Monday, April 24, 2006

Bantayan Island, Holy Week, 11-16 April 2006

Arrival in Bantayan town port: 1pm, 11 April ’06. Finally, some land after a boring boat ride. We took a van going to Sta. Fe, the community where the beach is, van fare is just 20 pesos. It was a 10 minute ride. On the way there, I injured the ring finger of my right hand, I don’t know exactly how it happened but I suspect that I could have brushed it against the zipper of my backpack or it got completely caught in the zipper while I was zipping it. It was quite a bleeder and I had no band-aids in my first-aid pack. Arrival in Sta. Fe. We placed our bags in nanay azon’s house where we will be staying. I had to buy some first aid strips, and it was a good thing that the sari-sari store had the heavy duty Medicare plastic strips, works very well. And then we were introduced to the family of suon bebot, we were introduced to manong pito, who owned a lot at the beachfront, right smack at the center of the beach strip of Bantayan’s beach. Just beside it is a place frequented by skimboarders.. they offer free skimboarding lessons, sell cool shirts, and have space where people can pitch a tent, and you can even have a band perform. When we passed by, they were also playing our kind of music.. beach house. We were also introduced to kuya david, nanay azon, obet and jun-jun, it’s their house where we will be staying at. After the introduction, we had our late lunch. It comprised of dried fish (sap-sap) and I can’t remember what else. But the dried fish tasted really good coz I haven’t had them for quite a while. Next, tour of sta. fe. We had to see the beach… and when we saw it, it was an instant cure for all the travel fatigue. A kilometer of powdery white sand, and crystal clear water! Paradise! The other parts that suon bebot showed us were the school, the old houses, the market, and a boat that had just unloaded its catch.. a few fish and around 5 or 6 sting rays, 1 or 2 of the rays were even pregnant and baby rays were going out of it post-mortem. After the place was showed to us, we were free to do whatever we want. A swim at the beach was definitely at the top of my list, and that’s exactly what I did. I must have swum at least 200 meters, the water is so nice, crystal clear and you can have the beach all to yourself. After swimming, I freshened up back at nanay azon and kuya david’s house. They have an artisan well where you drop a bucket attached to a rope and get your fresh water from there for bathing. It’s pretty neat.

That night, I again took a walk. This time checking out the bar alley. There’s Marisqueira O Portugues where most of the foreigners were hanging out that night, and some local girls and waitresses getting friendly with the foreigners. And then there’s Hard Kock Café, very interesting name indeed. But the bar isn’t what the name implies, it’s just a regular bar. It’s fairly new and foreign-owned, I was told. Going back to the house, I got lost. I had to go around the place a couple more times to familiarize myself, otherwise I’d get lost every night. Interesting observation for that day: it was as if I had a beacon surgically attached to my back, coz when suon bebot’s family looked for me, the locals at the marketplace and at the bar alley were able to pinpoint my location at a precise time. They looked for an ilonggo in a red shirt and boom, precise coordinates and time were given by the locals. :)

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