la isla bonita - part 3
Posted by lordpinoy on December 8, 2006
October 31, 2006 (Tuesday)
We woke up early and decided to have breakfast in town. I had coffee (or was hot milo?) at 6:00 am.
While we were on our way to the white island yesterday, I noticed a mini-airport/airstrip nearby. We decided to check it out for our early morning stretch.
Duel of the Digicams: Nikkon (G) versus Canon. Nikkon’s got a great set of optics. Mine lasts longer and has a really huge memory…. From the point of view of this blog’s readers (?!??), she wins.
Mount Hibok-Hibok / Mambojao, who knows? Taken halfway through the airstrip.
Apparently, there is a plane from Cebu that arrives once every three weeks and the travel fare is quite expensive for mere mortals, so the airport is seldom used. I heard that when PGMA visited Camiguin during the Lanzones Festival, the airport was used exclusively by the government.
By 7 am, we were quite hungry so we went to town on foot. Our breakfast was adobong octopus. No doubt about it, ’twas captured this morning. 100 bucks! Breakfast of Champions for two.
Next stop, Mantigue Island, another popular destination. After somehow haggling with the locals, we manage to secure a pumpboat at discounted price.
Mantigue Island
A View from Mantigue Island. That tiny speck on the right was me.
Luckily, we were the first ones to arrive at 8:00 am. We didn’t have to worry about leaving our stuff.
Taking a break. I wonder what’s up at the "other island" (W. Golding’s Lord of the Flies).
Camiguin, as seen from Mantigue.
I gotta have them Shades
About 10:45 am, people started arriving. It was a chinese family. And would you believe, tambays flocked to them like they were mana from heaven. Where one person would have been enough to attend to the needs of the family (including security), the freeloading tambays demonstrated their "usefulness" by carrying additional chairs (each one carried 1 monobloc chair), charcoal, and barbecue sticks. Apparently, they ganged up on the unsuspecting family so that each would have receive a "generous" amount. It’s like "Pay us or you lose your stuff". arggh.
Unfortunately, they also tried to extort ~ 150 bucks from us because we used the tables and the duyan! I didn’t give in because I found it unreasonable that I should be paying for the use of the place. As far as I knew, that covered area was put up for public use. I’m fully aware of the concept of "tragedy of the commons" and so tried hard not to disturb or destroy that area (during our stay) by collecting our trash, and certainly enough, there was hardly any sign indicating that the use of the "common goods" required payment of rent.
Perhaps, they knew I’d be reluctant that they approached our boatman and convinced him to sympathize with their lot and try to extract any amount from us.
The nerve! To make matters worse, I noticed that there were scattered plastics bottles, improperly disposed trash here and there…. regular maintenance, my foot … yeah right. It’s not hard to imagine that the money they obtain from such activities is wasted on beer rather than … nevermind.
Anyway, I was about to boil over that we decided to leave early rather than stay as planned, until 12. We promptly left about 11:00 am. I’m probably sounding off a bit (?) cruel (and sarcastic) here, but I do hate it when people think you’re easy money.
They didn’t even own the place! For all we know, perhaps it really belongs to a humble fisherman who makes an honest living by waking up 4:00 am everyday riding going out to sea to catch fish to sell.
Moving on … we gave 20 bucks for their "peace of mind" and mine as well.
That built up my appetite.
When we got back, we proceeded to the Lagoon and had our lunch.
As they say, the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (or his wallet).
end of part 3 … for now.
