Out of Saint Bernard

After entering town, having visited the church and the municipal hall of Saint Bernard, it was time for me to move on with my joy ride! It was getting late, and the day's final stop was still some 50kms away. But first, I made a fly-by at their downtown commercial area.

Just for nostalgia's sake really. I was last here about nine years ago, and those were grim times. This here is the busiest street of Saint Bernard - actually originally four lanes, the opposite direction is supposed to be the other side of this tree-lined island on the left.

This place now looks new to me. They have converted that other side of the road into some kind of a 'tiangge' or 'ukay-ukay' row of temporary stalls (I hope they really are temporary). Beyond that is their transport terminal, then there is a park, then another big commercial building. Their municipal building of yesteryears was located in this place.

By the way, in these articles I wrote about Saint Bernard (this is the 4th), I have been avoiding to use the phrase "Town Center" to refer to their downtown. Why? Because, to my back left-side as I took that picture is a big commercial building named Town Center!

Anyway, it kept drizzling on and off, and felt futile going around this 'business district'. So, I just hollered hi and hello to some unforgettable beautiful people along Yniguez St., (you know who you are, I love you all!) and told my driver "let's go finish Saint Bernard"!

What's with the "let's go finish Saint Bernard" you may be asking? It's because from this poblacion all the way out to the next town (whether Liloan or Libagon) is still some 30kms or so. Unlike to the previous town (Cabalian) which is just about 4kms or so away.

Just about a hundred meters on the highway from the last poblacion corner, I saw this...

I asked my driver if we can help. His reply was: "paano"? I was still thinking how, and we have already overtaken them! But we merrily discussed this situation as we drove on.

Trike was fully loaded with big jugs (of water? or fuel?); manong was having a hard time pedaling on; wife (I assume) got off, and they started pushing the trike; I looked how far the highway inclined upwards - OMG maybe a hundred more meters; how could I help?

Did I want to help push the trike? No, the lungs has a condition hehe. Can we pull the trike with the car? No, we had no rope nor chain! Should I instead ask the woman to ride with us? No, the man can't push it alone. So okay, don't offer any help na nga lang hehe!

But as if to lighten my guilty feeling, driver told me that it's not as if this was the only time they were doing it. And the man could have felt insulted, as that would have shown he can't anymore do things alone at his age - even if its true! The Filipino machismo, da!

About a kilometer onward, rain on and off, we reached this memorable corner...

I knew we were turning left here as we were on our way to Liloan, but I knew, and still know very well too, that, going straight ahead leads to Guinsaugon, the landslide area. I restrained myself from going there due to the weather condition and my available time.

So we turned left on the above corner. I was appreciating rice fields left and right...

But my attention shifted to that red roof on the left. It's an INC church, but you would wonder, why it's out in the middle of nowhere. I think I know a reason, but I'm not saying - kasi awayin nyo nanaman ako mga kapwa ko katoliko. You know, sometimes, we are so!

Anyway, look, it's planting season on many of the fields...

Call it weird on my part, but one of my dreams is to, at least once, walk on a paddy field! I mean not just on the narrow dry sides, but the muddy middle and really planting rice!

Lawigan Bridge, still in Saint Bernard, this is a memorable bridge to many people...

Underneath is Lawigan River that empties water to Cabalian Bay (left) all the way from the landslide areas of Guinsaugon and Catmon far & high up the mountains to the right.

The funny story is: for a time after the deadly landslides, few (none actually) wanted to eat fish caught in Cabalian Bay as they had this notion that water from that river carried *whatever* from those who perished in the landslides, that is then ingested by the fish!

Some of the little issues that crop-up after disasters hehe. Eh, the same thing happened in Tacloban, down to Guiuan, even Abuyog after Yolanda, right? Yeah, for many months!

Anyway, from time to time the sun shone, and I had wonderful views like this...

We were not that far from St Bernard yet. This was (I'm guessing) at Barangay Paniman. This was a wonderfully long tree-lined stretch of road. How I wish every road is like this!

Suddenly good views and suddenly gloomy views with sporadic drizzles...

Ah well, my attitude was starting to dampen during this part of the long "joy" ride. I was not anymore that jubilant, I guess. Clouds made things too dark for me and the camera.

Then we reached this intersection called Amaga junction, also called Lilo-an junction...

Already part of Liloan Southern Leyte, though still some distance to its downtown, this is where vehicles converge from either the eastern or western parts of Leyte main island going to Panaon island where the towns Liloan, San Francisco, Pintuyan and San Ricardo are located. Connection point is the Liloan or Wawa Bridge, about 5kms from this corner.

A quick and crucial decision was needed here... "to the Left?" or "to the Right?"...

Just meters away from a needed turn, driver was already slowing down while waiting for my answer - "ano sir, kaliwa o kanan"? I was so focused on that board, thinking of options and alternatives. My mind was a whirl... finally, still not looking at him.., I said... "kanan"!

Now as I write this, I can't help but be gladly amazed at how quickly the human brain (include my lowly mind hehe!) can process vast amounts of "data" in so short a time...!

Why am I all of a sudden saying this? Isn't this out of topic? Well, this is in-topic, as you my fellow travelers can get a hint or two on what to decide on, if you happen to be in this corner! What took me seconds to decide, is now taking me too much time to write!

It was already 5:17PM. As I looked at the numbers on that board, I hesitated on which way to proceed. Liloan, the nearest town center is just 8kms. But there are still the towns of San Francisco, Pintuyan and San Ricardo - this last one of which, that board also says, is 45kms away. Exactly the same distance as turning right and proceeding to Sogod, where I have an after dinner meet-up with a contact, and where I should stay overnight.

The brain made the calculations and regression analyses... voila, I said "kanan"!

So we traversed the northbound road going to Sogod passing via Libagon...

This was one of my views on the left side of the road. We were already on the other side of the peninsula, so this body of water is Sogod Bay. But heavy rains continued... argh!

All of about 15 kilometers of road from that junction to the town proper of Libagon was under rain, at times the road visibility was even affected. The same thing from Libagon all the way to poblacion Sogod. And it was also getting real evening dark. Oh my oh my...

Let's have fun in Sogod instead! That's the next story ;)

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