THE CLIFF ROYALE

Water from Solar Energy, Anyone?

The first thing that will strike you as you walk up or drive to the reception area of THE CLIFF ROYALE is the rustic, feel-at-home ambience. Situated on a one-hectare, hilly beach property in Barangay Barretto, Olongapo, the resort is owned by 10 families that pooled their resources in the late 90s, to develop the resort. If you ask why the Barangay is named so, everyone is quick to point to Greta (we all know who she is and she's not a Garbo) descending from the Governor of Olongapo years ago.

From a germ of an idea, Toffie Vasquez, an acclaimed resort developer, turned the property into 3-star to 3.5-star (depending on one's viewpoint) clusters of rooms, clubhouses and picnic areas overlooking the beach. All told, there are 35 units in separate cottages that can be rented to vacationeers, or simply for an overnight stay.

Some 18 of us in a team headed by TL Abbey, hied off to Olongapo one sunny Thursday afternoon with nary a drizzle along the express ways. We didn't care about the forecast, confident we were going to have splendid weather at least when there. Little did we know Metro Manila was sullied by inclement weather well into the next day.

We alighted from the vans on top of a hill to be greeted by a stream of water by the foot of the resort’s reception area. Luis, Gammy, Hans and a couple others washed their hands in the running water, flowing down on a figurine frog. There was lush foliage adorning the stream and noticeably warm air by the stairs, which perplexed Jenny and Malou if that was an air conditoner’s exhaust.

Tired from work and from the 2 hours trip, we settled into our rooms, felt the mattresses (four to five in a room), and explored the kitchen, foremost. It had a refrigerator, a two-burner gas stove, kitchen utensils and dinnerware. We needn’t after all had to buy environment unfriendly plastic spoons and forks and those styro plates, but this writer found it neat that someone thought to wrap the plates with plastic for easy disposal.

Master planner Connie assigned us into groups to prepare dinner, breakfast and lunch. Since it was nearly dinner time, Mario and Joseph started the fire with charcoal for the inihaw na baboy. We got lechon manok on the way to THE CLIFF along the main road in Olongapo. Good thinking that Connie had earlier requested the resort’s staff to cook rice. Boy, it was fit for an army.

After dinner, the guys gravitated to the large gazebo, over videoke and drinks, the latter being chilled under packs of tube ice. Remember Ram? This time he was the bartender and no longer the chef and yikes, he rendered a song! Donna, Jen, Malou, Jacque, Dems and Gee took turns with the mike, and so did TL Abbey, all of whom crooned the night away. As for the guys, they compared tattoos… and rocked the music. Gelo quietly nursed some drinks while shooting his camera propped somewhere on his new tripod.

This author if you want to know, was in deep slumber till 11 o’clock, oh, was that at night? Lost track of the time, I woke up to muscle cramps on my left leg and thought maybe I should exercise my vocal chords as if at all that was some kind of remedy. Too late for me to hear Giovanni, but that he doesn’t eat pork was a revelation next day. To cap the night, Joseph, Gammy, Luis, Ram and I took a dip into the pool, myself to shake off what I ate for dinner.

For breakfast, we had the staples, such as garlic rice, spam (the real one), hotdogs, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, hot choco and coffee, and tuyo (Filipino anchovies). Still on a diet, I had a cup of cereal out of my food contingency and a pear. Off we went to market to get stuff for lunch, with Jacque calling the shots what to buy, Malou picked a footlong talakitok, shrimps and more liempo.

Come lunch, Donna, Bing, Gelo and Gammy were in shades. As for Bing, it was a case of mosquito bites and for the rest, that is left to your own consternation.

A discovery wanting to be shared to readers, is that the water running through the faucets in all the units at THE CLIFF is solar powered. You can have water from warm to hot depending on your needs for bathing or washing, except for coffee, which you will have to run at least for 15 minutes to kilI the microbes. Imagine though how much savings on electricity solar energy provides for instance to THE CLIFF ROYALE. Imagine too if all the resorts along the same shore were of the same wave length. Bravo to THE CLIFF ROYALE if for that alone.


The author wishes to thank Mrs. Elisa Montecastro, one of the owners of THE CLIFF ROYALE who granted an interview. She oversees the resort for a hobby but her mainline is embroidery.