"holy" day... 2nd day Bicol

BACK ON THE ROAD!

after the butanding interaction, we showered and loaded once again our backpacks and gears on a jeepney.. from donsol, we were to travel to daet.. i know i said i was ready to go topload but then again, i didn't know how far we will be travelling.. boy, was i glad i had a seat up front beside the driver!!

finally we were off.. after a while, i asked the driver if there is a possibility that we could pass by that belfry with Mayon on the background.. (this is me being poor in geography and names of places).. i could not of course remember the name of the church, but i knew how it looked and so i described it to the driver and he said.. "ahhh sa cagsaua?" i just said "yes" i asked him pretty please if we could stop for 10minutes just to get photos.. fortunately the driver was game enough and said yes.. without further charging us..

and so we got our beautiful photos... but on the way to the church we saw the ruins that Mayon has ravaged.. tons of debris and boulders covering whole houses people living in schools..displaced, with their livelihoods taken... whole families buried with their lineage totally gone..

the driver kept an account of what happened..how it looked right after the typhoon last december... it was aweful to know that people suffered so much here.. but then again you can see signs of the indomitable human spirit.. slowly people have rebuilt what was left of their houses... people started putting up stalls near the church selling local crafts.. the colorful baskets and weavings, delectable pili nuts displayed for tourists.. you can see children playing and laughing... and some locals were out and about talking to each other, sitting outside their houses..

it is but a glimpse of a community in recovery... but then i wondered what are the stories behind their faces.. what anguish and sorrow did they have to bear during the onslaught.. upon leaving, i saw an old man, sitting outside his makeshift house..shirtless, darkened by the sun..his face deeply lined and his eyes were looking so far away, it was as if he was not looking at anything in particular but rather looking inside and remembering..

i felt sad... i could not bear to lose my family.. how much more for those who survived the rest of their family..

their loss was too great to even fathom.. and so upon leaving, i offered a silent prayer for them.. for God to give them more reasons to laugh, to live again and the strength to accept everything..

GATA!! AND MORE GATA!!

when in Bicol...do as the bicolanos do.. and eat GATA!!!.. add in a lot of red chili peppers and gabi leaves and voila! Pinangat..

we stopped over a roadside and went in search for lunch... all of us dispersed..looking for a place to eat.. i was too hungry i didn't really care what was there.. i am not a picky eater so i settled for ginataang gulay, ginataang tilapia and pinangat (of course ginataan still!)

it tasted surprisingly good! Luke, nette's guest was covered in sweat while eating.. the food was hot! as in chili hot! i didn't really mind, in fact i wanted more red peppers :)Tatax opted to buy meat loaf and had it cooked.. it offered us a "breaker" for all those gata..

after our express lunch.. we loaded once more inside the jeep..

WAKESTERS AND WANNABES

Camsur Water Sports -- it was a sight to see... i never knew we had anything like this here!! truth to tell before this trip i didn't know anything about this place.. we got to the place around 4pm and the resort was full!

a lot of people were lined up to have their chance to go on this cabled wakeboarding.. there were beginners and of course the amateurs and experts... the resort also offered other sporting areans.. like bike ramps and skateboarding ramps.. but a lot more people were focused on the wakeboarding..

the line was long..gerry, luke and neil (jenny's guest) wanted to try out.. the price was relatively cheap.. but the amount of time you had to wait around for your turn was not worth it.. plus the fact that none of us ever did it yet.. so nobody wanted to be seen falling flat on their faces.. especially not with all these beautiful people around!! i was told that there were several celebrities there.. of course as dense as i am when it comes to younger stars, i could not for the life of me recognize them.. i only recognized joey marquez..talk about ancient!!!

and so we contented ourselves with watching the experts perform.. and they were good.. afterwards, we made a promise to try wakeboarding one of these days..

by 6pm we loaded once again in the jeep.. by this time everyone fell asleep .. except me and rhyan who were sitting in front.. the driver without the knowledge of the rest, was actually very very drowsy.. he smoked non-stop and kept banging his head with his fist just so he could stay awake..

i was quite alarmed really.. i glanced over at rhyan surreptiously and without even speaking to each other we understood what needed to be done.. we both stayed awake!! i engaged our driver with a little chit chat..and eventually out that he was an ex soldier, who climbed mt. labo (the mountain where we intended to climb) back when it was still NPA infested.. i wanted to keep the conversation flowing but it was hard with the droning of the jeep i could hardly hear him..

afterwards, rhyan and i took turns in sleeping.. sometimes i would jerk to wakefulness and find our jeep in the middle of the road.. it was an uneasy slumber.. added to the fact that our driver ominously warned us that there is this certain stretch where people throw rocks at vehicles just for lack of nothing better to do..

he said, he'd like to see someone try it..he promised he'd give chase and showed me his bolo which was placed in front of him.. it was more than 10inches long.. i was glad he was brave enough to say that he would give chase.. but inside i was quaking a bit at the thought of bloodshed.. no way would i like to see it for myself!! i'd rather the stones and rocks stay put where they are..

once again i prayed hard to keep us all safe..

after a while i was awakened by the driver's urgent voice telling us to close the shades.. which was nothing more really than plastic covering.. it was only rhyan and i who heard him..everyone was asleep.. nobody inside the jeep responded and so the jeep's side windows were left open. the driver proceeded to step on the accelerator!! we blasted thru the stretch of camranes sur's (or so i think it was still camarines sur) national park.. it was dark and lined with trees and shrubs..

and then we saw it.. a huge rock lying in the middle of the road!! which meant only one thing..somebody threw it there!! the road was paved and the rock was so out of place the the driver immediately stepped some more on the accelerator..

belatedly i realized, nobody knew in my family where i was exactly!!

after a while.. the three of us breathed in an air of relief when we saw some marines.. we were nearing civilization...

Finally, finally we reached DAET!! at niel's wife's place.. we just poured ourselves out of the jeep and gorged on the dinner that niel had prepared for us... we were served restaurant-style.. it was a treat!