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?