We went after the earthquakes.
Still a little traumatized. Maybe it wasn’t smart, but it felt right. The sea was calm, and that was enough.
Listen while you read. Hear the voice behind the story:
Right after two significant earthquakes hit our place
...we decided to take the risk and go to one of my favorite places.
We made some surprising last-minute decisions on our route.
We did not take our usual ferry going to the port of Camotes. Usually, we would leave the port of Danao and arrive at the port of Consuelo in Camotes in about 2 hours. That's a big ferry and a really nice port (with a lot of stuff going on).
This time, we decided to take a smaller boat, which carries a maximum of 50 passengers.
We left around 5:30 AM (I think much earlier) and arrived at the Port of Sonog at around 6:30 AM. This is at the far end of the island. I was quite surprised because when we got there, there was no food for breakfast, and not a lot was going on.
It's not much of a tourist hub, and not a lot of things were being sold. It's almost like a small village. There was one solitary store that wasn't open yet at that time, but they had already started cooking.
Boiled eggs were being sold with salt (a common combo you can find when traveling around Cebu).
We had a quick snack of boiled eggs while waiting for our tricycle. Unlike my previous trips, we decided to rent our own tricycle and drive it.
That was crazy because we didn't know much about the place. It was not how I expected it to be because the port of Sonog is very far from the port of Consuelo, which I was more familiar with.
While waiting for a tricycle to arrive, I saw a cliff just on the side of the port.
I stayed there for a bit and noticed kids playing around below, swimming and racing with other kids. Across from me, there was a beautiful small islet. It was very serene, with a small fishing boat doing its thing early in the morning.
The sun was up, and the shades were colorful and mesmerizing. The water was turquoise blue and very beautiful. You could see the sand underneath on the seafloor. It was a very nice view, and the kids were having the time of their lives playing around.
Then, there was one kid who decided to prep himself up to jump. I had my camera with me and didn't expect to get a good shot of his jump, where he did a beautiful swan dive. When he dove, they started to get conscious with the camera because his friend noticed that I was taking pictures.
After I took what I consider to be a very lucky shot, I looked at my camera and the screen. I was surprised to see that I took a very nice shot. I guess that was the highlight for that morning. My sister-in-law, brother, and niece came over, and we just sat there and watched the kids having fun as usual.
I say "as usual" because this might be an everyday thing for them.
If I lived there and knew the beach was nearby, I'd probably do the same thing every day: just be excited to play, wait for my friends to wake up, and do our race. It's fun and refreshing to actually see kids who aren't just glued to screens.
That's something I wish we could appreciate more about life: the beautiful and simplest things all around us that we don't get to enjoy because we prefer to be diverted into entertainment.
That experience brought me back to some moments of my childhood when we just have fun, hang around, and do whatever we think is fun.
That one right there is taking risks because that cliff was quite high, and those are little kids (not toddlers, but around 8-10 years old) doing cliff dives.
I also saw one boy who was "ripped" and had abs.
I took a picture of him when we arrived at the port. They were hanging on our boat, and it was surprising to me because I'm not fit myself. That kid was just, wow.
After our moments at the port of Sunog, we decided to go to our destination, Himensulan. I didn't know what we were about to face or how far it was from our usual spot that I'm very familiar with.
We got lost many times because we didn't have GPS or a good internet connection, so we had to ask people. It's been a long time since I remember having to ask people for directions.
When we were there, we asked people, "Hey, where is this place? How do we get there?" We were lost many times, by the way, but the beauty of that experience is that there's hope in humanity.
If you think about it, we live in a city and are left to our own devices. There are so many people who could help you in the city, but you don't have a connection with them because you don't need them as much as you need your electronic devices that guide you where to go, tell you the best places to eat, and tell you what to eat when you get there.
That connection where you ask people for directions and give them the opportunity to help you out and lend a hand is a type of energy exchange we don't get to experience much nowadays.
It was so beautiful to experience that again after a very long time: getting lost, driving around, getting lost, asking for directions, and then getting lost again because you asked the wrong directions from people who don't really know much about the place you're heading.
That's chaos!
Still, I could see the beauty of that entire experience because you get to explore new places you've never been.
Just to go out there, head on, not knowing what you're about to expect, there's just magic in that experience.
I don't mean to be romantic or romanticize the entire idea of getting lost and the hassle of it, but it was a memorable experience because we went through that challenge together, and we experienced the help of others in a beautiful way.
