Burrot (Elizalde) Beach, Calatagan 22 May 2011

bumming in Burrot/Elizalde beach with my hammock

I was looking through blogs for a mountain to climb when an outdoor enthusiast (can't really remember) wrote about a beach they have accidentaly discovered along their treck. The story and pictures were presented in excitement that channeled through me, and made me search further for info regarding that beach.

it does not complete without a jump shot in Burrot/Elizalde Beach

Friday midnight came and my friend's mom (with all her reserved rights) won't let us go;  Well, she claimed we hadn’t told her in advance; Few days later, she said it was Friday the 13^th, yada yada. Then again, after clever rebuttals and defense, we managed to push it through the following weekend. 

got if from the waters. don't know what it is but i put it back to where it belongs :-)

We left at 12:37 of Saturday (that’s basically meeting up Friday after everyone’s work) and drove straight ahead to Quezon for 3 other beaches (see the Quezon blog for details on these beaches); Then evening of Saturday, we drove back to batangas where we will be hosted by a company’s family. The day after, Sunday, is that alloted for burrot beach.

just another catch; i put it back to the waters too...

Well, our cheat sheet says we should be in burrot by around 1:30 in the afternoon, but the pal from batangas insisted seeing this and that place along the way (in fact, even going fiesta in her sister’s town of loboc, where we had lunch, and took something for our lunch part 2 in the beach; Many many thanks for the Aguda Family’s hospitality).

sea cucumber?

After 2 stops (Taal church, and Lemery Market), 3 hours, and 72kms from Loboc, vast mangroves, thick forestry, and a narrow trail opens to a wide shoreline of fine brownish white sand. The time was 2:39pm when we reached burrot beach; an hour delay, but certainly completely forgotten after seeing the beach. All we cared about was getting round the area as soon as possible.

hollow forms of burot/elizalde beach

leftmost cabin is the washroom of Burot/Elizalde Beach

Looking at the condition of the huts and the whole beach perse, it seems that since the time SM holdings bought the property, there hasn’t been anyone in charge of maintenance; Perhaps because everything will be cleared up anyway once the development plan is laid out.

The collectors came in, asked for P60/head, friend haggled for P300 for the group (5), done deal; No tables/huts whatsoever.  We’re spending 3 hours at most on every beach and these rentals are not practical. I brought a huge beachtowel for the whole trip to lay our beach bling blings; Took out the umbrella and pulled one friend to walk around.

walk towards left

On the right side of the shore, facing the sea, is a destructed dock port.  There were some mangroves that have grown away from the rest; Beyond that point is the sea.

Towards left, the sand becomes brown to golden, and sand becomes mixed with pebbles. You’ll spot trash, bottles, plastic cups, paper plates, spoons, etc, here and there (and some dry and rotting star fishes...urrrrggghhhh). There will be areas with rock formations and some more mangroves.  Further walking will be a wider cove but the beach becomes very narrow in this area; The thick bushes comes very close to the shore, and at some point you’ll have to climb up the bush to get through some thorn trees sitting at the shore.c

further to the left of the cove

From the shore, roughly 30 meters away towards the sea, there will be an area that seems clear from weeds (very nice to bathe in if only the water had been lower; we’ve spotted a group of locals having a picnic, and they said the water level goes down at dusk and you can actually walk to that area.

To the end of that long shore is another mangrove. But then, with only the two of us in that area, we decided to go back; besides,  the weather is getting loomy.

trespassing?

We got back, had snack, and washed up. Word of warning: consider as if there is no toilet/wash. The bowl is covered with wood and considering the situation around, I did not plan on checking further whether it is working or not.  There is no electricy, and no matter if it’s daytime, it’ll be very dark if you’ll close the door while washing. Hence, you shall leave the door open, or at least, part of it.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Burrot beach is 123 kilometers from TAFT/EDSA intersection in Pasay City, located in Brgy 4, Calatagan, Batangas. From Manila, drive all the way to Calatagan, passing through bacoor, dasma, tagaytay, nasugbu, lian, and then Calatagan.

Barangay IV Welcome Arc

turn left on this part. see the close up shot of the sign

roadsign to mark when to turn left; road leads to graveyards

Approaching the Calatagan Municipal hall/park will be a one-way road where , driving, you’ll need to go round it’s yard. From the sign where it says one way, turn right, then immediate left (this is circumnavigating the hall), and then right. From there, you’ll see the arc welcoming you to barangay IV.

go straight ahead on this part. This leads further to the 1st cemetery

approaching cemetery, which is the white structure on the right.  Road curves towards right.

After the arc, take the 1^st left (500m rough from the municipality) that leads to a cemetery (or a group of, there’s 3 groupings actually, 100m away each).  First cemetery(1.2kms from the Brgy IV Arc; 2.3kms to the beach) will be on your right side. Then, the road curves to the right (rough terrain starts here), then go straight further (on areas where road splits to a Y, I noticed the route is that with the wider road.  I’ve taken pictures of the junctions, and captioned them with the route).

last cemetery on the left and the ecology center on the right. On this part, nevermind the detours to the left...just keep straight ahead

take the right one. less than hundred meters from here is a guard and a gate who registers your vehicle plate

nevermind the small detour; just straight ahead

take the left route on this part

once you see the boats, this is the sign that you're quite close

take the one on your left

center of the photo is the beach already

this is your entry view

Detailed itinerary of our trip is available from my previous blog.

More google results further, I've read that it has been bought by Henry Sy and that it'll be open to public only until 1st of July. That moment, I had included it therefore in my 'must' for summer 2011. I need to see it before any development ever takes place.

and some more bumming

We thought about including it in our camsur getaway (which did not, after all, really materialize) but it's out of the way; besides, other than laiya, we have nothing else in mind for batangas.

Now, on a birthday I was on, along with the group I came with on our dasol escapade, i began my burrot beach presentation. The planning came thereafter, and agreement was to leave 12:30 of the coming Saturday. The next day, Quezon came to mind, and I told everyone we can do both in one driving.