For our birthdays (our birthdays are only two days apart) my honey spent a couple of weeks here in Cebu. So, to celebrate, we decided to go on a road trip up north. Initially, we wanted to try out El Salvador in Danao, but we figured, why spend money on hotel when we could get it for free? And so, we decided to spend a couple of days and nights in our beach house in Medellin. On the first day, we just spent it at the house. We swam, ate and bought fish (the prices there are really unbelievable and what's more, the fish are fresh.. right off the sea! yummy!). The next day, our son decided that we have to go to our 'bukid'. My family owns this 5 hectare or so land that is located in the mountains somewhere in Medellin. The mayor was building a zipline beside our property and we wanted to see the progress. So off we went! It was drizzling and wet, but we figured, we can always take an umbrella right? Now, the thing about me is that I am very lousy with directions. Every single time, somebody gives me directions. I just nod my head and assume that I can find the place. I've been to our bukid many, many times so I thought ‘we couldn't get lost right?’ Boy was I wrong! We took several wrong turns and we ended up in this road going to Bantayan. It was cemented and so I knew that we were on the wrong track. After several wrong turns, back tracking, u-turns, and what have you, we finally made it to our destination, about 30 minutes late :) The zip line was finished and the view was breathtaking. We then went down and went to our land and checked on it. Since it was raining the last couple of days, the road was very muddy and we couldn’t go on the mountains by foot. An old man informed us that the government was making a road up in our property and that they were even cleaning a cave as a tourist attraction. .At the sound of 'cave' my honey’s ears perked up so we decided to go check it out. True enough, there was a cave, they called it the Adventure Cave, and interestingly, it was the cave located on our property. My dad apparently didn't know that they were going to develop it. Boy! was my manoy mad when he found out about it! After going inside the cave (it was smelly!) and spending some time there, we decided to go return home. As we were deciding which way to go, we remembered the asphalted road that we travelled on. Since we were curious as to where it went, we decided to take a risk as usual and took the road less travelled. It was miles and miles of sugarland, and the fuel in our pajero was almost empty (we weren't able to fill it up because there was no available fuel in the gas station). After driving for what seemed like a long time (though it actually took only about 30 minutes), we finally saw that the road apparently lead back to Medellin. Hahaha. The thing about us (me and my honey!) is that we normally like these road trips where we don’t exactly know where were going. We just bring a map along and hope for the best. Like the time we went to San Remigio and ended up lost a few miles away and had to travel through some bumpy and isolated road to go back. And several other trips that I won’t mention here! As my sister always says, that's how we get our thrills :) Finally, we ended up back home. In the afternoon, we had to go back to the city, and so as a final 'tourist' destination, I wanted to go to this Watch Tower that the mayor advertised in town through a billboard. I've been looking at that billboard for quite a while now and I was really curious as to what it was. So as usual, armed only with the address 'Tindog Medellin' we went looking for it. Right off the bat, we got lost again! We had to backtrack and when we turned the corner to the right direction, we decided to ask for help. It turned out the watchtower wasn't even in Tindog but in this place called Canhabagat. (I wonder why the address says ‘Tindog’ when its not the right one? Hmm,, oh well!) A trio of high school girls said that we just had to go straight ahead and when we get to the church, which they said was near, we were to turn left. So we continued on. We realized that ‘near’ is relative since the church wasn't near for us after all. When we tried to turn left, we found it was the wrong way, so we had to go back again. Apparently, right was the way to go. So we continued on again. We eventually saw the cemetery, (as the girls said that we can pass by through the cemetery). Now imagine this, it was already dusk as it was around 5PM, and it was a long deserted road. When we turned down the road towards the cemetery, it was a dead-end. There were only 2 persons that we saw and when we stopped to ask for direction, i realized that the man was holding a bolo. Hahaha. That got us scared! He said that we had to continue on and when we reached a corner, we turned left. As usual, the direction left much to be desired. We found out there were 2 corners. Good thing the first corner was a dead-end, so we decided to continue. And we continued. And we continued. And we continued. The town of Canhabagat was a long way to go. We passed by the most deserted place we’ve ever seen and there weren't even houses there! All we saw were mango trees that could not answer us. We had no choice but to continue. Until finally, we saw civilization. We asked some people again for directions. They pointed us to the right way, and finally, finally we arrived at the Watch Tower. Boy, was i disappointed! The Watch Tower was in the middle of the sea and since it was already 5PM, nobody was there. It was located at the end of a dirt road, and we couldn't figure out why it was advertised. There was nothing special about it and there was no explanation at all. It looked exactly like the billboard. We couldn't stop laughing at ourselves. We had to take pictures. When we were on our way to Cebu, we found out that it was much nearer and easier if we just followed the main road. We could have saved time and fuel! But on second thoughts, I wouldn't trade that crazy road trip to find the Medellin Watch Tower for anything! It was super fun and for sure, the next time we will again go somewhere new, we'll conveniently forget to ask for better instructions and we will definitely get lost along the way. But let me tell you, its sure is more fun that way!.. After all, it is not the destination but the journey that matters!
- Reminiscing of a drastic dreamer –
