Camotes is a set of three islands that you can actually see from Ormoc. Rumor has it there is a ferry that can get me there in three hours. However, the rumors did not tell me that to find the departure times or location of the ferry would be an adventure itself. Agnes offered to help and said she would talk to Joel, one of our co-workers. This was Wednesday. Thursday came and no news. Since I was leaving on Friday and heard the ferry leaves at 6am, 9am, 11am, 11:30am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, maybe 6pm, and 9pm I figured I’d better get to the bottom of this. I have learned that Filipinos would rather give you a wrong answer than no answer at all so before I get too excited with all the options I want to confirm this with the ticket office.
Easy enough to find a ticket office I think so I ask Agnes where the ticket office is. The pier. This is an answer I am pretty confident in as Agnes is pretty honest when she does not know the answer. I jump in a tricycle (a motorbike with a side car) and I head to the only pier I know. I ask around and after a few turns I find a boat that says Camotes.
Relieved at how simple it was to find I go to the boat and ask when they leave for Camotes. 6pm. Remember, this is Thursday so I need to be sure to find out the time for Friday. Tomorrow? 6pm? Shakes his head no. 3am. Huh? I am guessing he means 3pm. So I ask 3 in the afternoon? Shakes his head no. 5pm. Tomorrow? So today is 6pm, but tomorrow is 3am or 5pm? Shakes his head no. So I try another angle. What times does the boat leave tomorrow? I don’t know. Uh oh. So I try another angle. Tickets? He points in some general far off direction that could be Camotes, but I can’t be certain.
I love challenges so it is no wonder I love traveling. Although sometimes it can be a bit frustrating, it is generally pretty entertaining so I go along with the game of “how do I get to Camotes”. And really, what is the worst thing that could happen? I stay in Leyte for the weekend? Since I have time before dinner I decide to see what more I can find out about the boat to Camotes. I ask a few people Camotes? And each one points me in a different direction and to what I am still uncertain. I am thinking the ticket office, but whatever it is, it will be like finding a pot of gold. Until sure enough, I am back at the boat I started at. Circles, another common trend you’ll see in my travels. So far it looks like my best option is to just bring my bag down here and sit all day until it takes off which as crazy as it sounds, is a consideration.
It’s true that the journey is just as important as the destination because while doing a big circle I discovered the greatest market in Ormoc with fresh veggies and meat everywhere. I decided to put my new game on hold and start exploring with my camera. As I am clicking away with my camera, my greatest friend on all my adventures since she sees everything the same way I do, a woman starts to talk to me. Her questions are different than the typical ones I get of “Are you single?”, “Where are you from?”, and “What is your name?”, in that order, and her English is almost perfect. A long shot, but perhaps she can tell me about the ferry or boat or whatever it might be to get me to Camotes? She does, or at least she sounds convincing. She tells me to hop on a tricycle because it is from a pier about 5 minutes away. I get to the pier and there is a man who says the ferry leaves every day at 1pm. I ask him about the other boat I had found and he said that it too goes to Camotes, costs less, and takes less time, but not sure what time it departs. Extra time and money? Are you kidding? I am just ecstatic that the woman from the market is right. I am going to Camotes after all!
After a $5 ferry ride and about four hours I land in Poro, one of two quaint little towns on the island. Agnes recommended I stay in San Francisco so I went with her advice since the internet didn’t have much more to offer. I hire a motorbike and off to find a hotel. The motorbike driver turned island tour guide, Sande, recommended I stay in Mangodlong. Since that was one of the three hotels I did find on the internet I decided to go with Sande’s advice. Even if he gets a little cut from bringing me there I figure you can’t beat a hotel on the beach for $20 a night. Now for someone who plans spontaneity, this was huge for me. No hotel plans? Granted, safety always needs to be first so a little due diligence is always required, especially as a woman traveling by herself, but how liberating to extend yourself beyond your comfort zone. And the timing of my arrival couldn’t have been more perfect as I got to watch the most brilliantly colorful sunset over Cebu.
Since Sande’s and my first adventure was a success there was no question he’d be my guide for Saturday’s exploring. For only $10 he said he’d take me to the best spots around including a lake, a cave, and a hotel. Even though this was his island I had to interject a request for beaches, the one thing I was most looking forward to photographing. Funny how beaches didn’t even make a list and a hotel did, but it makes sense if I look at it from his perspective. In an area where there are little more than shacks a hotel, even like a Days Inn, is magnificent. I’ll let the pictures of our tour speak for themselves.
What’s also funny to me is what becomes important. Food will be an entire topic of its own, but let’s just say it has not been the highlight of the trip since deep fried food is not my favorite. So when we sat down for lunch and I saw the man next to me eating vegetable curry I about died. I felt like Pavlov’s rat with my mouth watering and had to use all my strength from going to lick the guy’s plate clean. I am pretty sure I scared poor Sande with my excitement to get fresh vegetable curry and to my delight it tasted even better than it looked. I even considered ordering another serving which was big enough to feed a family. Now back to the hotel for another breathtaking sunset as I will wonder whether the curry would be as delicious in any other setting...but really, who cares.
As challenging as it was finding a ferry to get me to Camotes, it was proving to be as challenging to get home. I was hoping to find one leaving later than the 8:30am one I knew of so I could explore more, but nothing seemed certain so disappointingly I had an early departure. I had no idea that I should have had my camera ready as I entered the ferry for home though. As Sande and I drove around the islands the day before there was definitely no Gaisanos (the Super Target / Macy’s of the Philippines), so I just assumed that people got everything they needed from the local shack. But where do the shack owners get everything from? It’s not as if they can place orders and truck drops it off as they need it.
As I watched the can of sardines (a common theme) unload from Cebu, the biggest city near Camotes and Leyte, it became obvious the shack owners and people themselves go to Cebu to do their shopping as they all departed with bags and bags of goodies from Gaisanos. Half the island must have been in Cebu last night. I immediately wonder where they stayed for the night since there are is no schedule that allows you to go to Cebu and return to Camotes the same day (at least from what I can tell). Even more curious to me was the mother holding a baby no more than a couple days old. Did she catch a ferry to have the baby in Cebu? With only one option to get there the timing had to have been perfect. Did she leave before her due date and just wait in Cebu? How long would she have had to wait? Perhaps the Filipinos have a super secret way of knowing exactly when the baby will arrive? These are the types of questions that commonly enter my mind and I’ll likely never have an answer to since it seems I am limited to yes or no questions with most everyone. I like to think I am pretty logical, but something tells me the answer to my questions can’t always be yes though.
Once I got to Ormoc I decided to stop by to see my gang and drop off pineapples. The excitement in their eyes even topped mine with the curry. Maybe an early departure wasn’t so bad after all…
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