Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Survivor Caramoan, Part 2

We pitched our tents right on top of the hill, the island’s highest point, which affords a great view of the sea, neighboring islands, the house, our beach, and partly Catanduanes island.


We cooked dinner, changed from wet to warm clothes, took photos of the rising full moon, mixed gin and tonic, and enjoyed conversations with the councilor, a friend he picked up during our island hopping, and the mother of the only household in our island who cooked us fish and sweet potatoes. We were lamenting how development could spoil Caramoan while our hosts on the contrary were excited about the prospect. Generally we were having fun … until it rained, and rained so hard, and rained till dawn.

We slept (or held on to the concept of sleep) with puddles inside our tents. We had to synchronize how to “toss and turn” to survive the night. Upon sunrise (or the illusion of it), we ‘woke up’ (or simply decided to get up and out of our tents) and started to salvage rain-soaked food. While preparing breakfast, Mango, Mai and I were formulating the lessons we’ve learned.

The view from our campsite, with the reluctant sunrise

Lesson No. 1. It was a mistake to share campsite with a carabao. We had puddles of mud inside our tents.

Lesson No. 2. Never trust the councilor when he says it won’t rain while he’s having fun. He walked on the sand bar going home, by the way.

Lesson No. 3. Always trust the mayor when he offers his place, he knows the weather.

Lesson No. 4. A boy scout can really read a map. Mango’s dad, a scout master, warned us that travel and island hopping would take much of our time, so better settle in the first island we find.

Lesson No. 5. Mother knows best when she tells you to bring sugar. We were bringing 3 in 1 coffee, so we didn’t listen to Mango’s mom. The sugar could have come in handy for the sweet potatoes.

Anyway, photo-ops will do the trick! Show and tell our friends that we enjoyed….

We broke camp and sailed at 8 a.m. to catch the last boat going back to Sabang at 11 a.m. Our island friends were sad to see us off and wished that we would go back to Caramoan soon and often. On one hand, we were secretly sad to see their excitement over the prospect of developing Caramoan as the next Boracay.

It’s a pity that we ended up the ones not remembering the names of the islands and beaches we went to. But since Mango and Mai were able to do their ‘morning ritual’ after breakfast (first time in the outdoors for Mai, no big deal for Mango), we are calling our island for now and before so-called development takes over, the “Prut-Prut Island”.

View of Prut-Prut Island from our boat

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