If you’re on an island or a beach, especially after spending whole year round amid the hustle and bustle of urban life, then you’d probably think the quiet and stillness, with the sun, sea and sky as backdrop, would be more than enough to occupy you. But sometimes, you’d probably look for something to do, other than lie down on the sand, that is. At Islas de Gigantes, you’d find a lot of things to do at Antonia Beach.
Antonia Beach appears to be a favorite among beach bums that want to do stuff other than bum around. Water sports, snorkeling… you can do them here.
This island was just several minutes’ boat ride away from Cabugao Gamay island. See, that’s what is good with how the islets in Islas de Gigantes are closely situated from each other. It means you can cover them all in less than a day.
Antonia Island, or Antonia Beach to many, is actually a private island resort. That means you’d have to pay a certain entrance fee to be able to dock on the beach. It was already part of our package with Las Islas Travel (will link you at the end of this post).
Just look at that stretch of beach right there. Makes you want to just sprint from end to end, doesn’t it?
Swimming and snorkeling seems to be the basic whenever you’re in these kinds of waters. I’d have to say, though, that the snorkeling experience was slightly underwhelming, but that’s mainly because I’ve seen the corals and such in places like Coron and El Nido, so… yeah.
Nonetheless, it was still very much satisfying to be in the water, especially on a hot day like this day.
Aside from snorkeling, if you’re feeling a bit more thrill-seeking, there are several water sports you can try out. For a fee, of course.
So our group split into two for a Banana Boat ride. If memory serves me right, it cost Php300, which meant each of us paid Php50.
It was exhilarating. And it took 11 whole minutes of the jetski dragging us around. Quite longer than any of my previous rides on banana boats.
Afterwards, I was feeling up for some relaxing peaceful time. So we went kayaking.
Haha, whut.
Well, for some reason, I found it quite relaxing to be sitting on a kayak, paddling this side and that on a calm water surface. They let us do this for 30 minutes (since I don’t really picture myself going at it for a full hour).
Our rowing and paddling brought us a bit to a cove on the side of Antonia Beach. It was there where we just idled for a while before heading back to the beach.
Little did we know that it was actually the last stop of our afternoon of island-hopping. XDD
So after we gave the kayaks back, we reboarded the boat to go to the next stop, which is Tinagong Dagat beach, and it happens to be the exact same secluded cove that we chanced into while we were kayaking. LOL.
It was here that we had a ball of a time floating and frolicking in the water. Maybe it’s because the sun was no longer at its hottest, it was more fun to play in the water together like that.
About 30 minutes later, tired but still on a high, we boarded our boat to go to our accommodations for the night. It was a very short time, but we felt like we were able to pack so much in one afternoon, thanks to Angie and Las Islas Travel and Tours.
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