Basey to Catarman Joyride

Not your usual "origin-and-destination" pair. Not even mine too. It just happened that I needed to do work-related matters in both towns, in succession (same day), that I had no choice but to quickly run from one place to the other. That is about 250 kilometers far!

Well, the most important thing is, I enjoyed the ride!

Here's the 'hectic day' story...

I set out early morning from Tacloban for an activity in one of the barrio's of Basey - yeah some kilometers beyond the town proper, even already near the jump-off point to the Sohoton Cave and Natural Bridge Park - but I did not go there this time - trabaho muna! Thankfully the activity ended noontime, otherwise they would have to serve me lunch!

I made my way to the town center of Basey to look for lunch - there's a default carinderia I usually go to in this town if lunchtime comes and I'm still around. That's at Kuya Tani's.

OMG, I found out I did not have enough money in my wallet, even just to pay for lunch! And there is no bank in Basey, OMG! But not to worry, because of my travels, I learned sometime ago, there is actually an ATM in Basey, not of a bank but by a multi-purpose cooperative. Yes, there are things like those. Did you know that?! So I used it this time!

Hey am not even sure what BIDMPC means. I think B is for Basey and the last 3 letters (MPC) mean (multi purpose cooperative). It's a real ATM at the door to their premises. I did not take a pic of it as everyone was looking at me. Baka kung ano isipin nila hahaha!

But see?! We learn things by traveling, right?!

Eto na.. shortly after a 'rush lunch', we set out on the long drive from Basey to Catarman. Realization: if you wan't to fly on the road on a regular day in Samar, not on a noontime.

All the kids go home to have lunch. They walk or run or make kulitan along the streets - usually the highway. Dangerous! Same as in the afternoon actually, at end of school day.

But while my driver had to be extra careful as he attempted to fly us out to Catarman before sundown, I actually enjoyed watching the crazy highway with all these students on the road. I did reflect... ganun ba ako kakulit when I was in high school? Probably po!

What amazed me was that all who must take a ride going home or elsewhere, take the habal-habal - either as regular commuter service or motorbikes of their parents/families.

Here are some examples: (while passing by Calbiga)

This kid seated rearmost heard (and reacted) when my driver honked to overtake:

That is why as you can see he is somehow trying to look at us or at our vehicle, I think.

And while we were overtaking them, eto na sya... (shouting, ginagaya ang busina)

Hahaha, ang kulit! That expression btw is "to whom it may concern" since he cannot see us as the car is heavily tinted. He also did not see that I was shooting a photo. I know I should not post a minor's full face, but this one is so 'aliw' he made me laugh. Ang kulit!

Here are more of them, all on the way home for lunch...

Fastforward, here we were approaching the new bypass road in Gandara

I asked the driver to take that left turn so I could see if it is already done since it has been under construction and repair na agad for so long a time. Of course we laughed at the arrow to "Gandara Proper" as it is not really to the right. It should be straight ahead.

Naka-hirit si driver this time saying "ito sir, right turn to "Gandara Improper" hehehe!

Well, what can I say, it's now a nice bypass road with this good new bridge...

No need passing by Gandara proper if you have nothing to do there. But I don't mind. The old bridge there is also interesting :) And it's not really 'traffic' as in the Manila kind!

Fastforward to Calbayog and we caught sight of this intriguingly funny business name...

Intriguingly funny because my driver says "irapa" is a waray-waray word that means weak, sickly or even disabled! It can also mean the equivalent of the Tagalog "bano" bordering on "jologs"! I said it might mean LRafa, and the driver retorted with "ka-irapa"!

This is the front of Calbayog City Hall. I initially wondered why all the banderitas...

But oh okay I remembered, September na nga pala! Fiesta here is every September 8.

Fastforward again, this time to Oquendo - and I need ot mention why we passed this way. There are two ways going to Catarman from Calbayog. One is the usual 'coastal approach' via the Maharlika highway northwards to Allen then onwards (also a coastal highway) to Catarman - which is about 120kms (from Calbayog). The other and newer way is the 'mountain approach' via the town of Lope De Vega which is only about 75kms.

We did the mountain approach via Oquendo to reach Catarman before sundown...

And what is that blurred thing, you may be asking? Ah, that is the Holy Infant (a.k.a. Sto Nino De Oquendo) Parish Church in Oquendo. Ah, Oquendo is a district of Calbayog City.

We were running very fast I was barely able to take that pic! What's so special about this church? Nothing much, really. Except that beside it (to the left of picture) is a facility managed by the Missionaries of Charity commonly called MC. I celebrated one of my birthdays there years ago! There's a home for the sick, malnourished and the abandoned.

Anyway..,

Then we started our ascent - hindi pa to heaven ha - to Lope De Vega.

You will find those zigzag signs very common on this road, as if going to the clouds!

And the yellow kilometer posts here are all marked LV...

No no no, not Louis Vuitton, Lope De Vega lang muna! Like that one at left says LV25.

Then we reached the welcome marker of Lope De Vega, Northern Samar...

This is however still far from the town center. This is actually the provincial boundary of Norther Samar and (Western) Samar out here in the mountains - but yes, also the southern tip of Lope De Vega. That marker is concrete, and it looks like something, right?

Sa dami naman kasi ng pwedeng gawin, pistol pa! It can be in the shape of a kalabasa, or a paniki, bakit armas de fuego naman?! That just makes the visitor like me feel jittery!

Do you know about the past and present history of this town? Insurgency. Duu!

That is why this is not (yet) the road of choice of many private vehicles traveling between Northern Samar towns and Calbayog. At least some PUVs already ply this route.

He won't say it, but I guess that's probably also the reason why my driver was zooming faster than usual on the desolate parts of this highway - and he even reminded me of our "no stopping protocol", purportedly so that we would be in Catarman before sunset!

Here's more... look at the signage at right - what you'll find 1 kilometer away from here.

Yes, a Philippine Army detachment! The knowledge that there is military presence here would normally put anyone at ease, right? But it just reminds me that there might be a 'ratatatatat' here somewhere. Kulba! Now you know why not many folks pass this way!

Look! At 4:06PM, we were still very far from Catarman... so driver was speeding up!

We were not even at Lope De Vega town proper yet, and it was decided, I cannot roam around this town, this time. Well, that's reason enough for me to come back. Next time!

Isn't that hopelessly pathetic? I haven't even reached town center yet, and I was already resigned, that I "may not" roam around it, therefore already planning for a comeback! Ah well, if it's any consolation, this was not part of my itinerary anyway! Nadaan lang. fly-by!

But nothing could dampen my zest to see things a I travel. Like this pack of mongrels!

Amazing! In the middle of an uninhabited forest, I see 5 dogs galivanting on a highway!

At least there were the common vistas, like these 4 carabao's grazing on the roadsides...

This one is also common, but in the more urban areas of this country...

Si misis, doing her laundry just beside the tapstand of their Level II Water System. Oh ha?! Me mga tapstand tapstand at level level na akong nalalaman! Travel is education!

At a kilometer before town center.., there's nothing but the forest!

Part of me says "it must be wodnerful to live here", the other part of me says "mingaw"!

And this is Lope De Vega town center...

How do I know, why do I know this is town center? A eh.., ayun me Palawan Express o!

Not to ridicule or anything, but where we were passing - which was supposedly the very middle of town - looked like a hinterland barrio. Well, I saw big houses here and there like you see on that picture, but in general, it did not at all look like a town center to me!

Look, there are even big concrete houses in this part of town...

This is by the way part of the highway. Yet, the place still looks barriotic to me. Maybe because it was a gloomy afternoon. September is still a rainy season on an island where the normal climatic seasons are just "wet" and "very wet"! Or the road is not "trodden"?

No stopping as agreed with the driver, right? But I still craned my neck to look here and there, perchance, catch a snippet as to where the municipal hall or the church might be. Unsuccessful! Then I will have to be serious about "there's always a next time". Hahaiszt!

I saw this as we moved onwards, out of the poblacion...

Hello DPWH, naubusan na ba kayo ng letter "D"? Or naging mga engineer kayo without passing through Grade 3 English? Aba, accelerated? Magaling kung ganun. Though not quite good. I know what you mean on that signage - "DAMAGED PAVEMENT AHEAD". Sus!

I am no grammar expert, as you would catch in this blog, marami din akong sablay. But that signboard is unforgiveable because you are a national agency putting up a warning on a national road for the whole world to read. You can't even claim it to be inadvertent.

Anyway, no sooner, I was back to enjoying the "awe-inspiring" rural scenes like this...

Grabe, a motorcycle engine can bear that heavy a load on this mountain highway. Whoa!

Alright now now.., there is the other "pistol" with a message bidding us goodbye...

So we were out of the Lope De Vega poblacion, and it was already 4:26PM. My oh my...

I think this is already a barangay of Catarman - malaki ang gym eh :)

While I am wowed at the size of that covered court in this far flung barangay, I am more amused that those two trees have combined to provide such a fantastic canopy all the way to the other side of the road! It must be really cool in this place any time of day!

But right across them is this school...

First my eyes grew wide thinking what might have happened to that building, at bakit siya lang. Then again I came to my senses, it looks like a new school building under construction, so the roofing is not yet finished. But, and I mean a seriously big BUT...

Why is everything made of wood up there? Look, from trusses, beams to rafters, lahat kahoy. I can't believe it's still a DepEd or DPWH building standard on a September 2015. Hello 'modernization', haven't you been to Catarman Northern Samar yet? Hm, irregular!

Picture is fuzzy as we were zooming fast. But at least nabasa ko ang shcool ID. This is School ID 122846 - Cervantes Elementary School, Catarman, DepEd Division of Northern Samar. My gash! Pang-Malou Mangahas (GMA's Investigative Documentaries) na yata ito!

Whatever!

Then... I heard my driver breathed a loud sigh of relief when we passed by that bee!

He even read it joyfully "Welcome to Catarman"! Hmm, that sigh of relief got me curious.

It's already almost 10PM as I write this, and I just searched Lope De Vega on google. Ayun, almost everything I see is about the remoteness of this place and insurgency. Sabi ko na nga ba! No wonder the driver's sigh of relief when we were finally out of it, no wonder I saw very few vehicles on either way, and no wonder I got a call at dinnertime and I got 'reprimanded' for having passed where I passed. Well, I am still alive and free!

Oh, I just read also on the web that sometime ago, the little woman has already visited Lope De Vega, even also the nearby but more remote town of Silvino Lobos (which is not on this highway)! Teka, if the president of this country came to visit this place, oh eh, di safe nga! Then again... whatever, basta I am still whole alive unmolested unthreatened!

But let's move on with my joyride - di pa tapos!

Having been welcomed by the bee did not mean I was already at Catarman town proper.

Ayan, I saw a trikeful of amakan. Nice to know there are amakan makers in this place.

I wonder which civilization first started using amakan for their dwellings. I have seen many places all over southeast asia and the pacific islands where houses use amakan as their house walls, ceilings or partitions. Sino ba ang orig nyan, do you know?

See, wala pa nga tayo sa Catarman, I told you!

Just a kilometer more Washington na! Teka, are we in Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia?!

Hey I also loved the following scenes with the late afternoon sun...

And this habal-habal is full with "pawod" - "pawid" in Tagalog...

Ano na nga ba sa English yan? Thatched nipa leaves? Eh ano ang "nipa"? "Nipa Palm" says Merriam Webster! But this is how spanishdict.com defines it: nipa NOUN 1. A kind of palm-tree in the Philippine Islands; from the leaves thatches for roofs are made, and from the roots a spirituous drink.

And finally officially (dahil government signage yan) we arrived at downtown Catarman!

Testigo kayo, I arrived at Catarman before sunset. Look at the wash of sunlight, kitang-kita pa sa sidewalk! Kaya kayong mga ***** security monitoring ek-ek, 'wag kayong ano! I did not violate any SS protocol! Don't me! Oops, oo sige na, I was not supposed to have passed by the mountains hehe. Sori na, tao lang, marupok, kay daling lumimot hahahaha!

And entering Catarman poblacion, looking for my meeting venue...

What beckoned were big old wooden houses. There are still many of them, I suppose!

Okay let's cut it here. So, there goes my interesting joyride from Basey to Cataman!