of accidents and gentle giants

inputs are welcome but my IT is absolute!-->first day
0900 - met Darwyn, Janice and Lee at Naga Van Terminal.left Naga for Legazpi City. we rode a van (150.00). we were supposed to meet at 8am but i arrived late because i had to attend an important event, which i personally understand to be a higher good.
1120 - Legazpi City Grand Terminal. there was a miscommunication as we were to meet Mel and Pompo in Daraga terminal. we just rode the van going to Pilar from the Grand Terminal, had two seats reserved and decided to pass by Daraga Terminal for Mel and Pompo. we also ate lunch before we went to Pilar.
1200 - van left bound to Pilar, Sorsogon (66.60). the two groups merged and discussed the miscommunication.I said I don't think the words 'shell' and 'church' were in the itinerary (and rechecking the itinerary after the trip, i was right).
1315 - arrived at Pilar Port (Sorsogon), the group asked around, we were after the fast craft which according to the schedule, left at twelve noon. we were just hopeful we could still catch that trip. given the situation, we decided to follow plan B, ride a snail vessel, in our case it was Gloria 10 which took three hours to reach our destination. after paying the terminal fee (5.00) the fare (200.00) we went to the boat.
1330 - travel to masbate.Gloria 10 had a capacity of 108 passengers, familiar sight was life vests tucked on the 'ceiling' and lots of pineapple at the back part. how did we spend the travel time? we played cards and took photos of the rock formation/islets (monreal island).some slept during the trip.
1630 - masbate port. we were in hurry since we were after the van trip to sha's place. we were informed that the trip actually stops at sun down (according to pompo). sounds really primitive but we were all looking at the sun. we rode the trike to the terminal and met joseph (sha's husband), good thing he was able to save some seats on the van. we left at 1700.


1700 - trip to cabitan. above is one of the photos i took while riding the van. the high speed ride and motion gave that surreal effect. this was taken at dusk.
1830 - arrived at cabitan, joseph was already there, he went ahead of us with his motorbike. we paid the fare (80.00) then rode the motorbike to sha's place (10.00)
1845 - after that long and winding trip, we finally arrived at sha's place,really cozy.after that warm welcome, she prepared dinner. we ate at 1930, the food was hearty just like how our host welcomed us. after dinner, we gathered for the reunion proper along with the videoke and the mixed brandy and iced tea drink. it was a recollection of old memories, about ten years ago there was our batch, jovellanos. 0130 - it was time for us to get some rest.


sh*t happens.-second day
0600 - with less than 5 hours of sleep, we woke up to prepare for the day's activities. ate breakfast and took a bath. sha told us that there was a bus bound for masbate city proper at 0700, we were waiting just outside the compound but no bus came. we decided to go directly to mandaon as it would mean longer waiting time if we decided to ride the van in cabitan. we rode the motorbike (40.00) and the travel time took almost thirty minutes.
0730 - left mandaon. van ride (100.00) took more than an hour before we arrived at the city proper. most of us slept during the trip to compensate for lack of it.
0905 - arrived at the van terminal and discussed the itinerary. there were three destinations that day. we omitted one (baleno)since we found out that it would consume a lot of time just going there. we decided to go to the nearest destination (buntod reef) and then mobo island at 1400 (later this would change due to some uncontrollable event). we've arranged the transpo for the afternoon event, rent a van to mobo.we rode the trike to barangay tugbo, place near buntod reef, we dropped by a certain resort and the drivers were informed to ask permission from the mayor of masbate. and so we went to the mayor to ask for his kind permission, the mayor told us 'you don't need any permit, it's open to the public'. we went back to barangay tugbo, the trike drivers looked for their banca (small about) operator contact residing somewhere along the road. after several minutes of negotiation we settled for a transpo fee of 600.00, back and forth.
1000 - left for buntod reef. it was a 15-minute boat ride.we didn't think much about the scorching heat of the sun as we were struck with awe.for me it was like calaguas the second time around. we took photos of the place. they swam. some parts were filled with mangroves.spent about two hours savoring nature.
1155 - on our way back to masbate proper, when our banca was just about five hundred meters before it reaches the shore, our puny banca capsized.caused by a big wave, an imbalance in the support and somehow my heavy weight. it happened so fast, all i can hear was janice shouting 'O! O! O!' and 'bag ko! bag ko!' (my bag! my bag!). luckily there was another banca passing by, signaled us that they'll come. when the banca was about to capsize, i already knew that it was certainly going to happen.my mind went blank when the banca capsized. i didn't know what to do. it was only after a few seconds when i realized that i was swimming to save my life. i tried to look for my bag, it wasn't there.maybe it sank. the functional banca brought us to a resort. there we stayed for a few hours to dry our things. after about thirty minutes, they retrieved the three missing bags. all soaked and drenched. yes. my cellphone expired because of that accident. i had it fixed but it's a hopeless case. while on the resort we had to share our personal experiences on what happened. we share the same thing: blank thoughts while the boat turned except for janice who was yelling because she was worried about her bag. we had a good laugh at what happened contrary to what we're supposed to feel as a normal reaction to what happened.
1540 - after drying our clothes and eating lunch with two bottles of my favorite cerveza we decided to cancel our mobo trip and left the resort to transfer to a hotel in the city proper. checked in at gv hotel (650.00 two heads/room, additional 250 for an extra bed. we occupied two rooms as there were six of us.
1630 - we prepared for a walk at the city proper, pompo decided to have his cellphone fixed, marilee and janice went to buy some clothes, mel, darwyn, and i joined pompo.we waited more than an hour only to know that they can't fix pompo's phone. after this frustrating realization, we tried to look for the souvenir shop selling cowboy hats, darwyn wanted to buy one. it took us about an hour before we found the place, and when we arrived the shop was already closed. most stores close at six in the evening.
1900 - ate dinner at odi's. we were all starving. we ordered bulalo and rice meals. pompo shouldered about seventy percent of the total expenses.too bad they didn't have my favorite cerveza.
2100 - went back to the hotel. i took a bath since the walk made me sweat a lot and the night was quite warm even with the airconditon on, probably because the walls absorbed some heat in the afternoon. we gathered at the girl's room since it was cool in there, we were able to do some post-event analysis/evaluation and came up with the resolution: texting while boating is really dangerous (from what janice experienced).
we also discussed the itinerary for the next day: wake up at three thirty in the morning because the fast craft to pilar leaves at four.
2200 - slept early because we were all somehow tired. paradise and accident all experienced within a day.



yudisota!-third day
0400 - it's clear that we did not wake up according to the itinerary, just packed our things and went to masbate port. the fast craft has already left. a coincidence maybe, Gloria 10 vessel (200.00) was there and would leave at six thirty, we ate our breakfast of goto with egg (rice porridge)(40.00, goto with egg is 30.00 and since we ate egg there was an additional 10.00-we were all confused) and waited at the boat.
0630 - boat left for pilar, sorsogon. stayed outside the boat to view the rock formation and talk to a masbateno who happens to be a social studies teacher. also watched some dolphins and flying fish. the weather was fair. i spent almost 3 hours just watching and reflecting a bit.
0930 - arrived at pilar port(5.00 terminal fee again). bought some lanzones (Lancium domesticum) from Camiguin (50.00), sweet, no doubt it's from Camiguin. we looked for the jeep bound to donsol and found it passing just in front of pilar church.
0945 - rode the jeep to donsol (15.00)
1030 - arrived at donsol, rode the trike (20.00) to barangay dancal.
1045 - registered at the municipal tourism office. registration is 100.00 and boat rate is 685.00 per head with an additional 250.00 if you'd opt to rent their flippers and mask.

1100 - met sir gerry, our guide and 'life saver' along with the spotter (spots the whale shark) and two banca operators. for two hours we spotted about five whale sharks. my first and second attempt to go after the whale shark failed. the second attempt made me tired, i was swimming towards our banca which was quite far, i gulped about a liter of seawater, and i signaled for help. sir gerry swam and saved me.thanks to him i'm still alive. i rested on the third and fourth sighting. the fifth attempt was successful, the whale shark was just below my feet when i watched, serenely swimming. that's where they got the 'gentle giants'. gigantic yet serene creatures.

1300 - went back to mainland donsol.took a bath. drank a bottle of cold cerveza and bought some souvenirs.a nice way to end whale shark watching.

1345 - rode the trike to giddy's, a resto which the trike driver recommended. again, we were all starving. i'd say the food was pricey but wasn't that good.

1445 - road trike to van terminal bound for legazpi (10.00). ate halo halo at the terminal since we were waiting for passengers to fill the van.

1530 - van trip to legazpi (60.00). as expected, we all slept during the trip.

1630 - arrived at legazpi grand terminal. rode the van bound to naga(150.00). yes, we slept again.pompo rode the van bound for nabua to attend to urgent family matters.

1900 - naga city proper.parted ways. all tired but all satisfied with the three-day event.

third and fourth photo from yudi mel's camera taken by myself and ironmark respectively