Excited and expectant, for sure, but I never really expected that we were in for one hell of a bumpy ride to Cam Sur. Well, who does really? Our adventure started when we arrived in the bus terminal in Cubao and missed the bus that we had reserved earlier that day going to Naga City. Knowing for a fact that we only had a little chance of getting ourselves into a premium bus liner and getting each one of us comfortable la-z-boy seats because of the apparent bulk of people who are to attend the Summer Aquafest set at CWC and a super big chance of riding instead in an ordinary bus, we still tried to push our luck. But as much as we wanted to change the course of our fate, we ended up travelling to Naga in an ordinary bus for 9 hours! The good thing was that the essence of punctuality knocked out our hard heads in the process.
We were starving, big time, when we had arrived, almost 12 noon, in Caramoan’s town proper. We were already so pressed for time as we had gone island hopping at about 1 pm already. Because of the presence too of foreigners who are scheduled to do their Survivor shooting on some of the best islands there are, we have not gotten the chance to visit, too, the said islands. Glimpses are all that we had so we finished off disappointed and frustrated about the fact that we had been refused to experience the total goodness of what our own country has to offer. And the locals are no exemption from it too, which is a sadder reality. Let’s make a petition for this one!
photos Eunice
Nonetheless, the beauty of the other islands did not fail to captivate us. Caramoan is still truly an apparent gem that is why we had made a vow that we will surely go back there.
photos Aris
Slept early the night of our trip and woke up late the next day but we were still in time for the said 8:30 am trip going back to Sabang port. However, as we arrived in the port of Guijalo, we were met by a crowd of expectant passengers.
8:30 AM : Arrived at Guijalo port
9:00 AM: First boat arrived
Come 9:00 am the first of the two boats that were said to arrive docked in the port. The act of filling in the boat with passengers had been a very tedious task for the people assigned to assemble the trippers since the passengers, themselves, were not cooperating. We knew then that we could not be accommodated by the first boat so we are left then with no other choice but to wait for the next boat.
9:30 AM: First boat ready to go
Anyway, for about a half hour or so, the first boat was then ready to go. Since we were already excited to go to CWC, we then asked a manong there the ETA of the second boat. To our shock, he said that the second is just about to depart from Sabang Port! We immediately asked our tour guide to find an affordable boat that we could rent. He found one that will cost us 7000 pesos with a maximum capacity of 30 passengers. We then asked around groups that were also itching to go then and we were able to assemble 30 people in a wink!
10:00 AM : We were then ready to go
10:45 AM : Met along the way second boat
Arrived at Talisay port instead by 12 noon and travelled in a jeepney back to Naga City to get us some tickets going back to Manila. Could not wait anymore for a van from Sabang Port that’s why. Arrived around 2 pm in Naga, starving again. Our energy was regained, though, by devouring Bicolano’s sumptuous dishes! How i love gata!
photos Eunice
Even their sisig has gata! Shocking. Haha. Anyhoo, after eating, off we go then to CWC. Had a fun time at the lagoon with the inflatables and trampoline while waiting for our turn to try kneeboarding. Kneeboarding was superb even though we only had 30 minutes to try it! Hope I’ll have then the courage to try wakeboarding when we get back there.
Lost my pair of earrings. But really, that’s just a case of carelessness. Well, at least I had re-learned a forgotten lesson. We just took a quick bath before going home. Found a group of people who were more than willing to hitch all of us back to Naga. We really appreciate the gesture! That’s what I love about the people there. We arrived, right in time, in the bus station which then concluded our overall trip.
Exhaustion was forgotten and replaced by a pure sense of KAOGMAHAN. With that, we were then able to close our eyes and relax all through out our bus ride back to reality.
photos Bryan, Eunice
