Puerto Galera used to be a
familiar place I associate with sublime white beaches almost devoid of
structures – where me and my buddies from UST Mountaineering Club would pitch
our tents over a stretch of fine sands with only a lone house standing in the
middle. “A German owns that house” I
remember a friend telling us. Our campsite then, situates
on a beachhead that leads to the foot of Mount Malasimbo – where we would day
trek before we retire back to our tents. For three to four days, our group and
nobody else would exist in sheer delight on a place everyone calls as Talipanan beach – which those days back
in the late 1990’s, was a picture of isolation. I would come back many years
later only to see numerous new resorts erected all over rendering the place almost unrecognizable. Since then, I see Puerto Galera as that distant friend, who
once possessed a benevolent silence meant for listening to one’s thoughts,
while offering a haven for nature lovers – but has now grown into a wild child
catering to a more party atmosphere.
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| The well landscaped grounds of Utopia Resort and Spa |
