Private, Secluded Islands in Panaman, Philippines 1-28-10

As our tricycle pulled into the teensy beach town of Panaman, we passed only several locals, a few houses and huts; and enough views of green rice fields, stunning mountains, limestone peaks, small islands, and private beaches to realize we were in a very special place.

We stayed at a lovely place called Coral Bungalows, where our bamboo hut was on the beach, for less than $8 a person. Our cute bungalow had a front row view of the clear blue ocean and all of the islands surrounding us. We had the entire “resort” to ourselves and it was nice to feel like we had a private beach to ourselves too.

In the morning Cam and I rented a wooden long-tail boat from our place and our “captains” took the two of us island hopping for the day. Basically, we could point to an island across the ocean and say, “let’s go there!” and we would. We visited 4 or 5 different islands and were able to snorkel, swim, lay in the sun, climb on rocks, and explore each place. The two locals who drove us around were very friendly and animated, although only one of them spoke broken English. Halfway through the trip our engine cut out and as Cam and I ate some food brought on board for us, the two captains basically rebuilt the motor.

Included in our $13 each private boat tour, was one of the largest meals I’ve ever had. Coconut baked chicken, BBQ chicken, stir-fried rice in a coconut-lime sauce and vegetables, a huge bowl of steamed veggies, and whole pot of noodles with a sweet citrus-orange flavor. We had the rest of our lunch at the last private island / beach we went to, although most of it was already eaten from before! The meal was delicious and after a couple attempts, we had to leave some over.

The nightlife in Panaman was obviously nonexistent, so evenings were spent watching movies on my laptop (I have about 20) and trying to block out the horrible singing which accompanied the karaoke machine nearby.

After a couple days on this private beach, it was time to head back to civilization. We needed to be in Manila for Cam to catch his flight back to London, but had a day of wiggle room to explore some cities nearby. We had arranged for our origional tricycle driver to pick us up at 9am in Panaman, but when he still hadn’t shown up by 9:15am we had to find another way. We were in a rush since the last boat to Sabang departed at 11am. I spoke to our bungalow owner and she arranged for us to hop into the back of a little truck which brought us back to the city of Caramoan. From there we were able to find a tricycle to bring us to the port.

We caught our 11:00am boat to Sabang, and again were carried on the local’s shoulders to bring us back on shore. Cam and I had a quick lunch of chili coconut stir-fried vegetables and some sort of fish head and then hopped into a van which brought us to Naga, a city nearby. The entire trip back, including that truck ride, cost us 380 pesos each- $8. Naga is a large city a couple hours away from Sabang and was recommended to us to visit. Another plus side to Naga is that it is only a couple hours away from Legaspi, which is where we would need to go to fly back to Manila the following day.