Day 4 and Sam was still sick – coughing like a dog and feeling generally lethargic. The anti-inflammatories were barely holding my own pain at bay, but I was keen to find waves and worry about the consequences when I got home.
I hopped on the scooter and took off to the nearby village of Pacifico and found a few mushy lefthanders. The high tide was making everything full and hard to ride. The surf was average but the scooter ride was fun. It’s a great way to actually see a place while watching out for stray dogs, pigs, goats etc. In the Philippines it’s not uncommon to see a dog asleep in the middle of the road and for everyone to drive around it… Its one those cultural quirks you enjoy.
We hung out with the groms again that evening as they did some board repairs and had fun. There is great energy in these kids as they make the most of what they have. Aussie surfers have donated boards to them and they then fix the dings and keep them surfable. If you have donated a board then be assured it will be very well used!
The next day the swell had pretty much gone so we hopped on the scooter and took off to do some sightseeing with Josh. He took us to the beautiful Magpupungko pools and then a couple of kms down a bush track to a hidden cave that was fun to see. Its so good to have ‘local knowledge’ on a trip like this!
On getting back into Burgos we slipped in a tiny wave at one of the local reef breaks before chilling again. Unfortunately when there are no waves there isn’t a lot to do in a tiny remote village. We had walked the streets, checked out all there was to see and now we were ready to move on to General Luna and the famed Cloud 9.
The next day with a flat ocean (Saturday) we did the tourist thing with Josh again and hopped on the scooter to check out the local waterfall. It was our last day in the north and one of the main days for the gromnation crew to gather and hit the water. We joined them for a few hours that afternoon, helping them clean their beach, playing with kids, swimming out to the break as they chased tiny waves and had a blast.
You can just see Josh at the top of the waterfall… He jumped – we didn’t.
As well as ourselves Josh had recruited a bunch of backpackers from the General Luna area to help out and make sure the skids were cared for. Once the beach clean was done the kids headed out into the water – 30 kids all in the one space – all paddling for the same tiny wave! Surf etiquette was a bit lacking but fun wasn’t and everyone had a ball.
Sam was still sick and now feeling homesick as well – a shame because this trip was going past fast.