Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – To Aloguinsan
I was all too happy to have encountered ‘Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore The Midwest’ for I had no choice but to experience Aloguinsan, a town that was not even on my “radar”! AND, to say that “it was fine” will be a gross understatement. I was pleasantly surprised that this town is not on the usual tourist’s map. To prove a point… do you ever encounter a travel book that entices or makes mention of the town of Aloguinsan?! There must be just a few, if at all there is!
I can’t (yet) even easily pronounce the town’s name but oh my goodness… it intrigued me I must be back there alone or with some friends.
Anyway, I am supposed to be telling my Suroy Suroy Sugbo experience, so here I go!
Our way to Aloguinsan
As we forded the way, I heard from fellow tourists that there are other ways of going to Aloguinsan. Nevertheless, the Suroy way was to approach it from Carcar – which I thought was either a “marketing strategy” or the “best possible way” since no one seemed to be complaining nor wailing about it.
Upon exiting Carcar, our way was amongst rural places that seemed rarely trodden even if it had good roads. Virtually no traffic as we breezed along what seemed to be a highway climbing to eternity! Very nice farm views I even dreamt of being able to live in those places someday! Most of the time the road was an exciting zigzag that the bus kept swaying left and right. However, the climbs started to become a problem
Somewhere along the way (Barangay Valencia, Carcar), our lowly bus started to choke at climbing uphill roads. Tony advised everyone that at times the driver would shut the air-conditioning off so that the bus could muster enough power to climb the hilly roads. I heard a sea of murmurs but there was no other way than to agree hehe! I just thought I have been in far disappointing scenarios than just this! As a consolation, at least we were still moving, PLUS of course, the very knowledge that there were support vans and army behind us if anything worse happened! The bus driver would immediately flick the air conditioning on again once the flailing bus reaches a plain or a descent. And I was too busy watching the lovely green countryside to occupy my mind with the on-and-off air conditioner or the almost gasping roar of the engine when climbing uphill roads. Fact is, I seldom see hills and mountains when roaming in Cebu, so I nevertheless enjoyed as we drove along.
At one point, the bus actually stopped! Driver went down to check on something, Tony followed (as if he knew something about buses hehe). Bus number 4 overtook us and stopped at some 30 or 40 meters ahead. Their tour guide and other staff got off and shouted if all was fine. Tony signaled an affirmative and so they moved on.
Hey, I haven’t told you yet that each bus did not only have a professional tour guide but also had extra staff to help out and assist everyone. In our bus, this was a girl, probably a neophyte at the tourism department since she looks like she’s fresh out of college. She was seated at the back. When we stopped, I heard her talking to someone on her cellular phone “yes ma’am, the driver says we are fine”.
And so that was our way until we arrived at the first destination… Aloguinsan.
For a chronology of the stories in this trip, click the following numbers:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
I was all too happy to have encountered ‘Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore The Midwest’ for I had no choice but to experience Aloguinsan, a town that was not even on my “radar”! AND, to say that “it was fine” will be a gross understatement. I was pleasantly surprised that this town is not on the usual tourist’s map. To prove a point… do you ever encounter a travel book that entices or makes mention of the town of Aloguinsan?! There must be just a few, if at all there is!
I can’t (yet) even easily pronounce the town’s name but oh my goodness… it intrigued me I must be back there alone or with some friends.
Anyway, I am supposed to be telling my Suroy Suroy Sugbo experience, so here I go!
Our way to Aloguinsan
As we forded the way, I heard from fellow tourists that there are other ways of going to Aloguinsan. Nevertheless, the Suroy way was to approach it from Carcar – which I thought was either a “marketing strategy” or the “best possible way” since no one seemed to be complaining nor wailing about it.
Upon exiting Carcar, our way was amongst rural places that seemed rarely trodden even if it had good roads. Virtually no traffic as we breezed along what seemed to be a highway climbing to eternity! Very nice farm views I even dreamt of being able to live in those places someday! Most of the time the road was an exciting zigzag that the bus kept swaying left and right. However, the climbs started to become a problem
Somewhere along the way (Barangay Valencia, Carcar), our lowly bus started to choke at climbing uphill roads. Tony advised everyone that at times the driver would shut the air-conditioning off so that the bus could muster enough power to climb the hilly roads. I heard a sea of murmurs but there was no other way than to agree hehe! I just thought I have been in far disappointing scenarios than just this! As a consolation, at least we were still moving, PLUS of course, the very knowledge that there were support vans and army behind us if anything worse happened! The bus driver would immediately flick the air conditioning on again once the flailing bus reaches a plain or a descent. And I was too busy watching the lovely green countryside to occupy my mind with the on-and-off air conditioner or the almost gasping roar of the engine when climbing uphill roads. Fact is, I seldom see hills and mountains when roaming in Cebu, so I nevertheless enjoyed as we drove along.
At one point, the bus actually stopped! Driver went down to check on something, Tony followed (as if he knew something about buses hehe). Bus number 4 overtook us and stopped at some 30 or 40 meters ahead. Their tour guide and other staff got off and shouted if all was fine. Tony signaled an affirmative and so they moved on.
Hey, I haven’t told you yet that each bus did not only have a professional tour guide but also had extra staff to help out and assist everyone. In our bus, this was a girl, probably a neophyte at the tourism department since she looks like she’s fresh out of college. She was seated at the back. When we stopped, I heard her talking to someone on her cellular phone “yes ma’am, the driver says we are fine”.
And so that was our way until we arrived at the first destination… Aloguinsan.
For a chronology of the stories in this trip, click the following numbers:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
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