The Cagayan Getaway

Day 2: First Day in Tuao

My mom's hometown: Tuao, Cagayan.

It's a small town about 30 minutes away from Tuguegarao, the capital city of Cagayan. And our destination in Tuao: Battung, a barangay on the corner of Tuao. Battung actually seem like sooo isolated when you're there. We had to pass thru the broken bridge folks call the "Ferry" first and enjoy a 20-minute kuliglig ride before reaching it. And we found out that there were no FM radio stations whose frequency can reach there. And there were only two TV stations: ABS-CBN and GMA. And cellphone signal is so weak we had to go outside the house to pick it up. And it was sooo cold in there that I had a feeling that winter had finally fell in the Philippines, minus the snow, of course (and just my luck, I didn't bring any jacket or even long-sleeved shirts and long pants because it was hot in Bulacan when we left; I thought weather would be the same in Cagayan).


Anyway, enough of the non-sense (and probably grammatically-challenged) talk. PHOTOSPAM!!!

This is Ferry. The bridge was broken and folks there just use rocks for the bridge to be passable. This photo was taken by my brother on our third day in Cagayan. A Victory Liner bus almost got off the bridge "extension" and fell into the water. I wonder why the local government in there can't fix this bridge for good; they just settle for temporary solutions. This can be very irritating for travelers. Tsk.

Since the bridge was broken, we had to ride the banca to reach the other side of the Ferry.

Since we still had to wait for my uncle's kuliglig, we did some "photo shoots" in the Ferry.

My niece, Jam.

My brotha!

My cousin-in-law, Ate Glori.

With my cousin, Ate Meg, and niece, Jaan.

  When long wait for the kuliglig was over...

Izz the kuliglig! Ready for the ride?

Uncle Rey, the kuliglig driver.

I will always be amazed with this view of the province: coconut trees standing high in looong lines on the far ends of the fields. Wow!

Calesas!

We got in my uncle's house (where we stayed in) at around 9 am, Dec. 23. So that means, we spent 24 hours on the road! Wtf! Anyway, this is the house:

The front 'lawn.'

The restroom/kitchen/laundry area. The toilet's not here, though. It's at the back of the house, just a small hole on the lot covered by sacks.

We didn't rest as soon as we got in the house, though. We went straight to the river after changing our clothes.

My nephews, and my cousins (the tallest one and the one wearing pink) led the way to the river.

You'll mistake the river for a beach because of the coconut trees.

They played agawan buko while I took the photos.

Then the kids had the time of their lives...

So that was our first day. Truly tiring. I went straight to bed when we got back to my uncle's place.

So there...

Next up! How we spent the holiday.

The Cagayan Getaway

Day 1: The Trip to Cagayan

We left Bulacan at around 9am, December 22nd. Passed thru NLEX, blah blah, blah blah. And, yeah, we got lost. There were no "To Cagayan" signboards at NLEX, so we ended up exiting the wrong gate. Spent around 3-4 hours finding our way to Nueva Ecija (wherer roads lead to Cagayan Valley).

We stopped over at a certain Jollibee branch somewhere in Nueva Ecija to eat late lunch. Then off we went again. Passed through a town where all the motorbikes of the tricycles have the same make. What a cute town. Haha. And we got lost the second time. (I think it would have been better for us to just ride a bus to Tuguegrao. I don't think members of our family has a good sense of direction.)


The most exciting part of the trip was the drive through Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya. It's like passing through a gigantic snake, what with all those sharp curves plus the trucks and buses. PHOTO SPAM!

The view of the mountains, though was sooooo amazing! Thanks to the tinted window of the car, and to the low shutter speed of the camera we were using, and to Papa's 80kph driving speed, we somehow managed to take photos of the mountains surrounding Sta. Fe. PHOTOSPAM!!!

It's a hanging bridge!

And then night fell.

We had to stop over to a certain gas station somewhere in Isabela and wait til the morning dawned. And yep, it took us almost 24 hours to reach Cagayan when it's only supposed to be 12-15 hours by bus.

Wtf.

Oh well. More pictures of our stay in Cagayan during the holidays soon soon soon.

My mind's still in vacation mode

Oh yes, and I still haven't blogged about our family's Cagayan trip.

I wasn't able to pay full attention to class earlier. For one, my brain's left in Cagayan. Also, I just recovered from a New Year's flu. Whatta way to kickstart my 2012.

Ok. I promise, later I'll do a photo spam. Promise. Promise. Promise.