After waking up with a terrible hangover—no thanks to the previous night’s drinking game—to a beautiful moonset and a hearty breakfast by the beach, we hurried up renting a small boat for a side-trip to a nearby sand bar. It appears during low tide a few clicks off the coast of Puting Buhangin and Burot beach. It goes with a couple of other names: Starfish Island and Little Boracay, but I prefer calling it with its simple but apt name of Calatagan Sandbar. The boat trip going here from where we're staying at (Aquaria Waterpark and Crusoe Cabins) takes around half an hour and sails on the ridges of the waters of Verde Island Passage.
Along the way, our boatman pointed to us a couple of snorkeling and diving sites by telling us “We’ll make a stop here on the way back, so you can snorkel”. A few moments later, we found our boat—with its engine already turned off—quietly slicing through the waters approaching the sand bar.
As the crystal-clear waters underneath our boat revealed a dozen small fishes and innumerable dunes of fine white sands, I excitedly hopped out of the boat and started wading through the knee-deep ocean.
As my friends gleamed in delight mouthing off “oohs and aaahs” and hurriedly started taking photographs, I opted to walk to the other end of the sand bar, measuring its length by steps. I lost count mid-way as my mind was distracted by the charming setting of the place.
Since the sandbar is a part of a small island gradually sinking outward to the sea, its immediate surrounding areas dips progressively into chest-deep water ideal for swimming. After taking a few photographs, I laid my camera on the sand, shielding it from the sun with my shirt and hastily dipping into the refreshing water for some swim time under the sun.
We spent more than a couple of hours on this place capping it off with a sumptuous lunch aboard our boat courtesy of a packed lunch of fried liempo and tilapia with tomatoes and eggplants.
Of course, we wouldn’t leave the island without taking a group shot using Marianne’s drone camera.
As we raced back to Aquaria and our planned pit-stop to the snorkeling area, the sky quickly darkened before showering us with rain showers. The wind blew stronger and the waves curled higher behind our boat.
Despite the sudden change in weather, our boatman still attempted a pit stop at the snorkeling area, but the waves became unbearable to properly anchor our boat. We decided to skip that part. It doesn’t matter though as we’ve been blessed with a beautiful morning sky during our visit to Calatagan sand bar. Not only that, it somehow cured all our hangovers by giving us a wonderful beach fix.
