Busuanga – Day #2

Busuanga – Day #2.

At breakfast, we learn that during the night the S’s air conditioning unit went out AGAIN! The resort staff is going to move them to a different room while we are out and about today. I am so glad they are going to be able to get this resolved, but not as much as they are!! No bueno! Again, I am so grateful that our “no air conditioning” happened when it did.

Today is supposed to be a rest day, however, we decide to go into town and do some souvenir shopping. My $12.50 cross body special from Belk Outlet is already coming apart at the seems – quite literally. DS purchased a cute purple cross body bag in Baguio City, so today my main priority is to find one like it.

The 10 of us pile in the Busuanga Bay Lodge van and 40 minutes later they drop us off in the town of Coron. Its streets are narrow and traffic mainly consists of scooters and “trike bikes,” although occasionally there are vehicles too. It is a mini traffic version of Manila.

At our first shop, we find some good deals on T-shirts, Dad buys some Filipino snacks (some kind of chocolate wafers), but no sweet, sweet cross body bag. It is pretty toasty today, and I quickly discover that Dad is not going to last long walking in the heat, despite having a neck fan to help provide some breeze (The majority of the shops are not air conditioned and the roads don’t really have sidewalks. If there are sidewalks, they are not very level. Also, being that the town is located in the valley of the island, there is not any breeze to speak of to give some reprieve from the heat). Fortunately, there is an air-conditioned JolliBees (what I would describe as the Filipino equivalent of KFC, without the varied sides). Half of our group stays here for an early lunch and half of our group heads to McDonalds (Would you believe that they have McDonalds on virtually every corner?? This has been the case within each city we have been in so far…or even in the country as we traveled between cities. Every few miles there are advertisements for McDonalds. Crazy.)

One of the attractions in the town of Coron is to climb the 700+ stairs to the top of Mount Talapay. Our group decides to take a trike-bike to McDonalds (It is maybe half a mile from Jolliebees, and it is also air-conditioned). Dad, KS, and AS stay here, and the rest of us hale a trike bike (it takes 2 for our group of 7) to the bottom of Mount Tapyas. 700+ stairs later, we are at the top! Magnificent views. It’s totally worth all the steps and sweat to the top!

On the way back down, MC and I each purchase a blue coral bracelet from a vender who had set up shop at one of the rest points. It memorializes doing this climb together. I love it.

Down at the bottom of the mountain, our trike bike drivers await. We head back to McDonalds, pick up Dad, KS, and AS. Once reunited, the ten of us (5 and 5) get back into our trike bikes and are given a tour of the town by our drivers.

They take us to the town’s pier…

I ask the driver if he knows of any stores that sell bags like the one that DS has. He is sure that they do and takes us to a store – kind of like a Dollar General. Alas, there is no cross body bag similar to DS’s. After a few more shop stops, (this really is the way to shop in this town, just hire a trike bike driver for the day) our drivers drop us off at the small parking lot in front of McDonalds, where we had arranged for our van to pick us up to take us back to the lodge.

“Back at the ranch,” we take some time to rest and get cleaned up and then up the hill to the “dining room” for supper. As we head back to our rooms for the night, the S’s are grateful for an air conditioner that works, and we continue to be thankful for this beyond beautiful place to rest and rejuvenate. Busuanga Day #2 is in the bag (but not my cross body bag ~_~)