Burot Beach: A Cheap Get-away to Calatagan Batangas

This visit to Burot Beach is more of a spur of the moment escapade rather than a planned trip. I was browsing the lists of the latest blog posts of Pinoy Travel Boggers in our Facebook page when my attention was captured by a title of a blog entry. It mentioned both the words beach and budget and having been deprived of the beach for a few months already and since I'm now on my thriftiest year saving for an upcoming wedding, I quickly checked where the beach is located. To my delight, it is just in Calatagan Batangas, a town about 3-4 hour drive south of Manila. The following week, I had found myself traveling from Ortigas to Lawton, sleepy from my night shift to meet my companions and ride a bus plying Calatagan.

There are no longer Calatagan bound buses in Park n Ride Terminal in Lawton as stated in the official website of Calatagan. The buses there would take you to Nasugbu instead. We just took the bus and alighted in Lian Batangas where we rode a jeep to Calatagan. The supposed to be three-hour ride took us five. Apparently that day, there was an ongoing demolition of informal settlers' houses near Coastal Road where our bus was passing.

It was already past noon when we arrived Lian and we rented a jeep that would take us to Calatagan, to avoid waiting for a long queue of jeeps waiting to be filled. We paid Php300 for all of us, 8 adults and 2 children. We added Php100, the driver seemed really helpful.

In Lian, we had our lunch at a local diner (carinderia), bought more supplies including 2 big containers of drinking water then arranged for a tricycle ride. We paid the tricycle drivers Php300 each, with an arrangement that the drivers would fetch us the following day.

The road to Burot Beach is kind of bumpy. After a short cemented road, it becomes a narrow dusty road that may be uncomfortable. After about 30 minutes, the tricycle entered a gated property and started driving in an even more dusty unpaved road. In just a few minutes, the view changed from a ragged dirt road into a scenic view of water world and mangrove areas in both sides.

We reached the end where there is a serious looking guard collecting for a Php150 entrance fee per person. He was carrying a shot gun which reminded me of security guards in Banco de Oro.. The blogs I read mentioned of this place  as a property of Henry Sy or his coporation, which when I asked the caretaker and the guard, they said it's true. Btw, there is a separate fee for using the bamboo tables in the beach, it ranges from Php300-500.

We started pitching our tents under an umbrella tree. There is no accommodation in the area. The weather is too dry and hot when we were there and the umbrella trees did great in providing a cool shade. I was planning to take a nap feeling really tired having been awake for 24 hours but the excited voice of my companions already wading in the water changed my mind. I joined them and found out the water is too shallow for swimming even if we walked far, with lots of sea grass and worse, sea urchins. It was really not possible to take a dip. I was dismayed. To be honest, I even thought it was not worth the effort. Nikko even got stung by something in his face and arms and it might be a jellyfish, the jellyfish we previously saw swimming with us though doesn't sting so we're not sure what caused him the rashes and pain. At that time, I can't wait to go home the following morning and lay my weary body to a comfortable bed. It suddenly changed when the sun started to set. It was a glorious sunset changing the colors of the sky from blue, orange, red then indigo. It was the most dramatic sunset I had witnessed.

Night time came and we happily feasted on our food, chicken and pork adobo plus salted egg in tomato. Both are simple dishes but at that time, it seemed to have transformed into food of the royalties. :D Electricity has not yet reached Burot Beach so the area could have been pitch black if not for the bright light illuminating from the caretakers lamp. We also had our own lamp that is reliable all the time.

The following morning, the beach is a picture of serenity. It was still low tide and I haven't seen a single wave. I'm even starting to doubt if this is really a sea. I know it is because the water is salty, it's just that the water is so calm and silent. We roamed around the place and admired how beautiful it is. The sand isn't fine, the water is too shallow but the serenity and peace the place offers is next to none. There is a rocky area on the  left of the camping area that is so picturesque.

Late morning, we noticed there was a change in the depth of the water then we realized the tide is getting high. We tried our luck swimming in the water and found out it was deeper than the day before.I could actually swim! Yey! We spent long hours snorkeling and discovering more of the underwater. We saw several star fish, more jelly fish, and a school of small black fish. On the far right end of the beach where there are rocks that looked like a remains of a building, the water is even deeper and there are actually corals, sea slugs and more and bigger sea urchins.  I saw a post underwater that may had served as a foundation for the razed structure. 

With the view, the deeper water on the second day and with the company of adventurers like me, I was really having a good time and almost forgot my dismay the day before. :)

Burot beach is, after all, worth my sleepless hours, the long travel caused by traffic jam and the bumpy ride, not to mention the Php150 entrance fee. Provided it's high tide and you've brought an aqua shoes or sandals to protect your feet from the large population of sea urchins, it is an enjoyable place, rustic yet charming. They have clean water source that can be used for cooking but I just hope that the bathrooms/restrooms in the beach be improved soon because it's far from being decent. It is next to disgusting. The allure of the place weighs more to me though that the restrooms so if asked if I'm willing to go back there, I'd say yes, I'll just try to minimize my use of the restroom. :)

At 3 PM, our tricycles arrived and we had our final picture as a group with our sun-kissed skin. We arrived back in Manila in just a 3-hour van ride paying Php180. It was the cheapest overnight (and out of town) trip I had for the past years. :)

***Thanks to Marx of www.Marxtermind.com for sharing this place and for answering my questions. Thanks to everybody who joined in this  overnight trip. Let's do it again soon. :)

The Blogger would like to share: Tips on Creating Your Do-it-Yourself Trips