Catanduanes- a place of simplicity and a nature of beauty
Month: May 2014
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Road trip: Viga-Payo-Bagamanoc-Soboc in search of “Kinis” Part 2
To panganiban (payo) We arrived Viga at 8:30 in the morning, we asked our family friend to find “kinis” (crab)for us, back then when we were young, the crabs were sold in a bag made of nipa palm leaves.Unfortunately, it was not available on that time of the day, so we decided to continue our road trip to Panganiban (payo) and Bagamanoc.
Nipa palm leaves for crabs on sale: Photo credit (Experience Catanduanes) 
Banquerohan bridge According to my research, when the 2nd world war broke out, Viga became the centre of Guerrilla movement in the province.The battle between the Guerrillas and escaping Japanese forces were simultaneously fought at Banquerohan bridge. (source: Catanduanes.gov.ph)
The abundance of swampy area and palms leads to mud crabs harvest but I didn’t see any one selling “Kinis” (crabs)!
We went around until we reached Bagamanoc, still “Kinis” (crab) is nowhere to be found, huh! not my day 😦 and yet so happy to be here, so refreshing!
beautiful day 
my travel companion (my bros)… special thanks to Carmela For so many years, this our first time to travel to the north, It was fun to have this two bodyguards 🙂 psst… did I mentioned we are all  beyond fifties?  hehehe peace !
With “kinis” or no “Kinis” the scenery was just too much to take in…a real beauty of simplicity!
Nipa palm leaves 
Buto ni KurakogThe famous ” Buto ni Kurakog” -a phallic – shaped land formation off the coast of Ilihan point. O la la! what’s behind this shape?
Buto ni Kurakog My apology to those who have virgin mind 🙂 Buto means “Penis” and Kurakog according to the legend is the name of the Giant who was madly in love with a local barrio lass who committed suicide because her parents disapproved her relationship to Kurakog. Kurakog got depressed and died eventually leaving his “penis” as a memory to the locals. Either your jaw dropped or you’re smiling aha! please read the rest of my road trip story, get some tea if you may or take a deep breath to recover hahaha , just kidding.
Well so much for the legend, let’s move back to the main road, what I noticed about Catanduanes, there are public schools at every district we passed by, it doesn’t matter if the population are small, I am so proud to conclude that ‘Education” is given a priority even into the remote area.
It was almost lunch time and we haven’t found “Kinis” yet, we went back to Viga and had lunch with our family friend. Thank you so much Manal itoy, I was starving and forgot to take a picture of “laing” (taro leaves with coconut milk).
Viga District hospital where it all started…my father popularly known as “Dr. Mariano” worked in this hospital,the reason why we became bicolanos 🙂 . Few meters away from this place, we had a farm, my father and my siblings planted rice, corn and peanuts…me? well, the only girl in the family, I played around, I helped in harvesting peanuts and sneaked out few fresh peanuts in my mouth, so crunchy and sweet 😉 I love the weekends, eating lunch under the coconut trees. Oh, those moments …it’s unforgettable!
From Viga, we went to Buenavista (Hitis) , at one point we got out of the car and savour the fresh air and marvel at the sight of the pacific ocean. A marvellous day for all of us!
From the top we saw the shoreline of Soboc beach.
and here it is… Soboc, Catanduanes…so simple and yet so beautiful!
On our way back , we passed by a small store to buy coca-cola, I knew there’s no cola in a can, so I was expecting it will be in a plastic bag with a plastic straw, wow! exciting authentic… but to my dismay, my brother handed me a disposable glass, huh! way to go Soboc! improving ;-
Going back to Virac, we passed by Cockpit (sabungan). I stayed inside the car, though I wanted to get pictures of the cock-fighting but I hesitated, It will be odd to see a woman inside the arena of men.
rooster lost,feathers out, skinned and hanged.. into fried chicken for dinner 
summit
copra
Jeepneyand so that’s the end of our road trip…oh wait. did I got KINIS? nope! nothing in Viga -Panganiban-Bagamanoc -Soboc .
small Fish stalls not even here at the fish stall…
The following day, we went to Virac Plaza, there was demonstration or maybe a labor strike, I am not sure.
then.. at the bazaar where they showcase products of Catanduanes…
pili nut candies
furnitures
and kinis! 😉ah! there KINIS big ones…O lalala! only here at the plaza.. 🙂  😉  🙂
Ladies, I shall end here, hoping you enjoy my photos and happy that I found my “KINIS” lol!
Cheers,
Jamilamimi
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Road trip: Viga-Payo-Bagamanoc -Suboc in search of “Kinis”( Part 1)
From Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi to Manila, Philippines 
From Manila to Catanduanes Imagine the trip I took to reach the island of Catanduanes,… brace yourself with a cup of tea while reading my tour, this is the longest blog I ever written, I hope I can tickle your mind to a place of simplicity, a nature of beauty and serenity…
San Andres – Virac- Bato – Baras- Sagrada – Oco – Viga Payo- Bagamanoc-Soboc Catanduanes – the “Land of the Howling Winds” , commonly named because of its geographical proximity to the pacific ocean,making it directly open to the path of tropical cyclones, typhoons are normally occurring any month of the year. Good luck to our trip, rain or shine, here we go! 🙂
11 municipalities The island has 11 municipalities : Virac, San Andres(Calolbon), Caramoran, Pandan, Bato, Gigmoto, Baras, Panganiban (Payo), Bagamanoc, Viga and San Miguel. We only have few days holiday so we thought, It would be nice to re-traced our memory lane to the place where we grew up ..in search for the famous “kinis” (king of crab) and who would not crave for the sweet taste of newly harvest parto (small shrimp) and “balisongsong” a native sweet glutinous rice/coconut wrapped in banana leaves! Hmmm so tasty that I was drooling (literally) in my dreams hahaha 🙂
my two brothers Though I was not born in Catanduanes,l considered this as my home.I studied elementary in Viga and High School in Virac ,hence, I can speak both southern (Virac) and northern (Viga) bicolano dialect. Neither any one of my parents are natives of Catanduanes nor our ancestors. I was born in Lupon, Davao, where my father worked as Hospital Dentist. He was inadvertently assigned to Viga when I was only 6 years old. To make the story short, I considered myself as Bicolana.
Let’s move on…at 6:30 in the morning, we left Virac, the capital town of Catanduanes, passing through Cabugao to Bato.
Bato bridge 
Bato Bridge, the longest bridge I have seen in Catanduanes. Year 1980, I was a fresh graduate and worked at Bato Maternity Hospital, there was no concrete bridge then, I have to ride a small boat to cross the river and tricycle by land so I can go to work everyday.
We didn’t cross the bridge at this time but we did it the following day, we had a quick stop at Buenavista to see the DOST Weather Radar Station.
Weather Radar station 
spectacular view at the back of the radar station From Bato, we went to Baras to see the white beach of Puraran.
Well, lets go back to the main road, passing through the Bato bridge, we passed the mountainous and hills side of going to the North.
north bound concrete road Here are some of the scenery along the road..It is common to see Abaca on the road, after all, Catanduanes remained the biggest producer of Abaca in the Philippines.
curve and narrow
rain started to pour
passing through the rain forest
pile of fire woods used in cookingThe ride was not bumpy at all, it was a good day for all of us 🙂
At the middle of our road trip, we found  ” Cathy’s Spring Resort” at Sagrada, a well-kept resort , good for travellers to stop and dine or maybe take a deep breath, smell the freshness of flowers, the green mountains, sit down and relax…if I only knew, I could have brought my swimming gear and swim the whole morning! 🙂 but…it’s only road trip remember?
From Sagrada to Oco and when I saw the summit bridge, I knew were so near to Viga town proper, my heart was pounding so hard that I can’t concentrate which scenery I should took a photo. My childhood memories were coming back, this is it! 🙂 beautybeyondfifty…life is not all about work…life is looking back where I came from…
Hurray! finally were here…
My brother reminded me that our old house backyard was in proximity to the river.Do you remember the day you went out of the school and didn’t come home on time? he asked. Rolling my eyes, who would not forget that day! I guess the town was in fiesta…like finding nemo..Where is mimi? hahaha, I can laugh it off now, but memories were still vivid, I can still clearly draw in my mind the face of my father, so furious to find out, I was not at school but where?… your guess is right! I was swimming, jumping freely with my classmates and the carabaos (water buffalo) lol!.
Suddenly, a group of adult and children were rushing to the river and in the middle of them all, my father stands tall, red face, his hand pulling out his belt .. hurriedly I came off the river, grabbed my clothes and in seconds. PAK! PAK! I felt the pain on my butt, there was no time to cry, I knew it was my fault 😦
Stop.. this is road trip, not a story of my life ..let’s move on (again) 😉
nothing left of our old house It was overwhelming to see the skeleton of our old house. I can’t get off my feet out of the car, it was the biggest house on that street and now? nothing left! ;-( so sad but don’t get me wrong, a lot of happy memories out there 🙂 for one, reminiscing the fun moment when there was no electricity and my father bought a live crab (kinis) for dinner. The crab was all bundled in a bucket and was placed at the corner of the kitchen. After awhile, I heard our helper screaming! Apparently one of the crab got out from the bucket .. crawled and bit her toe. It seemed, the crab had better eyesight at dark.Oh well, she survived( helper )and the crab didn’t! hahaha yummy Kinis (crab).
Parish Church at Viga town proper.
Viga Municipality Hall
Nipa hut
Viga Central Elementary School
The plaza
Capiz
Balisongsong (glutinous rice)
Parto (shrimp)
Coconut
Hopi (taro leaves)
Not done yet?  alright…have some more tea because were moving to Panganiban (payo) and Bagamanoc 🙂
Oh well, I changed my mind …let’s do a part 2 of this Road trip…shall we?
Cheers,
Jamilamimi
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist
It was fascinating to see jellyfish gliding or  I must say twisting gracefully up and below, I can’t hold my camera still but i did my best  to capture the “dancing sea fairies” at Manila Ocean Park (Jellies Exhibit).
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Capture the moment: Kiss from Sea Lion
Capture the moment and caption the photo 🙂 at the Manila Ocean Park.
Oh hello my name is…sea lion and you?
hehehe I didn’t get your name, how about your number?
Kiss plsssss!
Sure! 🙂 😉 🙂
Oh la la la 🙂
just for fun.. Smile!
Cheers,
jamilamimi
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Road trip day 4: Puraran Surf Beach, Baras, Catanduanes
Day 4 and still cloudy, rain showers every hour but our feet was just so itchy to move to another secluded place, a newest attraction in the island of Catanduanes. The place is small but so serene and if you are a nature beach lover and love to surf, this is the place for you – Puraran Beach Resort, Baras, Catanduanes.
the road to the majestic puraran beach!
So serene and beautiful place!
The younger versions of me 🙂
alright pretending we are the surfers!
few cottages a lot of privacy!
Not so much to write, we didn’t stay long. Oh! rain.. rain.. go away…sure were coming back Puraran! And maybe we can actually learn how to surf 🙂 (that… if my knees will allow ) hahaha growing young my dear 🙂
Cheers,
jamilamimi
Dr. Myriam- The Dental Aesthetic Clinic 
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