The Restless Firefly

“Music saves the soul.” Play it first. . 🙂

I’ve known Rachel to be a restless traveler who, like me, worships the beach while embraces the pricking rays of the sun as if this combo is the best thing God has ever created. We’ve been planning our beach trip together for a very long time and for some reasons we’d only made it happen many months back (throwback post, hihi!). We were actually targeting to hang out at Sombrero Island but due to some unfortunate events we ended up windsurfing in Anilao. No regrets though, it was a fun though gloomy day.

Apollo and Helios were confirmed to be against our beach bumming plans as my flight from Singapore to Manila unfortunately coincided with a typhoon hitting northern part of the Philippines. North, yes north, so I thought we can still go to this popular Sombrero Island in Batangas and push for our sand and salt water adoration ceremonies. . Hehe. . My mom warned me not to go though but this importunate firefly just can’t be stopped. Hey, Rachel came with me so I guess we both share the same stubbornness. We’re so much alike – from the love for table tennis (which lead us to being friends way back in 1999), to tube tops and swimsuits, to wandering and beach worshiping – indeed birds of same feather flock together. Hehe. . So there we were, we commuted from Laguna to Batangas and witnessed the savagely fierce waves greeting us at the port of Anilao. With the vicious sea, no boat can take us to Sombrero or to any island nearby. We scouted for a sandy beach area in Anilao but as expected, all have rocky shores. Sun bathing over sugary sand was impossible. I only had a day allotted for the spontaneous getaway and going to the other side of Batangas for beaching will take a lot of my limited time in PH. Then we saw these courageous men taking advantage of the strong winds with a sail on a board, in my head I screamed “Please don’t tell me we’re gonna do this!”. But we did it. . 🙂

We didn’t wanna go home without drowning a little and accidentally gulping sea water so we stayed where we were and just hoped to enjoy what the day will bring. We decided to try windsurfing when we met German Paz while scouting for a good resort. He offered us a friendly first-time-windsurfer price that was truly affordable and made us forget all the hassle brought by the storm. German Paz, just so you know, is the coach of the Philippine Windsurfing team who already joined many international competitions. We were introduced to a few teenagers with unbelievable sinigang-cut abs (sinigang is an all-time Filipino favorite sour tasty dish that Rachel and I use to describe beautifully shaped abs, hehe! Don’t ask how we came about using sinigang, haha!) who happened to be kuya German’s trainees.

With all the friendliness aura in kuya German plus the existence of Archimedes principle of buoyancy, we trusted him that he can guide and teach us to windsurf despite the furious waves and winds. Each blow of the storm wind under the gloomy dark clouds were too strong and heavy that we found it difficult to balance on the board and control the sail. So we let kuya German do all the works while we just held on to a part of the sail. He let me and Rachel sit on the board together on our first ride while he windsurfed so we could get a feel of the ferocious waves and cold wind in the middle of the sea.

We, specially me, had a lot of plunging and drowning experience when coach tried to let me windsurf alone. But I still trusted kuya German he’ll not let me die. Haha! I salute his stamina for controlling the sail on the worst weather condition while teaching both Rachel and I in a 1-on-1 alternating mode for the whole afternoon. When it’s my turn to rest (and it’s Rachel’s turn to windsurf), I didn’t feel bored and alone in a small nipa hut back at the resort where I met a lovely windsurfing-enthusiast couple (kuya German’s friends) and a few of coach’s trainees sharing with me all their windsurfing experiences over some shots of alcohol, unripe mangoes and few sticks of cigarettes. 🙂 We stopped windsurfing as soon as the dusk sky was realized. Kuya and his team were indeed very accommodating to the 2 lost ladies in Anilao, they even invited us to join them feast on their homecooked dinner. Our humble hearts were really blown away by their genuine hospitality.

With the luck we found in meeting German Paz, yummy dinner offered by coach and newly met friends plus a free hitch from a very nice couple who dropped us in SLEX where Rachel’s mom and brother awaited to pick us up, our body-aching windsurfing trip in Anilao was really incredible. So incredible and fun that Rachel got hooked to this water sport and got her coming back to Anilao and kept in touch with coach German. . 🙂