After leaving Buang my wife and I made our way to Nalvo Sur, Luna, which is the village of our friends. The people from this village were friendly and I managed to find some young guys to play basketball with (Philippine National Sport). I witnessed my first Philippine wedding while in this village, six pigs were butchered and cooked for the 2 day event which had a couple of hundred people in attendance.
I put many details of the event in my journal and we appreciated the opportunity to partake in this celebration. The first night our sleep was very limited with all of the festivities, the karaoke, screaming pigs, and the DJ playing through the night; so after the second full day we made our way back to the Hideaway Resort.
On the way back to our lodging we stopped in San Fernando for the market; while there we climbed the 150 steps of Heroes Hill at Freedom Park which give us a good view.
The steps were lined with statues of the prominent men that influenced Philippine history. In the morning we left Buang on a bus and eventually made it to Bolinao after a long days travel. I loved the fact that we could just stop and get off the bus to either seek adventure or check out something that sparked our interest. Our first stop of the morning was in Agoo to see the Agoo Basilica, it was very nice inside.
We walked to the Imelda Park (the ex leader Marco's wife), which was nothing special. From Agoo we hopped another bus to the unpleasantly large Dagupan where we had to fight heavy traffic to get to the west side of the city.
We boarded a jeepney to Lingayen, the capital of Pangasinan, where we took a quick photo of an old cathedral (we would be returning here) before catching a bus to Alaminos. Like so many small cities there was another old cathedral in Alaminos.
We finally checked in to the Celeste Seabreeze Inn in Bolinao after traveling about 200 kms by bus and jeepney. Bolinao sits at the top of the Lingayen Gulf; Santiago Island is just a stones throw away from shore.
In the morning I took a walk around the coast in search of shells, the locals who were digging for clams looked a bit surprised. After breakfast we made our way to Cabarruyan Island but that stay was short lived, like Bolinao the locals were not very friendly on Cabarruyan. We took a jeepney to get on the island and then a tricycle to Anda for 50 pesos. When we tried to get a ride to Pingan the tricycle drivers were more interested in playing cards than making money. Perhaps drivers did not want to go one way and return empty or they were just being lazy; this was confirmed from a fellow passenger in the jeepney we took off the island; he told me that the men on the island were lazy.
We arrived back in Lingayen and got lodging at the Kilometer One Hostel before arranging a boat ride to tour the hundred islands. We jeepney'd to Lucap which is the departing areas for the Hundred Islands National Park and paid 350 pesos for our boat trip.
The islands are actually scrub covered coral protrusions that rise up from the gulf; some have beaches, and most were concaved on the bottom from the pounding sea. Several islands were damaged from the earthquake a couple of weeks previous, as were a couple of bridges on the way to Bolinao, seems like the Lingayen area had a tremor with a strength of 6.7.
It was getting close to Christmas so we headed to Lupao via Dagupan, Carmen, and San Jose to spend some days around there before heading back on the road in seek of adventure. There were more than a few sleepless nights since people do not control their dogs or roosters; and the mosquito's were plentiful. I swam at the dam a couple of times and we had a pig roast for new years; that night in itself was an experience. For the celebration of the new years people burn't tires on the street and there were loud explosions as home made bombs were going off for hours.
On the Tuesday after New Years the word I wrote in my journal was "crazy"; yet again I would push the limits. I had planned to go on a bike ride, although I had been so busy in Canada that I hadn't gotten on my favourite machine for several months. At 7am I left with Simo and his friends who were young cyclists in the area who rode 6 days per week; Simo had a friend that would rent me his speed bike for the day.
The plan was to ride from San Roque to Santa Fe and back, little did I know the hell that I would go through. At first I was enjoying myself, taking the lead for 10 minute periods before falling in behind to take advantage of the drafting provided from these guys who were half my age. There were a lot of smiles and the speeds we were achieving on the straight parts were exhilarating.
Once we hit the mountain pass then life on the two wheels changed a bit. Not only was the pass steep but the heat reflecting off the pavement started to take it's toll on me. The worst part was sucking in the exhaust of the buses as they slowly passed us on the switch backs spewing black smoke (at a time when deep breathes were essential). Racing down the 10 km slope into Santa Fe was more than satisfying, the scenery was beautiful and there was a sense of accomplishment.
The big problem was that after a short rest we had to climb back up the 10 km pass.
After 8.5 hours I somehow made it back to San Roque after 150 kms of riding. I was so exhausted and dehydrated that I could barely stand, the last 10 kms were truly hell. The temperature was about 35 degrees and the enjoyable pace on the way there ended up draining me near the end. Besides the beautiful scenery I can attest to the accomplishment on such a difficult task and be thankful for meeting such nice young cyclists.
A couple of days later we attended the second Philippine wedding where again there was an abundance of good food and more of the loud tunes provided by a disc jockey. By attending 2 different weddings I was able to become familiar with the customs of a union between couples in the Philippines; many activities like attaching money to the brides dress while she dances with her new husband differ from our weddings. Another awkward ritual is announcing the amounts of funds that are given to the bride and groom by guests of the ceremony.
Once the holiday season was finished it was time to move on and experience new territory...... covering new ground for the first time is rewarding for many of us.
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