Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
Our jeep raced through the major highway of Marinduque coming from Sta Cruz. It was already late and we were hoping to get back at the resort by sun down. We sped through the Island capital of Boac and soon crossed the borders to Gasan. Our driver may have miscalculated the time or it took use quite some time taking pictures of each area as it was already past 5pm. The sun was going down fast and I knew we won’t make it in time.
Kawa-Kawa Falls Cascade in Sta Cruz, Marinduque It took us almost an hour to reach the town of Sta Cruz coming from Torrijos. We headed into the market area where we also passed by the main Jac Liner station there. We saw the bus we rode already parked. We had a hearty lunch of sinigang with fresh fish and good ol’ home-cooked pork chop and calamares at one of the carinderias there. Followed by a serving of ice cream nearby. With the afternoon closing midway, we moved on to explore some of the town’s attractions.
Shot with red eyes from so little sleep while in transit to Marindque, we were dead sleepy when the bus rolled off from the Cawit Port and we overslept at our drop-off point in Boac. Fairly waking at a road sign saying Boac is 7km behind us now we realized our bus is heading down south already. It was actually fortunate that it will pass by our destination in Gasan. A lady who was going home back there after 5 years was noting the town they were passing through with her companion. We chatted with her a bit and told …
The Philippines has a longer coastline even that of the USA and its geography is composed of many separate islands. To visit other islands, sea travel is one of the most common and cheap ways to travel. The Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) or commonly known as the RORO (Roll-on, Roll-off) Highway was opened by the government. It’s a transportation structure spanning 919 kilometers of land and 137 nautical miles connecting the islands through a virtual highway via RORO-capable sea vessels. Even though air travel is getting affordable nowadays, land-and-sea travel is still popular amongst common people and to destinations …
Since we’re tackling airports, another relatively new airport in the Philippines that opened just this January 2008 is the new Bacolod Airport in Silay. Their old airport used to be in Bacalod City itself. I thought it was a good move for the province since I personally like Silay more than Bacolod itself. It is another international standard airport here in our country.
I’m still rummaging through my archives for this year until my next upcoming trips. I realize I still haven’t posted some of my Iloilo materials from early this year. With the Dinagyang Festival coming early next year, I’m sure the region would be getting a lot of tourist traffic by that time. And most of them would go through one of the relatively new airports in the country – the Iloilo Airport.
Christmas starts early in the Philippines. At the onset of the ‘ber’ months, I won’t be surprised to hear Christmas Carols playing at some establishments, even local radio stations. With Halloween ending, I noticed yesterday that the Halloween displays were quickly being put down to be replaced by the bright and sparkling Christmas decors. Yes the season has started already and the distinct Filipino Icon of Parols will be hanging again.
