Hi again hivers,

Perhaps, most of you hike a mountain for leisure and a hobby, a goal even. But for us living in a mountainary part of the world, it is a lifestyle. We could trail grassy roots and muddy path just to get our needs for survival. Off to town with difficulty because our easy access to the other side where there are the shops and source of foods got damage.

It is another series of my travel home. It was the Agaton typhoon that causes so much rain. The flashflood has our hanging bridge damaged. As I said from my last post, it was the only access for us to go to town and to stores. But it was actually not the only access. I forget there was another way to the town and it was to hike that mountain above the river cliff. As we we were watching the river, it hasn't gone down. It would take days as my neighbors predicted. The clouds were also not cleared. There was also in the news about a much stronger typhoon that was set to come.

People were preparing for it. As for the Agaton, we did not expect that the bridge would be damaged, so most of us has not prepared lots of food. We had to find ways to go to the town to buy our needs because few days from that day, we were expecting another typhoon. Oh, I couldn't believe it and it kept me questioning why it has to be that way. We had just experience heavy rains and floods and still there was this 'basyang' wanted to come? I prayed, and hoped it wouldn't come to our shore. We had to be ready for another storm. I also had to check the boat ticketing office where if sailing on Easter Sunday would be possible when we anticipated strong typhoon. I had to know so I could reserve one if there was. I would be sailing to Cebu for my flight back to Manila.

We decided to climb that mountain to Brgy. Paa, where we could pass through to get to town. For normal days, we wouldn't think of trailing and walking up to that mountain. My cellphone was dead at that time so I wasn't able to take pictures when going up. It was grassy hill. Since no one is coming through that hill other than few who pasture there cattles and carabaos, there were spots that we couldn't tell if the path was right or not. We just keep on going and had our mind to be on the top of that hill. When we are at the top you could see where to go next. We kept on hiking and eventually reach much clearer way which there were houses.

We had reach Brgy. Paa, and with better roads already. The problem was finding motorcycle that goes to the town. Which was hard on this part because this is place of my friend whom I visited last time, remember when we hike the road for about an hour looking for a habal-habal ride? The same road.

My friend saw me again and asked why we hiked that mountain. She knew it was not easy to and wondered. I told them about what happened to our bridge. From there, we walked to the proper to wait and asked if there were sidecars or motorcycle that could bring us to town. It was raining that day. I couldn't think of hiking for another hour to the town after hiking up the mountain. We waited and asked but still kept going on foot. Until, we got lucky. There were two cars of the Disaster Management that brought foods from the Municipal Hall. Those foods would be given to us who were affected by the flood. Who couldn't access the town easily. Two vans were our savior that day, after they drop off the goods, they got back to the town hall. We had a free ride. We were really thankful.

We reached the town easily with that van ride. I went to the Municipal Hall and asked if we could charge our cellphones. Our electric line was down I said. The officer let us. After an hour of waiting at the hall, I had to go to ticketing office. I secured ticket for Easter Sunday that would be 3 days after, I hoped there would be no other typhoon or else it would be cancelled. After the tickets, while I was on the ticketing office, my Sis went to market to buy our needs and medicine for Nanay. Our other neighbors had bought what they needed too. We met at the terminal and prepared to go back as early because we knew it was not safe to hike the same trail in the dark and it was raining hard at the town. We rode the habal-habal motorcycle at the terminal. It was a rough ride but all was well.

Clips for keeps:

We hike mountains when there are floods to get foods and other necessity. Though we go through long way to get to the town. It was not not for leisure but for survival. I admit, doing that for once would be an adventure but if it will be a lifestyle, then it wouldn't be fun.

By the way, I also want to share a trending song by EZ Mil and Ryann which entitled 'Storm', the lyrics and the emotion has got me the feels. Living through the storm literally. Have a look at it. 😊

Have a great day wherever you are and see you on the next one.