My Boracay trip via Ro-Ro

AT FIRST there were several vacant seats, but a man seated on my side told me that in Pasay City terminal there would be some other passengers to take those seats, they were reserved with assigned seat numbers.

True enough at Pasay terminal the bus was filled not only with passengers but with lots of baggage occupying even the isle of the bus. Oh my God, what an exciting trip it was, I told my wife Myrna.

In my mind, I asked myself how can we go out of the bus if and when the “call of nature” comes like for example if we’re are going to pee or may be buy something to eat when the bus makes a stop along the way. But my worries were provided an immediate reply when the bus porters arranged the pile of those baggages and put them at the back seat thereby emptying the isle so that passengers can pass through.

It was already 10:00am when my wife Myrna and I arrived at the Cubao bus station. And taking the 11:00am Ceres Transportation trip to Caticlan, we were lucky enough that we catch the last two seats of the said trip, the last for the day. It was a Sunday and the fourth of March.

Then on we go. Our first stop would be at the Batangas port, I was constantly texting Noel about our itinerary. At first we were supposed to meet each other at Calapan, Mindoro, where him and SB Jonathan Cabrera were about to go home to Boracay after attending the Malasimbo music and art festival in Puerto Galera.Our bus arrived at Port of Batangas at exactly 1:00 pm, my first time to see the port. 

There we took our lunch. Aside from being expensive, foods there don’t taste good. I can’t imagine paying a bottle of mineral water costing at P25 when one can have it at a regular price of P10.

The schedule was delayed and we have to wait up to 4:00 pm before we get into the Ro-Ro ship and with approximately two hour trip, we were told that we might be arriving at 6:00 in the evening. Again, this is me and my wife’s trip via Ro-Ro ship.

Myrna, as I expected, enjoyed the ride and took photos of the beautiful islands and sceneries as the ship passes through several islands. Texting Noel we were advised that they will just wait for us at the port of Roxas instead of Calapan since they were expecting us to be in Calapan at 1:00pm but unfortunately we were 5 hours late. So they decided to meet us in Port instead.

It was already dark when we arrived at Calapan and the bus driver took another stop for our dinner.Then we proceeded to the port of Roxas expecting to meet Noel and the group in time, but another text came in that they have to take the 8:00pm Ro-Ro to Caticlan as they were advised that they might not be able to take the 10:00pm ship since there are a lot of buses and the vehicle they brought in might not be accommodated for the 10:00pm schedule. So again Noel told us to just go straight to Caticlan where they will finally meet us.

But again, the 10 pm Ro-Ro schedule was re-scheduled to 11pm, then to 12 midnight and lastly was stretched to 2:00 am the next day, a Monday. “Oh my God! Mabuti na lang nakatulog si Myrna sa bus at mabuti pa sya nakapag-rest. Ako wala talagang tulog,” I told myself.

Loading at 2:00am and on we go to Caticlan, expecting another 4 hours sail. Again Myrna enjoyed taking photos of ours and other passengers sleeping with their kids on top of them since we were only sleeping on a bench, Myrna did have a nap for 2 hours. At 5:00am, I woke her up to have some coffee which literally wowed us because a coffee cost us P35 per cup. Talagang hold-up ang presyo sa barko. Even hot water can be availed at P10 yata.

Arriving at Caticlan, again we have to go on our own to Boracay via a Montenegro fastcraft costing us P30 each with, of course, an environmental fee of P75 each and a terminal fee of P25 for each of us.

At last we arrived in Boracay at around 8:00 am and there we finally met my friend Noel who treated us at the Survivors’ Success Café and restaurant. I think I had bulalo and rice and Myrna had sisig. It was a tiresome trip but we enjoyed it a lot and we promise ourselves that we will do it again on our next Boracay visit.

Next time, I will be used to it and won’t be worrying that something might go wrong along the way specially the Ro-Ro trip. And I thank God for guiding and protecting us throughout our stay in that lovable and enchanting island. This is why I’m sure my good friend Noel is not inclined to go back to Manila as he is inspired to relish all the good experiences this island has to offer. And I’m really envious of him.

In totality, we enjoyed our stay in Boracay for three days and I thanked Noel and SB Cabrera for the good threat. We are looking forward to be back to that wonderful island.