Ilocos Norte: Day 2; Life Is A Beach

Most of time paradise is where you least expect it, when you think that a place is over rated but then proves you wrong. Many have touted that Pagudpud is the Boracay of thee north, but I am one of those who think that Boracay is Boracay this place – with all confidence can;t possibly compete with the powdery white sand of the World’s Best Island.

We arrived in Pagudpud a bit late that day, nothing can be seen anymore at middle of that pitch dark silent night. We settled in our room in a home-stay and ordered for dinner. The area though a tourist spot was still very provincial, stores close early and no “restaurants” were around the area that you can dine in. Lights out,

A plan is always a plan until you get to execute it. We are good, no I say great in planning…. but execution? Hahahaha. We planned to wake up really early in the morning and enjoy the beach, getting that morning sunshine on to our skin. But the climate control of our room did a great job and kept us tucked into our sheets well into mid morning. I got our of bed by about 9 in the morning but Jr wasn’t that keen in getting up; yep that air conditioning unit took him down.

I decided to see the beach on my own, with no breakfast no shower I put on my flipflops and walked my self to the beach. Our home stay was located on the other side of a small municipal road and on the oposite side are the beachfront properties of big resorts. It isn’t really that bad, the beach is just a three to five minute walk.

There’s this thing that I’ve come to form as a habit for my travels, I tend to lower down my expectations for the places that I go to. Why the hell would I do that? To save my self from disappointments – oh yeah drama king am I hahaha. To be fair, I just to want to ruin my trips and the good thing is that when the destination actually delivers, I actualy get one heck of a trip; But when it does not the trip isn’t ruined at all!

Anyways, just right across the road is a small community gate that the homestay owner told us about so we don’t need to pay for any fee – yep perks of staying with a local ^_^. I stepped right in and found my self on an unpaved road, several steps more I found my self staring at the limitless ocean inviting me to take a dip.

Now pickup your jaw and step into the sand Ian. I was blown away with the beauty of Saud Beach. People always say that it is the Boracay of the north, but I felt that it was unfair. Saud beach exudes a different kind of beauty, leaning towards an untouched piece of paradise. The resorts are well down on the southern end of the curving 2 kilometer white sand beach while the northern end stays pure void of any modern structures.

Returning to our homestay I caught up with Jr on how beautiful the beach is and that we should enjoy with the day, he concured. After breakfast we packed a few things on my bag and went back to the beach. We ventured further into up to its northern end, it was a weekday and lean season so we literally had the beach for our selves. We looked for a good spot to swim where we could go farther inot the sea without drowning, we’re not really good swimmers.

At aboout 12 PM we walked back to our homestay for some lunch. Like I mentioned earlier we didn’t find any restaurant around our area so we picked up some canned goods from the store and some bread – diet kase hahaha. Here comes the air conditioning unit’s magic spell again, yep we lazy around after eating. Gahd that aircon really did hit our lazy buttons hard.

Mid afternoon and we stood up and got our selves back to the beach, we had a good excuse – you know, UV Rays, Skin Cancern those stuff – but really we we’re just lazy. It felt like -at least for me- that I belong to the place, you know that feeling if you live in an area that you won’t miss a thing coz it is always there? yeah something to that effect, then I come to my senses and got dragged my ass back to the sand.

The day was coming to an end kand the sky was playing with colors, shades of blue, orange and yellow painted the sky like an empty canvas. It was magical, however we need to go back to our homestay as it was getting dark. As raw as it gets there are no ilghts on the beach which I approve of.

It was just a lazy day to be honest, the perfectly hued water the fine sand and the abseence of people just made it perfect. It seemed like the beach wanted us so much welcoming us into its arms wide open. It was like it had prepared for our arrival making sure that our experience will be perfect. It was beyond perfect, it was like a dream.