"Dust in the wind"........the view from our rain-stained van window frames flashes of daily life made gloomy in the early morning deluge......glimpses of a hard lived life flash past our eyes... houses and life run the extreme.....
...if one woke up during a long bus trip through the mountains of the Philippines...you might mistake it for the lush, green hills of Guatemala....
...people here strive to live with dignity....homes, sparse, barren, bordered, swept, brightened with potted plants........."all we are is dust in the wind"....
....people labour, mostly with so little, but pride and joy evident in the houses...family photos, symbols of faith, curtains divide rooms....... ......"All we are is dust in the wind"... as the van-van music fades and we journey on...
.......We depart the beach at Anda in Bohol via bus to the port of Ubay....there, a young Filipino guy whom we met on our bus leads us through the market maze/chaos short cut to catch our ferry to Bato, Leyte....
...no idea what our ferry looks like for the 3 hr crossing from Bohol...thinking it might be something substantial... we discover an open, out-rigger bangka....oh yea!
Don't really need any proper dock, any rocky spot will do to load/unload...
The 3 hr crossing is pretty uneventful... the boat looks like it comes with its own dock/walkway...Yvonne meditates the incessant rocking away... "Why, are there always boats?"...she wonders?
The views from our spacious interior are pretty spectacular. This area between eastern Bohol and the coastline of Leyte is filled with many little islands ...and, as the photo shows...great weather...today.
We arrive in Bato, on the island of Leyte and look for a bathroom, ATM and a ride south...heading to Padre Burgos....supposed to have great diving...
Once in Padre Burgos, we look for a room.....on the waterfront, we find a pub, some beers and get pointed towards some possible lodging. In fact, before our 1st beer is done, one fellow has phoned and found a room....just need to check it out...
Padre Burgos is a tiny, sparse town at the tip of a long inlet. It has a number of dive resorts here, and a growing rep as a place to dive....
....we do one dive...get to 20.2 metres...see some great coral, tons of fish, a see snake or krait and a number of turtles
For a tiny village, they sure drink a lot of pop....
Gas for trikes, motorcycles are sold in pop bottles...why? Gas stations are often too far away so locals make a business of selling gas in the bottle and sell on the curb or in front of their homes.
Shayne dares to tempt fate and goes under the knife....all for 40 pesos + a 10 peso tip! So smooth Yvonne says!!
We wander the quiet streets, while making plans to push north to the city of Tacloban, where, on November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), decided to create havoc....to put it mildly....
The drive north from Padre Burgos follows a beautiful coastline to Sogod, where we transfer to a fast van for Tacloban.
...we wait for nearly 3 hrs for our 16 passenger van to fill up to 20 people. Yep, nothing like being stuffed!
...we find just the 2 of us, with our small packs tight enough....
...we arrive in Tacloban to the usual traffic madness and try to connect with relatives of a Filipino family we know from our home town.....
"You must go to Tacloban and see my family," they told us. So, why not?
...meet a niece in a Tacloban restaurant where she works...the entire staff comes out for the photo op with Canadian friends!
.....then, another family member takes us on a full day tour of sights and family gatherings....so much fun.
....a left over memorial to Typhoon Yolanda... the bow section of a freighter sits several 100 m onshore...another ship nearby, bear testimony to the devastating force that crushed this region during Typhoon Yolanda... winds of +370km, and storm surge waters of 7 metres destroyed vast areas of homes, infrastructure, vegetation, along with over 6000 dead...
Ah, the power of nature! The resilience of a people!
...some buildings are back up, people living with few infrastructures... and here, homes rebuilt in the "no build zone" which is 40 feet from the water's edge. Of course no one follows this rule since this is their neighbourhood!
...drawing well water..hmm?
...also visited the MacArthur Park memorial..(nope, no cake here....that's the song...)...simple 2x life size statues replicates General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore, fulfilling his promise ...."I shall return."
Very little evidence left from the carnage inflicted on Tacloban, Palo and area during this battle, warfare of WW2....
...the group included Filipino military and government officials...
...after that....off we go to visit family in another village... down this road by motorcycle...
...would love this transport in Canada....
...Marilyn's house.....she, her husband and child share the small living space with her parents and brother. The house remained standing after the Typhoon, but the roof was lost. They were the lucky ones!
.....our 1st home cooked meal in a month...
a native chicken, naturally, just killed...left over feathers burnt off over the gas hot plate....
...doing our part for the chicken coconut curry family meal...
...water to boil from the family well...
And then, the (first) lunch meal...Everyone is so hospitable! Father (on Shayne's left)...Marilyn, her brother Jun-Jun and niece...
...off again......to more family and another home cooked meal..2 in one day....we scored!
Our goodbyes were very tearful as we sped away!
...as sunset approaches, we are on the bridge between the islands of Leyte and Sumar...the bridge, is much like an extended Port Mann or the (San Francisco) Bay Bridge...except, on this one..... cars stop, mid span, people get out, take selfies, wander the road....would like to see random stopping on bridges back home...
....we head further north to quiet Biliran island...after a 2 hr supersonic van ride, we hop in a trike to Agta Beach, Biliran....but, first...fill up the bike with gas from the pop bottles. We always thought it was real pop...ha!
...Biliran landscape.....
We spend a few days on Agta Beach...
...try our hand paddling an outrigger bangka and head to an island off shore...
Plowing into heavy winds and waves....we are feeling pretty rocky, so we turn around....
....discover a nice family-run resort down the beach....beautiful, friendly serves great food and beers.....
....they have organized a bangka boat to the island of Simbawan for a group of Canadian doctors/nurses providing medical support to local Tacloban residents...seems there's space for us to tag on...and, also onboard Richard Branson.....
...the hour or so trip to Simbawan is beautiful...
...the island is even more gorgeous....
....a tiny, curl of rock, beach, clear waters and beautiful vistas.......
A fabulous beach day has to come to an end too...so, it's back to Agta Beach on our rented panga with the sun setting...it doesn't get much better!
....a nice way to end our stay in Biliran..... our time here started slowly.....we would love to stay here longer now.....
...but, time to move on back to Manila for the next hop...
Cheers!!
Filipino footnotes.....
...rainfall changes everything... it fills up holes......turns dirt to mud....clay to goop....puddles form.....water seeps into homes....adds another level of moisture to an already saturated air...
...toilets are shrinking, getting closer to the floor the longer we travel... and, most do not have seats....
.....love every means of transport we travel on....trike, motorcycle, jeepney, bus, van, car...
...rice paddies are seen everywhere, some empty, some with workers and some with water buffalo
...there are very few cars in the smaller towns or barangays. Most people get around using trikes or motorcycles
Massive concrete drainage ditches line most streets
Root vegetables cannot grow in most of the Philippines because it is too hot and humid!
....this is a great, big country...distances are immense between the 7000+ islands and places.....
More footnotes next time...
Additional Photos...
Until the next time...
