paracale gateway to calaguas

in a tropical country like the Philippines one would rarely end a summer without a trip to the nearby resorts or the many beautiful beaches. every year i made sure that i get to visit at least three beaches.this year, on top of my list is Camarines Norte's Calaguas group of islands. Southeast of Manila North of Paracale. one of the gateway to this island is a town where agriculture, fishing and gold panning is the main source of living.it's not the usual provincial town in the country, where houses and stores would close before 8pm or even earlier. here bakeries and restaurants are open until 2am and sometimes until 4am. mainly because the mining site operates even at night.one can easily walk around the whole town with the church, the national hero's park and a mini gymnasium at its center. people may seem to be unfriendly at first but like most Filipinos are always ready to help an guide you to its docking area.this is not usually the preferred jump-off point to Calaguas because of the limited trips to this town from Metro Manila and the unavailability of an aircon bus. but the way here is relatively closer than from Daet and that the boat trip to Calaguas is shorter.the experience of visiting this fishing and mining town, and a shorter route makes it a good option to Calaguas. but taking the route via Daet is the most advisable because it has more bus trips and most of the boats there has life vests as they are more used to bringing tourists to the island.how to get to Paracale: one can drive to the town of Paracale which can take 8 to 9 hours depending on the traffic and the stopover one makes along the way. by bus, one can take a direct trip to Paracale taking Philtranco bus lines at Pasay terminal. concern here is they don't have an aircon bus and the trips are not as frequent as the ones that goes to Daet.