Part 3: From a Bad Start to a Good Finish (Bicol Tour 2011)

Day 3: A Larger Patch of Blue (Paniman to Donsol)

I woke up early-ish, to the animated voices of our landlady and her neighbors. I got out of the room and saw rays of sunshine hitting the table. Finally! I woke up LA and Lyra, my roomies, and we all went to the beach and savored the warmth of the sunrise. We saw the busy locals tending their nets and their boats. I took my fist photos that actually had the semblance of summer. After a while i woke up Lei, Choy and Mel so they could enjoy it too. There is now blue skies peeking over the grey shroud. Yay!

It is with good cheer that we left Paniman, on a jeepney. We initially hired a tricycle to bring us to the port (P300 vs the jeepney's P800). We were trying to fit ourselves and our bags like something from a backpack skills test when the driver decided to offer us P500 for the jeepney ride. Without a second thought we said okay and immediately transferred. We were spared the walks on muddy trails, which was a good part of the way, when the tricycle would not be able to climb the muddy trails with us on.

We wrote our names once again on the manifesto, the locals urging us to toss some disc before we leave, but we wanted to get good seats. And so we left Caramoan for real.

We were all looking forward to replenish our stocks. We have consumed six bottles of gin and wine in two nights, and we have depleted our supplies. We bought eight bottles of alcohol this time for the remaining two nights: three GP and five reds.

We ate at Mondo's Grill, kare-kare which LA and I shared. Chicken Inasal and Sinaing na Isda and Binagoongang Lechon Kawali for the others.

We took a van to Daraga, Legaspi for two hours. Then hired another van to bring us to Donsol for another hour. It was late, around eight p.m. when we got to Woodland, a sprawling beach resort.

Dinner was Laing and Bicol Express Pizzas! The former was okay, with a thin crust and lots of cheese, but the latter was just too weird-- bagoong on my pizza!

There was a lot of budgeting and computing that followed while drinking wine and eating gruyere cheese, because Lyra and I were diving the following day to see mantas! We didn't think that the dive would cost so much (P3,500 for three dives). Donsol didn't have atm, so we were forced to scrimp and even borrow money from the others (thanks LA and Choy!). But we were all looking forward to tomorrow.