangas and Mindoro.

After an hour, we arrived safely at White Beach, a tourist haven in Puerto Galera. Several years after my last visit here, the water in the beach is still crystal clear and one can literally see the bottom of the ship and the sand below which is several meters deep.  When we arrived, the whole stretch of the beach right after the docking area was populated with tourists until the rocky portion at the end part of the beach. It seems that day in and day out, tourists never sleeps and keep the beach alive nearly 24/7.