Day 2 in Albay: goodbye hotsprings, hello clouds!

It was another long day ahead. After checking out from and having breakfast at the inn, our ever efficient tourguide picked us up to take us to Tiwi, another town in Legazpi. We barely made the 10am mass in St. Lawrence Parish, and when we entered, it was being said in Bicolano! Anyway… (in the pic, there I am right at the entrance!)

Our guide proudly took us to the geothermal plant, which supplied energy to the entire town. It was a breathtaking sight. Then we looked for the supposedly renowned hot springs, and when we found it, the manang was quick to save us the trouble and told us at the entrance, “Baka po hinahanap nyo yung hot spring, wala na po.” We were surprised, but she explained that the geothermal plant has sort of taken all the energy from the springs for around 10 years already. Too bad..

However, Randy read somewhere that Tiwi was famous for halo-halo, so we searched the town plaza for the best place. Tia Lyd’s (since 1958) was a blast, as in! Aside from the grated cheese you see under the big chunk of leche flan, it has…tadaaH! small mango cubes among the other regular ingredients! Ang sarap!

We decided to postpone our lunch until we got back to Legazpi, so we proceeded immediately to Mayon Resthouse, which was halfway up the mountain. Needless to say, malayo sya, paakyat pa! But, the view was spectacular! There was an abandoned inn, a planetarium, a place where you can buy plants and flowers, and a place where you can pray the rosary. The clouds that we saw so high up from the foot of the mountain were like so within our reach in that altitude (as you will see in the picture with the big cross, that’s us so small).

Something else made our trip memorable.. on our way down from the resthouse, our tricycle lost its brakes! As in! They wore out during the long trip up the mountain. Although Kuya Dan did not have extra tools (as he did not foresee this), he resourcefully fixed it and sent us safely down to the bayan.

We did not have time to have a decent lunch, because our bus trip back to Quezon City was 6pm. We quickly dropped by the palengke for pasalubong of pili nuts, visited Kuya Dan’s house to get our bags, and proceeded to the terminal for last minute pancit. We reached Cubao at 6am of May1.

Some tips/lessons (from my own experience):
1. Choose the ‘better’ bus lines that stop at airconditioned eating places that have clean restrooms that do NOT ask for maintenance donations. Yup, get what I mean?
2. If possible, take one day trip, and one night trip, so you’ll have the chance to see the sights along the way.
3. Try to ask reliable friends for the good lodging places, of course we have to take care of our reputations. After all, there are cheap but cozy accommodations around.
4. While it will be convenient to have a service (and tourguide and picture taker at the same time), it will also be fun to discover the different ways to commute around town by yourselves.

Anyone else with Bicol adventures they want to share?

Day1 in Albay: goodbye pouch, hello ring!

We reached Albay just as the day was about to break..the silhouette of majestic Mayon against the morning light almost moved me to tears! I turned to the person beside me to share my emotions -- but Randy was zzZzZzz.. after all, he came straight from work the night before. After settling in a cozy inn (which was recommended by exactly the same group who did the fieldwork there in 1998!), taking a nap, freshening up, and having breakfast, we were taken by our guide to Cagsawa,
the famous church and bell tower which was reduced to ruins during an eruption in February 1814. The full view of the volcano was awesome, partly because there were not much clouds that day.
From one of the souvenir shops, I got a free cell phone pouch (I was so excited because “I love Bicol” was printed on it! You will see it encircled in the photo) for buying 3 sandos for my nephews. We used it for my digicam, but unfortunately, we lost it after around 5 hours in a beach. Huhuhu..

Our guide then took us to Albay Parks and Wildlife, where we took more pictures in the lagoon area and with the animals. This was where I saw for the first time a bird called
bleeding heart pigeon, which can be found only in the Philippines! Check out why (zoom the picture and be amazed!) After a hot and tiring tour, we had late lunch at…tadaaah --- Jollibee Rizal Street! Miss ko kagad ube keso special eh..










We went back to the inn to get swim stuff, and proceeded to Sto. Domingo, a coastal town rather far from Legazpi, where we scouted for a nice resort. The beaches had dark sand, which was typical of areas with volcanoes.

It was almost dark when we went back to the inn. After resting a bit, we went out again at 7pm for dinner. Randy had in mind a somewhat special place, the resto in Hotel Venezia. Kami lang ang andun the whole time! It was a memorable dinner for both of us, for me especially. It was sort of the culmination of a lot of Randy's hard work for the past few months.

So ends our first day in Albay. Watch out for the next part of this blog about this trip..

daragang magayon

MAYON...not the street next to where I've lived my entire life (hehe)..but the breathtaking (almost) perfect cone volcano in Albay..

When I was a project research assistant fresh from college circa 1998, I was thankful to have been given the chance to conduct fieldwork in almost all the provinces in Luzon (as in yes, I was able to go to almost all, from Ilocos Norte, to Masbate, to Ifugao, and even to the very near province of Rizal! Batanes was out of the question because it was rather expensive and a bit risky.) However, my frustration was Region 5..another group was assigned there.

Randy and I vowed that we will go to Bicol ourselves, if only to see the lovely Mayon. During the long weekend of April 28-May 1, he made my long-time wish come true.

Two days before the scheduled trip, I was texting everyone about recommended accommodations and must-sees in the area. Many people replied (thanks Malu, Ricky, Glads, Sir Arnel, Nadj, Iyee, Mon, Rich, everyone!! Although I didn't get to go to all places you mentioned), but Ms. Angie turned out to be our lifesaver! She gave me her sister's number, whose husband incidentally owned a tricycle in Legazpi. He became our tourguide/service/picturetaker for our entire stay there.

We took the night trip from Cubao, and normally, as all my friends could attest to, I am semi-narcoleptic (if there's such a disorder!), meaning, I fall asleep almost on any surface, in any position, at any weather, at any time of any day in any place, almost instantly, very deeply, without dreams, sometimes with snores, even if it's just as short as a ride from Mabuhay Rotonda to our house, or even in the MRT while standing up! no kidding. This trip was different, though.. I found myself waking up every half hour or so! Talk about excitement!

I hope I do justice to the trip as I try my best to describe it here...