A Long Weekend in Pacifico
For the last 12 weeks of lockdown, people remaining in Siargao have only been allowed to explore within approx. 1 square mile of General Luna. Recently, travel restrictions have been eased - we can now head to the Municipal Hall, armed with an ID and an ‘appropriate’ reason for travelling, applying for a travel certificate which lets us pass through security checkpoints around the island.
With this flash news in mind, our group of friends decided to get together for morning yoga, then head up North for a long weekend of relaxing, no phone signal and many beers. Armed with our travel passes - though we weren’t actually stopped at any point on the way up - we arrived in Pacifico after an hours’ drive, checking into Huna House where we all (couples) had a private room which cost only 200php each, per night (the perks of lockdown!) as well as free surfboard rental.
We headed straight to the sari-sari store, buying lots of SML to enjoy on the beach as we watched the colours of the sunset fade. On this first evening, we ate at Lolo’s Tacos, a small Mexican eatery right at the end of the main road in Pacifico. Fab and I ordered tuna tacos and a fish burger to share, as well as some chilli cheese fries. I have nothing amazing to write about this meal, which is a bit of a shame as we’ve heard such rave reviews about this place! Maybe it was just down to our meal choices… I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to come back and give some other options, like the poke bowl, another try. Huna House has a great communal area, so we headed back to drink some beers. Hack: head up the road to San Isidro, where you can buy a crate of 24 SML for 1000php - hold onto the bottles and you’ll receive 5php per bottle when you return them.
We woke up early for sunrise, came home for a quick power nap then headed straight to Common Ground to order our favourite smoothie bowl from last time, the Hungry Caterpillar (mango, banana, spinach, spirulina and granola,) which was amazing as always. We collected our belongings and headed up to Burgos for lunch, stopping at Lokal Snackbar for some mulunggay wraps filled with spicy tuna and adobo chicken - not forgetting their delicious coconut iced coffee. As I mentioned before, the rules are always changing around the island and we were stopped by the chief of police on our way home - we got in a spot of trouble about the different laws up there, as they have decided to make back riding illegal, so I had to walk 100m up the road out of sight, then hopped back on the bike back to Pacifico.
We were gutted to find that the little vegetarian restaurant, Kookaburra, was closed when we headed there at 8pm! So instead, we opted for the only other place that was still open: Barrel Spot. The owner warned us that they can only cook 2 pizzas at a time, so the service was a little slow, but so worth the wait! He is also Spanish and makes his own chorizo, which isn’t to be missed - our friends ordered el plato de abuelo, which is apparently a classic ‘hangover food’, consisting of potato chips, fried egg and this delicious chorizo.
The following day, after a little lie in, workout and breakfast at Lebron James & Dwayne Wade (cornsilog, veggie curry & veggies) we headed back to Burgos, as we had been told the previous day that Lokal were organising their annual Fete de la Musique for the town people. With the police checkpoint in mind, we headed there on a backroad which Simon had found on maps.me, which was so fun! We checked out the Isda Market where the festival was being hosted, but knew we would be asking for trouble if we attended with so many people there - people were spilling out into the street!
After watching the solar eclipse on the beach through 3 pairs of sunglasses, we drove up and round the island to Santa Monica, where we chilled on the pier and watched the beautiful sunset with yet another beer. We headed back to Pacifico on the inner road, then headed straight to Kookaburra for some delicious veggie food. We ordered the lentil soup and noodles.
On our final morning in Pacifico, we woke up early to have a high tide swim, enjoyed a coffee then all headed back to Kookaburra for brunch. This time, we ordered the tuna steak and veggie burger, both of which were amazing! After packing up our things, we headed back to General Luna and phone signal.
We had such a wholesome weekend up North, and I can’t wait to repeat it again sometime soon!
