No two beaches are the same. Certainly not if you look at them closer. Some beaches are left with a legacy of the fishing village that borders them, with load of fishing line, pieces of ship rope and plastic candy wrappers. Other beaches catch the rubbish of the world due to the ocean current. You will often find toothbrushes in every color you can think of there.

Tourist beaches here in the Philippines are usually raked clean every day. No plastic, no dry leaves. But also less untouched nature as you see on the more deserted beaches. On those beaches you find many different seeds and roots among the sand.

And then there's the shells and the coral. On certain beaches you have beautiful, large, colored shells, or just very small, snow-white remains. Sometimes a hodgepodge of everything. On one beach you will only find green and orange shells, while on the other beach yellow and purple predominate.

And then the sand. Pure white. Gold. Yellow. Gray. Black, or a mix thereof. And the texture is never the same. Sometimes beaches have a coarse sand structure, and sometimes almost as fine as dust. Sometimes all the grains are the same size, and sometimes it is a collection of shapes and sizes.

There are beaches that are next to each other and have completely different sand structures, and beaches with the most similarities can be continents apart. There are treasures to be found, and wonderful stories, when you look with intent to see.