Roxas City Pension House and a Taste of Capiz Seafood in Baybay Beach

 

After the tricycle ride that took only a few minutes, we reached the Roxas City Pension House. It is located near the Baybay Crossing. The location is not along the highway, making the place an ideal and quiet place to stay. There are a lot of pension houses near Baybay Beach but we chose Roxas City Pension House since it was among the cheapest. 

The person I talked to when I did my reservation was Angeli. She was friendly on the phone and even when we finally met her in person. There was no down payment being asked, and they were able to accommodate us even if we called just a day before since it was not the peak season. Jener and I had the option to stay for just 12 hours and pay a lesser amount since we would be heading to Kalibo early in the morning anyway. But thinking that we might oversleep, we decided to take the 24 hours instead. We took the air conditioned room. It was just a simple one with double bed, TV and bathroom. Given the price of 500php for the room, we didn’t expect anything fancy. 

After a few minutes of rest, we walked to Baybay crossing and crossed the highway going to Baybay Beach. Roxas City is known as the seafood capital of the country so it is imperative that we try their day’s catch. Most of the seafood restaurants are located along Baybay Beach. Angeli told us that we could either walk going to the left or right from the crossing since restaurants are located on both sides. 

Baybay Crossing

We made a stop however in the People’s Park just across the crossing/intersection. A few locals were there walking their dogs, strolling or simply enjoying the sunset. Here, you could also get a good view of the beach and the Mantalinga Island and the Olotayan Island along the horizon. 

View of Mantalinga Island

View of Olotayan Island

Fine Black Sand

We went down the beach and felt its fine black sand. It was so nice to walk barefooted that we decided to just walk along the beach going to the restaurants instead of walking along the highway. Although the sand in Baybay Beach is black, the beach is clean with some people (especially children) enjoying an afternoon swim. 

A few teenage boys also enjoyed skim boarding and we wished we know how to skim board since the gentle waves of the sea was perfect for the sport. We hoped the local government could develop the sport in the area since the long stretch of the beach and its waves were just so perfect for it. 

Some Shells Left During the Low Tide

Row of Seafood Restaurants on the Western Side of the Beach

After a while, we made our way to the road crossing one restaurant. The entrances of the restaurants and their seafood displays are along the highway. We made the wrong decision of not checking all the restaurants first since it was only when we went home that we noticed that one restaurant was serving both shrimps and diwal shells. But anyway, we did enjoy a delicious dinner sinigang na danggit (150php), grilled pusit/squid (90php), inihaw na manok (we wanted something aside from seafood - 60php) and kinilaw na isda (50php). Prices of the seafood may vary according to their season. The sinigang na danggit was so delicious, we couldn't get over the soup. It was such a wonderful dinner to cap the day. 

30php per basin

The View While Enjoying an Early Dinner