Philippine Travel Notes

Last leg of my "Northern Negros tour"! I was running out of time, but not worried. In fact, I liked some unexpected sights and situations encountered. Well, I always say, there'll always be something worth noting to be added to my knowledge about this country, or just about life in general! Oh ha, profound! So, after the Cadiz Church, my 'special trip' tricycle brought me to the Ceres Bus Terminal, and what a "lucky strike", I caught the last 'ordinary bus' going south, that passes by the town center of Manapla! Is that an issue? Not really. The conductor himself told me, if I can't catch a bus from inside Manapla, I could take a tricycle ride to the "Welcome Rotunda" near Northland Resort, which is about 3kms out. Less convenient but doable. He added I could also ride the VHires - not a good option for sightseeing! Somewhere outside Cadiz, in a sugarcane field, I saw an elevated ground with trees and a big house. The bus was...

A little onward from the bridge , my Ceres bus stopped in front of SM Hypermarket. Conductor told me it would be best to get off here as there were a 'battalion' of available tricycles waiting for passengers! Before I got off though, he gave me instructions as to where I would find their terminal for my onward trip! And OMG true, there was more than a battalion of tricycles hahaha! I think this area is some kind of an official terminal for trikes, because I saw that they were very organized and even have signages! No waiting, no haggling. Not like in many other places na tipong pinag-aagawan ka ng mga sanggano! Here, when I approached, one of them just said "sin-o next", ayun, I got my trike ride na, to the city hall. The Cadiz City Hall, which, I was told by the trike driver assigned to me, "ara lang" - so I imagined it as just a few blocks away. He even asked if I would rather walk - instead of taking advantage of my utter ignorance, which is very com...

Done roaming the northern parts of Negros Island, even if quickly. I was returning all the way back to Silay, in time for my flight out early the following day. But I needed to do 2 more quick stops at Cadiz and Manapla. So, this was a longer, but still fun bus ride from Calatrava to Cadiz on a non-aircon bus. The ticket said this trip was from KM131 to KM64, therefore 67 kilometers. Was that really long? Well, not really. But for this roam the past two day, I kept hopping from place to place, in succession from west-to-east so those were all very short bus rides, that made Calatrava -to-Cadiz as the longest!. Anyway, there was really nothing much more to be alert-of, since I already passed this way. Yet, I still looked out for lovely (and ugly) things along the way, as this time, I was on the other side of the road! Such as, I saw this on the side of the highway, in an otherwise desolate hinterland little barrio... Yeah, if you're a Filipino, you will immediately recogni...

I knew that Calatrava was the next town going south after Toboso . I also knew it is still part of Negros Occidental, so I must see it! How did I know these? Ah, I previously asked even while still in Escalante ! Thus, while in Toboso , the next questions my wandering brain had to tackle were "how far is Calatrava from here, how long does it take going there"? Easily answered, I just asked folks at the public market. Most of them told me it takes some 30 minutes to about an hour, if the bus keeps stopping! So, GoRa! It was a short scenic 23-peso ride. My ticket said from KM115 to KM131, so just 16 kilometers (yata)! The road is hilly (not mountainous) than places I traveled along since yesterday . Oh yes, I saw horses! I even saw hills similar to Bohol's Chocolate Hills , but wasn't sure if it was Calatrava or still in Toboso ! After exactly 32 minutes on the bus, here I was, standing in front of the Calatrava Municipal Hall . This is by the roadside. Bus stoppe...

Out of Bonista, time to move further south of Escalante. And this brought me to a town called Toboso. Yeah, I was already (physically) on the eastern portion of the island, but this is still Negros Occidental ! I noticed, the road started to undulate up and down, if I may call it that, but there were still no real hills nor mountains along the way - which is always what I like to watch! Although lesser in vastness, there were still sugarcane fields, mostly still "as far as the eyes could see" -- usually greener than rice fields. Oh, their town proper is not along the national road, because I noticed, our bus veered left (eastward), then traveled some kilometers more, before actually reaching center of town. More views, so I liked it! From that corner where I hopped unto this Ceres Bus though, I knew it was not going to take very long to reach Toboso - resort crews and the habal-habal driver told me it won't even take half an hour. True! That, is the Toboso Town Ha...