Finding Riverstone

We got off the Sunrays bus from Simala (probably) at Argao’s town center. It was some kind of a busy thoroughfare dotted with busy lechon manok stalls and other stores. Looking around for someone to ask, there instead appeared a habal-habal, heaven knows where he came from. He just materialized hehe. So we asked him about Riverstone. His reply was “tara”!

Friend was about to hop on, but I opted to ask more like how far is that resort and how much. This habal-habal driver will probably remember his ‘wrong answer’ for life. He said “layo-layo ra, mga 10 kilometers, pero okay P100 kamo duha”! That 10 kilometers made me declare my psychological and physical well-being hehe. I said I’m really not too keen riding another habal-habal (like we did to/from Simala) and I am not very much confident with the safety of riding these motorbikes with no helmet. Friend nodded in understanding of my little predicament.

I thought habal-habal driver would have felt sour about that and disappointedly go away or disappear as quickly as he appeared. Instead, he made a loud twit-tweet with his lips that caught attention of a tricycle driver who immediately drove to our side. And I said that would have been fine, so we hopped on at P25 each. I said “sorry dong ha” to the habal-habal driver and he smilingly said “no problem”! Off to Riverstone we were.

When trike veered off the road going westwards, I thought there was something wrong. C’mon, I have almost memorized the Philippine map, we were in Argao, a town on the southeastern coast of the island/province of Cebu. So, at past 10AM, if we were going away from the sun, then we were heading to the mountains, which I suppose do not have beach resorts. Manong trike driver, without stopping could only say “mao gyud”. We were surprised, but before I could ask him he told us “dili ma na beach resort ang Riverstone”!

Da!

Looking at each other, friend and I agreed we’d go for this wrong turn just the same hahaha! Adventure! So onwards to Riverstone we forded the fine concrete road generally shaded by trees, and we were savoring the cool breeze that was getting even a bit better as we continued on. But awk! We were already there and we did not expect it! Hmm, that habal-habal driver who told us 10kms was either out of his senses or lying. The distance we travelled was probably just 2 or 3kms!

Anyway, I said “here comes a new find for Pinoy Traveler”!

Indeed it was, but let’s honor that resort with a separate story. That’s next!



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