Trapped in Batanes

We started taking pictures as soon as we landed . Our goal was to take one thousand five hundred pictures each. 

Jack the tour guide took us everywhere and we took pictures of everything. It was hot and sunny during this time of the year here in Batanes. Our sunblock's SPF was not enough to block the sun, we should have brought Boysen...hahaha.

The details of our batanes tour... is another blog...hahaha.(or i could just copy paste somebody elses blog entry...it was just like how they said it would be...Truly Majestic.! Walang halong biro!)

It's also true that you can hear the sound of music sound track...the hills are alive... playing inside your head...while walking through this grassland.

We had lunches  on the shores of a white sand beach, on an endless sprawling grassland ,and on top of a cliff, 

and had dinners in a garden and under the stars. We ate a lot of seafoods, turmeric rice and camote.

We even tried coconut crabs.

We tried learning their Ivatan language too...Dios mamajes.

We watched tv at night so we knew that there was a storm coming.

Jack our tour guide was nice. So when it was time to leave, we said our goodbyes and left jack with a reasonable tip.

The airport was small and not computerized yet. Everything was done mannually. Bags for check in was opened up and inspected individually(Imagine the tons of laundry the inspector had to smell!)

 We have to weigh in with our carry on bags before we get our boarding pass...(I thought Manny Pacquio was the only person who needed to be weighed in😊)

We were happy to get our boarding pass. Hooray. The sun shone but it was a bit windy. 

We waited for the plane to arrive from Manila. We had tsismis that the flight from Tugegarao to Basco was cancelled due to bad weather a day ago, but ,one flight got through to Manila. We hope to get through today too.

Our plane did not arrive. It was cancelled. It was July 5, it's my birthday  and there's no plane out... perhaps tomorrow, they say...

We had to go back to the hotel and do laundry.

We celebrated my birthday with spaghetti, chicken and pizza for dinner. (I would have taken them to jollibee, sky was the limit...but this was the place...where jollibee dared not go...hahaha...buti na lang.)

On July 5 ,This is signal number 2. 

 Jesse got me a Columbia hat. Wow.

I was really planning to buy that hat when we get back to Manila. Its price was less that 3,000Php. It's pricy but... our tour guide, the driver, the person on the boat lifting the bags and even the tricycle driver all had a Columbia hat... i really need to get it too... hahaha

She was laughing when she gave me the hat. When I looked at the price tag...it was 275 and she told me she got it from Abad st. (Commercial area of Basco)...Now, everybody wants a Columbia hat too.

Philippine Airlines texted.

Cancelled.  Our flight scheduled the following day at 745 was cancelled again.

We had aching bodies for sleeping all day. 

We got our running shoes and got out at 5am the following day. I wore one of my pasalubong t shirts. (When you start wearing your pasalubong , it's a sure sign of being stranded.) I tried biking... it's true... you don't need to re learn how to bike...if you previously knew how to ride it.☺

And had pictures taken at these spots.... hmmm....interesting...

 and this

 and this

Then, we had breakfast( but dried flying fish twice in a row not a good idea, specially when your flight is cancelled)

We went to the airport to ask about the next flight out but the whole place was deserted.

We went to the ticketing office. It was closed yet, and we found our fellow stranded person outside either texting or playing Clash of Clans. 

There was this along the way too. We couldn't help but giggle. We really hope they found him.

I was looking for short pants at the store, they said they did not have any. I should just buy vakul instead.

The locals were really nice. They were greeting us good morning most of the time. Because locals were kind, the tourist became kinder...

We went to the hospital to see an old friend from med school but he was on vacation. We thought of helping them out with their out patient. There were too many patient for one on duty doctor (we thought of helping out ,but seeing patients while wearing short pants was  kinda... embarrassing.)

If raindance is what you do to get rain, then, what dance do I do to get a flight out? And who the hell is dancing too much raindance in luzon... and please, stop dancing. It's because its raining there, we can't leave here :-(

The Philippine Airlines ticketing officer said that there's a special flight for us in the morning.

We met other stranded passengers along Abad St....they were shopping for more pasalubong.

This was the airport the following day. It sure was lively.

When the plane finally came.... everybody cheered... hooray, hooray.

Hooray.

PS

Somebody daw had a "Destination Wedding". The entire entourage was as stranded as we were... and that, we were getting on the same plane...

 tsismis has it also that they got married in this church (wow)

and stayed in this place( wow...Ostentatious! )

 

But I couldn't confirm its veracity, it was stranded persons' small talk at the airport... (everybody was asking who the bride was, and what she looked like...she was beside the one eating camote chips daw...hahaha)

 It was time to leave...perhaps we'll be back when Jayjay is ready for her destination wedding .

Dios mamajes!