After four and a half hours of sleep, we groggily got up, unzipped our tents and were up and about to wait for the sun to peek through the eastern side of Abra de Ilog’s Amazona beach.

The coast this side of Abra de Ilog is a pretty popular swimming spot for the locals, being made up mostly of soft brown sands and devoid of rough rocks to hurt bare feet. This however was a problem for us photographers as we were unable to find a suitable foreground object for the sunrise.

After strolling through the beach, I finally gave up looking for foreground elements and suited myself to shooting the boats and the early morning fisherfolks running about their daily routines instead.

The rising sun was turning the sky from hues of cool blues into  mysterious magentas.  And as the sun went up, the sky was lit to a fiery orange.

A group of locals were stowing up a net they left at the beach the night before and they kept us busy as the sun steadily rose upwards. Anticipating a netful of fishes as they tugged and pulled, and we dutifully clicked our shutters to document their triumph. My heart went out for them though as their nets snagged not one fish, I guess that is just how it is in these parts; you win some days, you lose on others.

With no breakfast in tow, it was time to pack up and head back to Poblacion. But what’s the point of going to a beach if we were not gonna swim, right? So after everything was packed, it was swimming time! The water was invitingly warm, and the sandy bottom felt nice on our bare feet.

Camping out at Amazona was really an experience; for most of my friends, it was a first. A second night would have been nice but alas work beckons and we have to go back to Manila by noontime.