A week after my arrival in Catanduanes, I decided to now visit my father side's place. It's a coastal area wherein you have to ride a motor boat from the town proper for about 15-20 minutes to reach it's shore. The Barangay has a small population of 200+ people only, and most of them are our relatives.
It rained a bit before we arrived at TARAHID, the mini motorboat port in Payo. It's the best place to go to if you want to visit coastal Barangays. If you doesn't know anyone who can fetch you, you can talk to other motor boat owners. Some of them can drop you off if you're on the way and you'll just have to pay 20-50php depending on your destination. If there's none, you have no choice but to talk to someone into hiring them. It may cost you a little bit more but it's still cheap for someone who came from the city.
But since I have my relatives who owned motor boats (my grand mother used to own one, but the maintenance costs her so she decided to let it rest) me and my cousin, Jessie, was fetched. While on the way, I saw this rainbow and I felt giddy like a child. It's been ages since I saw a rainbow and I don't really exactly remember when. It's a priceless moment for me.
These are my cousins. The kid, Kervin, is my first cousin from my father's sister. They lived in Babaguan for a long time. Jessie on the other hand, lives in the town proper. I asked him to accompany me here. I also want him to experience the place since even though he's just a motorboat away, he haven't been in the place.
This was taken in a small waiting shade near the shore. The shade was made for people who are waiting for the motor boats to arrive, or if you have nothing to do, you can just stay there and feel the ocean breeze.
This is the view when you're with the waiting shed. It's low tide when I took this photo. If it's high tide, the water goes up to at least two meters or so from where the grasses are.
Next to waiting shed is the small chapel. They maintain the chapel as well as the chairs and the saints inside. It's cute and it's painted pink, which is not really obvious because of the sun light when I took the image,
That's the waiting shed right there. Next to it is the main road, then the basketball court, where all the dancing and partying is always held if it's Fiesta. This view was taken from my Grandmother's house. She has this little balcony.
And these are the main road that will lead to all the houses in Babaguan.
The view from my Tita's house. That end right there leads to the shore.
The signal in this part of the place isn't that strong. There are just instances or certain places in my Tita's place wherein we can receive messages or call.
Anyway, I have three houses wherein I can go, sleep, eat or basically be my home. One is my father's mother who lives alone, second is my father's sister and her family and last but not the least, my father's youngest brother who's house is just at the back of my Tita's house. They all have fridges, almost all of the house in here. It's been the most comfortable stay I had ever experience except for the constant brown out which is irritating.
Here's me and my knee's scar. My mom got pissed about it when I went home. I know, she's very keen when it comes to my legs, specially having a scar. But hey, people get drunk and just move on. Lol. I don't know who's motorboat is this but this one was the most available when me and Jessie were swimming and it's a nice prop.
The big motorboat that's floating at my back is called TAKSAY. It was also the first time I heard it. It's a big motorboat from another province where they sell fishes that they caught. They have been in Catanduanes for a while, going to different towns.
This is the boat up close.
I learned a bit about them when one time I decided to take a nap on the waiting shed (yes, I did. It's just so nice to take a nap in there. I got my grandma's pillows and blanket) and Jessie's there too when a group of three early twenties men joined us. I was awaken by their laugh and we exchanged stories.
They said they are from DAET, that they have been on the sea for months already, hoping from town to town there in Catanduanes. They used to stop at the other side of Babaguan, which is Maculiw, but they said they got in trouble. Anyway, they also got in trouble in Babaguan, but it was milder because my cousin's just drunk. We exchanged stories. I thought there's a lot of younger men in the boat, but looking at them close up, most of them are older.
They said that their boat is big, it accommodates them okay, There;s 38 of them there and most of them are family men. They are run by a company who gave them the equipments. They said it will be illegal if there's no company handling them. They usually got to beer houses in different towns in Catanduanes that they are in. It's just sad that there's robbery going on since they are not really friends, they have just been put together in that boat,
The two guys were talking to the other one about how their work in TAKSAY is better than the other one's old job. They said the guy's salary for a month which is 4,000php is something that they can earn in two to three nights. Hearing this made me ask them if they save their money, they laughed and said "Yes, we save it.. in beer houses,"
They must be really lonely. Lol.
Anyway, I got a close shot when we're on the boat going back to Town proper. We asked them for a basketball game since some of the men from Babaguan wanted to have a game. They said yes and we drove away back to Payo.
This is the MINAASO Islet. It's really cute. It's small. Ever since I was young, I wanted to get closer to it. When I got older, I learned that it's actually a small volcano. There's a hole inside in the middle, said the people who went and looked.
There had been said a lot of interest into making it a resort. It's actually a clever idea since it would surely boom because of the location and the fact that it's like a mini island. The sad and a bit creepy part is that, whenever some people tried to work on it, they are accidentally cutting a part of their body, or some just becomes ill. Minaaso is said to be protected by the ENGKANTOS.
The next morning, I went back home to Manila.
I will always be happy to go back here.
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