Cruising cross-country Day Two: Cruising Samar, crossing San Juanico Bridge

We learned a valuable lesson the morning of Day 2: Avoid driving out of an

unfamiliar place too early when visibility is low.

It was still raining when we left Legaspi at 5 a.m.. When the rain stopped and the

mist lifted, the morning breeze carried a sulphur scent. The waters of a raging river

less than a foot below a narrow sideless bridge alerted us of our mistake. We could

not have negotiated this path the night before.

We were too busy admiring Mayon, we missed a turn and were on a road to Tabaco,

Albay.

We stopped by a waiting shed to ask a woman the way to Sorsogon. She grinned,

said a few words in the dialect, and waved us towards the way we came from. A man

with her joined in the waving. It was obvious they found our presence in that part of

town quite amusing.

I was not amused. My alarm clock had sounded at 4 a.m.; my back ached; my head

was dizzy from too little sleep. And we were only on the first island of our

seven-island drive. (Before sleep came, Ariel de Jesus of Toyota had texted: “One

island down; the whole country to go!)

We found the road to Daraga where we stopped by a police station to ask for

directions to Matnog. Just before we left the town proper, a big sign said Matnog is

120 kms away. Most of that would be winding roads running across a mountain which

the map identified as the Bulusan Volcano.

We crossed the Sorsogon boundary when our odometer read Km 552. We reached

Matnog at Km 619 at 7:40 a.m.

We had enough time to process our papers to board the 9:30 ferry. Thanks to

planning, Eddie Evasco, officer in charge of the Lockheed Security guards, at the port

had our plate number on his record, which allowed us to drive into the compound

immediately.

That kind of courtesy was arranged for us by Philtranco’s operations supervisor Mrs.

Carmelita Evasco-Albaño in Pasay City. Jose Grimaldo, Philtranco Matnog office

manager at the port also went out of his way to offer us some assistance.

There are only two roll-on-roll-off vessels making eight trips a day ferrying people and

vehicles across Luzon and Visayas docking at Samar. The ferry personnel observe

priority bookings for the limited number of vehicles that can be accommodated.

Passenger buses top the list, followed by vehicles carrying food, and then cars and

trucks.

You can imagine how so much time can be spent just waiting for your vehicle to be

accommodated, especially if you are a first-timer.

The Princess Ferry left the Matnog port at exactly 9:40 a.m. We docked at Allen in

Samar at 11:10 a.m. Since the terminal staff had so thoughtfully positioned the Revo

to be the first vehicle to drive off the ferry, we were driving out of the Allen port by

11:20. The trip meter read: 619 km.

At the first turn was the sign: Tacloban – 247 kms.

We only planned to drive up to Catbalogan, about 150 kms away, and spend the night

there. But we got there by 4:30 p.m. and again, we broke the rule: We decided to

drive on even at night. A sign said Tacloban is only 107 kms. away. We thought we

could be there in two hours.

We were wrong. The roads were just as bad as the ones in Sipocot. But there were

no traffic marshals to warn or guide you. You could be entering a one-lane road only

to find a truck at the end of the stretch. And we could not be discourteous on the

road. The Revo’s reputation was at stake.

We called our home base to request my assistant to arrange lodging for us in

Tacloban. Although the original plan did not include a stopover in Tacloban, she had

alerted Chit Estrada of the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) of a possibility.

Darkness descended quickly in the countryside. Suddenly, we could not see anything

but what our headlights touched. There were no vehicles in front or at the back of

the Revo. The towns were getting farther from each other.

I was very worried, I started to pray my rosary. Anjo was on the wheel, Aris was

navigating. Most of the time, we were quiet. We talked about what we should do if

armed men blocked our way. Anjo said he would run over them and would not stop

even through gun fire. Aris said we could stop to negotiate.

Three hours of complete darkness later, we saw the sign leading us to San Juanico

Bridge that links Samar to Leyte. We were relieved: conversation started to flow

again.

We received a text message from home base telling us to proceed to MacArthur Park

Resort and Hotel in Palo, about 30 minutes from the city proper. The resort is PTA

property.

At 8 that evening, again under a heavy downpour, the Revo dramatically entered the

MacArthur Park Resort. The hotel’s format of sprawling cottages starts from an open

structure where the front desk is a few meters from the driveway. No one could miss

the sight of the Toyota Revo driving out from the rain into the canopied driveway (to

be continued next week).