Philippine Travel Notes

This ride was between two coastal towns of the north-western Leyte district, but the road to Tabango (from Villaba) is not at all coastal . The highway isn't near the ocean for it to be visible as we drove by. Thus, I didn't have good views of the sea during this run. Just a few snippets or I might say none at all. But thanks to the interesting sights along the highway.., this was still a fun ride! From the L3DEO in Villaba (that we spoke of in the last part of the previous article), the town center of Tabango is only some 14kms, on a northward run, passing by 3 of its rural barangays that have rice as a main crop, therefore, mainly verdant 'rice plantations' is the "general scenery" in whichever direction. Wonderful enough actually, with unexpected sights that made this joyride at times hilariously fun. Like this one.., a nice portion of the highway and an anxiety-inducing motorcycle rider! He was running at normal speed. I say that, since our vehicle

As mentioned in my previous post, we see this welcome signage after crossing the Badiang Bridge.., So I welcomed my self to Villaba [pronounced vil-ya-ba]! Like many visitors, I also did wonder how this place got to be called "Villaba". But from the first letter of the name, it must have had Hispanic origins. There is a "Villa l ba" in Puerto Rico (also an ex-colony of Spain). Maybe this is similar - a contraction of the 2 words "villa" and "alba" - whether or not they point to the same place, thing or person (whatever) being referred to! There's also a Vi l alba in Spain. Note, all three places differ in the use of the letter "L". Anyway, I said in the previous story that there are grand views of the sea, right? This is it.., I liked this view as it was.., but just imagine if this were not a gloomy day.., This place is panoramic! The winding road descending towards the center of town is so instagrammably fantastic.., I'll

After Isabel, my joyride continued, this time moving northwards, just passing by Palompon (since I was there just recently), and moving northwards to the town of Villaba, still in the province of Leyte. The whole stretch is only about 45kms long. But with a lot of slowing down to ogle at this or that, and some "pauses for poses", this trip took an hour, even if on a generally desolate (but well-paved) road! Palompon seems to be exactly midway between Isabel and Villaba. It felt like the travel from Isabel to Palompon and Palompon to Villaba were equidistant. I could be wrong. But the views kept me awake! I said "awake", not "alert"! Like this picture was too late. We were already past the grand view! Yup, that's the Visayas State University (VSU) campus in Isabel. A big wide place. Like its Baybay City (main) campus, this VSU also straddles the national highway, so you also see 2 gates (left and right)! But I was not that alert hehe. I wasn