Once again, a well planned transit day became more stressful than necessary. We had booked a car and driver months ago, who insisted multiple times that an 8 am pick up would be sufficient to ensure arrival at Hagnaya Port by noon for our 12:30 ferry. Instead, he arrived at 8:20 and then had to drive like a bat out of hell, employing all of his high speed passing techniques while endangering many lives in order to get us on our scheduled sailing. We arrived at Santa Fe’s port by 2 pm, but the driver who was to greet us with a name sign was nowhere to be found. We waited over 20 minutes before deciding to find a trike driver who would take us to our hotel on the promise that the hotel would pay. Our hotel owner paid our driver and admitted that despite promising to send his driver to collect us, he hadn’t bothered because guests never arrive on the ferry they say they will and he assumed that we would immediately take a trike when not greeted. I conveyed my frustration and was eventually duly compensated. We enjoyed much needed “welcome” beers and given a free ride the following day. After quickly settling into our room, we decided to head straight for the beach. We walked along the coast from Sugar Beach to Yooneek Beach, to Budyong Beach, and to Kota Beach where we cut up into "downtown" Santa Fe. We wandered around sampling food from street vendors (fried sweet potato and ice cream) and buying cheap hamburgers. I appreciated the stained glass in the local church. Eventually we retraced our steps along the beaches, walking directly towards the setting sun as the fishermen completed their daily tasks. The next morning we enjoyed good coffee with our included breakfasts. We did some handwashing of a few articles of clothing as the property offers drying racks. After a nice visit with the hotel owner, he set us up with a free ride to Sandira (Paradise) Beach. Lisa and I both enjoyed the calm waters and walked the length of this short beach before walking back to our hotel. Lisa in the water! Back at the hotel, Lisa did some more work while I sipped a beer and read in a hammock! We walked directly into town along the road, this time getting bananas, yoghurt, lumpia, buns, a mango popsicle, and more burgers. We also did our first non-food shopping, spending a grand total of five Canadian dollars on various items, including a pair of sunglasses for $2. Once again, we took the beach back to our hotel. In the evening, we took advantage of another free ride into town for dinner, walking back using borrowed umbrellas in the light rain.
2 Comments
Michael
2/21/2020 07:13:16 pm
Despite any and all frustrations, it was a wonderful holiday. Philippines is a lovely country to visit.
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