Magallanes Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon – Calm, Crystal Clear, Dark Brown Beach
Sunday we drove from Marikina to Infanta via the new mountain road, the Marikina – Infanta road. It’s probably the 6th time I’ve traversed this road and finally this time all the bridges were finished! There were just 2 short hundred meter uncemented road stretches. We used Google Maps on my Ipad and saw Google hadn’t updated their map as the road stopped half way in the electronic map. I’m hoping our driving through the road will allow Google to update their map. The drive was very pleasant. I brought a driver with me, my cousin.
After much sight seeing we finally first arrived at the Infanta public market. Had a pleasant time window shopping for fish. Bought the most expensive special fish I could find. Special they say. Maybe they were just taking advantage of this tourist? The fish was priced at 280 pesos per kilo. It was a little less than a kilo. Just enough for me, my cousin and my 10 year old boy. We grilled it ourselves uncleaned, as is. Grilling just enough so the flesh loosened from the bones.
We drove into Magallanes Beach Resort to stay for the late afternoon and the evening. The resort had 2 small rooms without air conditioning and 2 big rooms with air conditioning. We took a big room with air conditioning, it had 3 big beds. We wanted to escape the mosquitoes. There were a lot of mosquitoes.
The indoor faucet gave out a rust colored brackish water. Ewwww… Best wash up in the ocean water, it’s super clear.
The Infanta, Dinahican port ocean water was like a clear lense. You could walk on the shore in the water until your neck and when you look down at your feet you can see it clearly, magnified. I was amazed at how calm the water was. And how warm and inviting the water was at around 5 – 6pm. A few hundred meters to the Dinahican port itself people spear fished in the shores or threw nets in the shores. The beach sand was naturally dark brown and smooth, inviting to walk on even with urban raised feet.
It was pleasant to stay in the beach resort as it was beside Dinahican fish port. The schedule of catch unloading begins at 12 noon until about 2pm and until almost evening, sellers are hawking fish. Be mindful that if you are expecting fresh fish at 6am to 7am there is absolutely NONE! The fishermen are just beginning their day at 6 am loading ice and other supplies and going out to sea. Therefore, Infanta town proper at 6am is selling yesterday’s catch.
Magallanes beach resort is a no frills beach resort. Provincial in every way. Just the way I like it, a no star resort. It has the basics, bed, air con, toilet with no seat, an empty grill, there are no life guards. But it is near a fish port and near Dinahican town so you can buy any supplies you want.
Bring your own fun, whatever your idea of fun is. In our case, we had an Ipad loaded with Kung Fu Panda cartoons.
Cell phone signal here in the resort was complete, Smart, Globe, Sun all had signals. We even had internet via Smart. But up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere it was Smart that had the best. But there are many dead spots. And on the way we saw some 6 eagles doing their rounds in the sky.