a road trip! i love road trips! this one brought us to a lot of opposing ends of a pole... from north we crossed to the south, from glaring heat to the shivering cold and from sea level to a high of almost 3000 meters above sea level. only two things were certain about this trip: one was that we were going on a river cruise in aloguinsan and second was that we will have breakfast on the road. everything else practically just happened. even figuring out how to get to the river.
first stop bojo river
when we arrived we were welcomed with leis made of palm flower buds. then we had a briefing about this ecotour and just before we started off they called a 'tambalan' to perform a palina on us. palina is an age old practice that fishermen do before they leave for the day's toil for protection and blessing. we were on individual boats with a boatman of course or boatwoman on my part. so we cruised on our own pace and we took each detail of the way with enchanting stories from manang erlinda. she told me about the place where the asinan used to be. that's the place where they make salt, the main source of livelihood in the place before. then she pointed out the 'huwamanan' a door-like impression on the rocky walls of the river. this she said is where people come to borrow stuff that they need for weddings, baptisms and other special occasions. i heard similar stories before and had to control myself from getting scared. but her stories didn't stop there as she told me about the music that would come from the caves that we passed. there you could also find a lone tree inhabited by probably ten million fireflies. just like the song from owl city. good thing the song jolted me out of my eerie imaginings. this was at 10 in the morning. i must say the heat was almost unbearable and i for my part only endured it by looking at the water and the vegetation that surrounded us. i disregarded the heat. we were headed for the bojo or the mouth of the river. the delta in other words, the place where the river meets the sea. sounds like something from a poem. the view as we approached the mouth was simply breathtaking. we had planned on taking a dip there but the sea was a bit too rough, a stark contrast to the placid surface of the river that we had just left. we allowed ourselves to be tossed around by the waves before we headed back to the river and stopped at the sandbar for some pictures, what else? nobody brought a real camera so we had to use our mobile phones. the wonder of technology. i could alternate between helping manang paddle our little boat and sending an entry to my blog!
back at the cottage they laid out snacks for us that was not only filing but quite unique as well. think biko oozing with latik, kinilaw nga isda with nilung.ag nga camote, inanag nga mais and sinugba nga saging painted with butter. the food was good and we were happy. but we were still itching to get our dry swimsuits wet. and so we headed for our next destination.
second stop hidden beach
have you been on a road that almost doesn't lead you to where it's supposed to...that's what you call the road leading to hidden beach. it gave us the convenient excuse when we lost our way going there. turned out to be obscured really. we almost felt like leonardo in the beach. and though we would never even entertain the idea of living there it had its own charm that we all loved. apart from the road that almost never led us there, we learned that the beach is only full during black saturday. this explained the cottages that looked worn out by time and the elements rather than from human usage. it almost looked abandoned and for a while i felt like we discovered it accidentally and now have to report back to civilization about it. and the cool breeze almost felt divine on our parched skin. we enjoyed a hearty lunch there but never got to swim. the sea was up to the neck, if you walk upside down. you know what i mean. but were not giving up on the swim. we lingered for a while then decided that we still had enough time to find a place to swim. we will take the transcentral highway going back so it has to be somewhere there. we thought it would be at island in the sky. the last time i heard they had a swimming pool there. so we climbed back to the car and played the disputed billboard top 100 of maybe 2007, 2008 or 2009.
third stop island in the sky
as soon as we ascended the transcentral highway we rolled down our windows for some cool breeze. navigating through the highway was such a visual treat. the view was stupendous! it looked like God used photoshop to create the vistas from our windows. as if He would need it. at island in the sky we stepped out of the car and then all went back to practically grab our jackets and shawls. it was just so cold. good thing we left early and brought coverings against the now palpable early morning december cold.
we were somewhere near 3000 meters above sea level, we crossed a hanging bridge and were huddled on a platform gazing in awe at the canvass that lay below us. we also were in awe of how addictive boy bawang is as we munched it away. the pool was under repair or something. but who cared? the last thing on our minds was to be frozen unless they have a heated pool.
as the sun started to set behind the clouds, we started our way home. but since no trip to balamban is complete without stopping for sweet corn and vegetables we conformed. it has been a while since i took this road to the city at night and so i relished the view of the cebu and mandaue looking like a glittering carpet below.
and then just like a dream, we snapped right back to reality when we reached jy square as we turned the car aircon on. but everyone was still in high spirits especially with our next itinerary mapped out. it was such a long wonderful day with such wonderful people. i can’t wait for the next. so we parted with shouts of 'see you in cpdrc!'
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