Faro de Punta Capones (Capones Point Lighthouse) is Zambales’ main attraction. Pinned on a hill of Capones Grande Island off the coast of Brgy. Pundaquit in San Antonio, Zambales, this lighthouse is one of the few existing lighthouses that the Spaniards built during their regime.

Standing at 56 ft, its main tower is square-shaped. Completed in 1890, its main purpose was to guide ships that passed and entered Subic Bay as well as to warn sea vessels from running aground. Like other Spanish lighthouses, it was built with a keeper’s home.

No longer used for boats but small boats still visit the island of Capones bringing curious tourists ready to enjoy the views of South China Sea, experience a fragment of our Spanish past and to pose for  a gazillion of photos to be uploaded on Facebook. The lighthouse is not just hard to climb but it is hard to reach.

Beach is not for swimming. Choose a smaller outrigger canoe ( bangka) because bigger boats cannot dock to its shores due to waves. You have to swim. It looks calm but waves were like babies throwing tantrums. If you have cameras, place them in water-resistant bags or in a plastic bag. Part of the adventure.

Now start climbing..

Pass this mini jungle

Finally, the gate

They said it was restored in 2004..hmm

Its red keeper’s house, totally in bad shape. Hope they can restore this too.

The lights, not the original of course.

The climb is an adventure teaser. Capones Lightouse resembles that of Ilocos’ Cape Bojeador Lightouse and most Spanish lighthouses. They were built almost at the same time, only Ilocos’ is well maintained.

Still, Capones Lighthouse’s supremacy can be felt when you see this

Or this..

The sweetest way to make people jealous because they are stuck in a rocking bangka while you enjoy the panoramic view of South China Sea and the coves of Zambales. Let them ogle at you as you gaze upon them like Greek gods watching as mortals live in anguish. Just kidding.

Enjoy Zambales even more with a lay-over at Capones Island.

Related Articles:

At Quick Peek at Zambales

Cape Bojeador Lighthouse

DON’T STEAL MY PHOTOS!

My second child is officially a Terrible Two though he showed signs way earlier that expected. Hahaa!

To my rolling ball of laughter with some glitches of whining and shouting, Happy birthday Alfonso Liam…

This year is absolutely all about banquets, flowers, soft fabrics and joyful tears. I learned how to put a veil over two people. My social media feeds are all about weddings. What else should I expect? I am way ahead of my time but this is the perfect age for the rest of my friends to tie the knot.

Like most people, our high school barkada are our soul mates. We are seven in a group, three of us got married first but before 2012 ends, we will all be wives. Sweet!

With my then single girls ( that’s me with a gigantic sunnies and earrings you can sell to a  junk shop. hehehe). I think these girls don’t want to be left behind and ended getting married on the same year and it’s gonna be this year. If only I can wear the same dress for all the weddings. Haha!

Cyril ( in green above), got married last January. She is the loveliest bride I have seen and I’m proud that she is my friend.

Lovely concept. Kudos to the groom, Morris. Not the bride. haha!

It was a rush-rush moment for me. I have two sons with a schoolboy, no full-time help. Luckily, a freelance writer can take her job anywhere.  Attending Cyril’s wedding was the shortest Cebu trip I had. Just to make sure my little boy will make it too!

Friends forever! Alona, one of our barkada who  is off the map lately came. She’s also getting married this year.  It was wonderful.

We only missed Nanette who is based in Singapore but she will make it to Joanne’s big day this 26th.

Few more weeks and our bride is now showing signs of panic attack ( not about the marriage per se but the ceremonial and festive part of the wedding ) while we are finalizing our wardrobe and the whole traveling part. Glad I skipped this part of marriage. hahaha!

Lastly, Pitch will have her moment by the end of this year. This is the best thing about friendship — it is one of the best relationships you will have. When you got to spend the rest of your life with people without living together. Or getting married to each other?

My girlfriends and I will now be together in a new phase, putting aside the crushes era and those times when we look for the finest quotes and  giggle over some good relationship quotes because we have found our men.

One of my favorite quotes about love,

A heart that loves is always young.

 

See you soon girls!

Zambales, located in the western side of the Central region of Luzon is a frequent choice for those who have a weekend to spare away from the noise and heat of the metro. Traveling time is between 3-4 hours and the province that was once taunted with a volcanic eruption is now a place of stillness with nothing but the open sea, rugged mountains and rock formations.

“Zambales” came from the word “Sambal” an endo-linguistic group that co-existed with the Aetas – the original settlers of the area. A popular destination among young tourists, the province is trying to place its name when it comes to sports tourism with surfing on top of their list.

To most visitors, Zambales is an escape.

Part of the Zambales Mountain range(?).  Beautiful Philippines.

Its terrain gave birth to its coves like the Anawangin Cove, one of the most popular attractions of the province.

Pine-looking trees brought by wind erosion during the Pinatubo eruption. Same with its white-like sand. Calamities are not really “bad”.

Unique from other Philippine destinations, Anawangin Cove is a nice place for camping. But it’s no longer a secret. Just one of the tents during “peak season”.

From coves to rock formations..

The island of Camara

And the famous Capones Island

On this island lies the Faro de Punta Capones or Capones Lighthouse

A Spanish lighthouse but maybe due to its very remote location, it looks less regal. If you have been to Ilocos, Capones Lighthouse will remind you of Bojeador Lighthouse.

Its rocky shore is such a snob

But not when it comes to the view from the lighthouse

Appreciate the simple life at Zambales. Go back to what really delights us – nature.

Related Article:

Northbound to Ilocos Norte

“Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer.”
- John O’Hara

O’Hara’s line is one of the tenets of my writing career. If you want to be a freelance writer, then you must be an avid reader too. There are people who make a living out of words even without a degree in Journalism and writing-related degrees. Bloggers for one with most of them are not “formally” trained to write and I am one of them. I hold a degree in History yet I am a published travel writer.

Measuring your effectiveness as a writer depends on the response of your audience..your reader. Just like any artist, your readers can boost your writing career. To know what they want is to be like them..to be a reader.

Reading some blogs or literary works is a  learning process. Each writer has her/his own style and you can learn from them especially if you are starting. If you want to be a blogger ,check out some blogs and follow blogs that you fancy. Notice how they organize their thoughts to how they lay-out their images.

Maybe not a bookworm but I am a reader. My father loves to read and my mother ushered that love for reading. We read all stuff from novels that our grandmother shed a tear to what was scribbled on cartoon boxes.

To read is normal for me. The library was my magical world. One of my best friends in college, Jackie Lou told me that if she can’t find me elsewhere around campus, she just have to go to the library. If I cut classes ( I don’t attend class if I haven’t read in advance), I proceed to the library. Don’t fret, I’m far from a nerdie. Ask my friends..I’m the anti-thesis. haha!

Here is my college library card..Proud that I still have them. I can use them to promote reading to my sons though they love reading now.

I read everything from biographies to ” How to Make your Own Love Potion”. haha. I am proud to have borrowed my university’s old copy of Lord of the Rings which is one of the books that have been made into movies. It was in 2000s and previous borrowers dated way back in 70s.

If you want to write, read. Rekindle your love for reading. I am happy for ibook. I got to read this which is very hard to find

It was far from phenomenal that I wrote for magazines. I love them!

Whatever you like, read them.  From Anne Rice to JK Rowling whose novel made one child actor became one of the Top 10 actors of all time by Famous101.com..indulge.

Let me end this post with inspiration quotes for budding writers

“Read a lot, finding out what kind of writing turns you on, in order to develop a criterion for your own writing. And then trust it—and yourself.”
Rosemary Daniell

“If you would be a writer, first be a reader. Only through the assimilation of ideas, thoughts and philosophies can one begin to focus his own ideas, thoughts and philosophies.”
Allan W. Eckert

How about you, what genre do you like?

More writing tip:

How to Write for Magazines

I first read that line when I was thirteen. My grandma’s old beauty book in Lanao del Norte, one summer night. My fascination with quotations and sayings started there. I think.

We all love reading quotes and with social media, we instantly share them- quotes that we can relate to or reminds us of someone. I’m not the usual social media user  – I use it for business. My own writing business and for my clients.

A shift or promotion to the usual duties of a freelance writer that is to deliver high-quality content, I am now paid to tweet and write Facebook statuses. Weird eh? But it is part of my job as a social marketer.

I find quotes very useful for my “job”. Before I wrote this post, I tweeted that love quote above to my followers. For those who are new in social media, they are great things to share to your Twitter followers or Facebook fans.  They are powerful tools to have an engaging community.

Why is it better?

It is easy to read. Because it is short. Like photos, quotes and sayings can easily grab your follower’s attention. Articles are good but if you want to instantly grab a netizen’s attention, use quotes.

With a nice quote, you can gather likes and even comments. Twitter followers will retweet them which will give you more chances to have more followers.

How and when to use quotes

The key is to share wonderful quotes that is related to your business. Not always but most of the time. One of the accounts I handle is for a cruising travel agency. Hence, I look for quotes about travel and cruising.

Quotes perfect for freelance writers like me can be about writing or quotes that are geared towards your niche. If you write about health and beauty, look for those quotes.  If you have a parenting blog, you can also use quotations on adulthood as one of your tweets.  Some good agreement quotes can be useful for those who are into self-help or counseling.

Once in a while you have a detour and share other types of quotes like inspirational or funny quotes. Just remember not to keep on using quotes. You will look like a spammer. Users also want to feel a human side of social media. Try mixing it up with photos, articles and personal messages.

If you use social media to promote your business or blog, treat your audience with  dash of quotes.

Thank you for reading!

When I started my fight against plagiarism specifically with Central Philippine University’s The Central Echo, a couple of responses were ” Why didn’t you put watermarks on your photos?. Here’s why:

“What’s the point?”

That was my initial reaction to those comments  about my complaint against Reyshimar Arguelles and the rest of CPU’s The Central Echo. Don’t worry, I didn’t take it personally. Most of my friends are not hard-core bloggers like me I know better that watermarks can’t guarantee that your photos are safe.

Yes, I did some watermarks using Picasa before. Here’s one post to prove that.

Adieu Laguda Mansion

Then I started reading how others steal watermarked photos from cropping them to screwed editing “skills. Panay News is notorious when it comes to stealing photos. I can’t find that link where they tried to hid the watermark by placing another photo on top of the other.

I myself was sort of a victim. Though they placed my site’s url, they didn’t ask my permission. Hello!!!! It’s not an honor to have my photo in their newspaper. I don’t read Panay News and never will ( a separate post on this).

So what’s the catch? If people really want to be unethical where their values have to be dug up 6 feet below the ground, they can steal your photos if they want to. Sadly, as your site gets a high ranking, its like being thrown in an open water with sharks around you. Ugly truth.

In my case, it is disgusting because I’m not even a photographer. What you see here are just products of “point and shoot”. I am a freelance writer and my main focus is content, photos are for visual effects only.

Watermarks can be distracting

Some watermarks can be an eye sore, killing the real motive of sharing. I know a lot of travel bloggers agree to that.

Just take this photo for example.

Compared to the usual watermark on the corner or no watermark alone..

See the difference? Like most travel writers and bloggers, the main purpose of this blog is to SHARE. And we want to post photos just it is, without us posing as if we are celebrities.

Before I close this post for you to comment ( mentally or better yet, in words here ), I use Flickr for my photos. I like it when posting high resolution photos and uploading is fast for the benefit of my readers. With Flickr, I reserve  all copyrights of my photos.

To those internet piranhas please have the decency. Don’t steal, your Mama should have taught you that.

Thanks for reading!

Related Article:

Not Just one: The Central Echo Plagiarism

As parents, we want our children go to schools that have philosophies parallel to ours. My son went to school a little bit early but it was not something that I am against at. He went to UP Balay-Balay Child Minding Center and it was just “learning thru playing” stuff. When it was time for him to have a more formal educational approach, it took me some  time to look for the best schools.

There are many schools in our city but I want something that is beyond academic standards. I want a school that put values formation as one of their main goals.

Luckily, PAREF opened a preschool that very year. Yey! And so we enrolled my then 4 year-old to Junior Kindergarten and he like the rest of his friends belong to PAREF Ridgefield Iloilo

My son Akira Ken

I love every single step that my son took with Ridgefield Preschool. I love the teachers and the parents. We always look forward to activities that never fail to end with laughter and  tighter bond between us. The kids are well grounded.

With one of his bestfriends, Matthew

From a silent boy at UP, he was a confident little charm at Ridgefield. Linggo ng Wika

This is what I said about us parents having fun. Larong Pinoy..

We had our Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebration and their fieldtrip. As a Catholic school, my son would bring flowers for offering during feast days. I personally love those days.

Last March, we had our culminating. Here is Aki at Jaro Cathedral where we had our Thanksgiving Mass.

With Matthew and Miggy

We had our small program at Casa Isabelita Hall.

Thank you PAREF Ridgefield Preschool for a wonderful year. My son will be moving up to elementary level with another PAREF school but I will always look back at Ridgefield just as I keep on looking back to UP Balay-Balay.

To Teacher Silveree, Teacher Whela, Teacher Jen, Ms. Zyrian, Ms. Joy and to the very courteous gatekeepers. Thank you for being part of our journey!

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DISCLAIMER: This post is for the purpose of sharing only. I will not take any responsibility in case of undesirable events or any inconvenience. Thank you.

Related Articles:

Davao Day 3: Island tour

Samal Island’s Hagimit Falls

After a stressful week brought by Reyshimar Arguelles when he violated my intellectual property rights when he and the rest of the staff of CPU’s The Central Echo newspaper plagiarized ( read the story here), this is one planned trip that I truly deserve..

Can you guess where I am?