i didn't have any plans of going to roxas city and boracay, but when my cousin M texted me if i want to come, i said sure, no problem. besides, our other cousins would go too, and this would be a good time to bond with them. it has also been a long time since we've visited our other relatives in roxas city so yeah, the timing was good.
to make sure we will get seats at the plane, my brother and i paid 50% of our trip passes. and so the days after passed oh, so slowly that i was raring to go. but of course, came november 1 did so... let's go!!!
my brother and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3AM to get ready as our flight is at 520AM. really, i don't understand why this flight is so early but then, who am i to complain? we arrived at the airport at about 410 and let me tell you, checking in was a breeze. there was no line and what a relief to receive our boarding passes along with the passengers and not AFTER them.
rainbow in the sky
the flight to roxas was just 40 minutes so i was a bit disappointed that the plane ride had to end so soon. but then, there came the announcement that the weather in roxas was really bad, so we had to stay in the air for a few more minutes until the pilot made another attempt to land. two times this happened and after the second one, we were then informed by the pilot that our flight was to be diverted to iloilo. no problem at all, as long as we can arrive there in one piece.
so when the plane ascended again, we found ourselves in a turbulence. the rain was lashing on the windows and the wind buffeted our plane. it felt like we were on a rollercoaster without the rails. up and down, and left and right we went, i thought that we were going to crash on the water. yep, it was scary. it was the longest five minutes of my life and we were all relieved when the plane finally broke through the clouds. and that was when we saw the most beautiful rainbow. it wasn't curvy; it was more like a vertical rainbow. hmm, the whole situation reminded me of noah's ark.
iloilo adventure
once we landed at iloilo airport, we were then advised to stay on the plane until further notice. (the runway was short, btw). some people disembarked because their final destination was iloilo anyway. after about 15 minutes the captain then informed us that the weather was breaking in roxas city but the visibility is still low. then came the kicker: the pilot will make an attempt to land at roxas once more, but if that attempt is not successful, it will fly back to manila. all passengers, including us, decided to disembark and it was every passenger for himself once outside the airport.
fortunately the guy who sat beside us on the flight offered to come with us to roxas. turned out that he was from there too, so there was no problem. we took a taxi from iloilo airport to jaro where the van and bus stations are. the taxi ride actually cost us a whopping 300 pesos--the meter plus a hundred pesos more because a big part of the highway was flooded due to the river which overflowed (the water even seeped into the taxi after some time, but it wasn't that bad). at this point i didn't care as long as we get to roxas. i felt like i was on amazing race, only there's no race at all. besides, the weather in iloilo was perfect, and the airport certainly was nice as it was built recently. check the picture above. looks a bit like naia terminal 2, right?
when we arrived at the station we found out that the last van to roxas had already departed with only three passengers so we had no choice but to ride the bus, which, i must say, was filled with our co-passengers so we had to wait for another one. the bus to roxas from jaro cost 113 pesos. not bad at all for a two and a half hour trip. i'd like to describe the ride, but i was asleep most of the time. ;-) oh, and guess what? at 9AM my tito texted from roxas airport that the plane has landed, with only eight passengers on board. oh well. i didn't mind it. besides, my brother and i didn't want to gamble on the possibility of flying to roxas again because if the plane didn't land there, our vacation would have ended before it even started. we certainly didn't want that!
roxas city at last
my cousin picked me and my bro up from the bus station at roxas city by lunch time. save for my other cousins and their friends, our aunt and uncle weren't at the house as they were back at the airport to pick up our other cousins who came in via cebu pacific. i enjoyed my lunch of rice and crispy shrimp splashed with lots of vinegar immensely. afterwards, we finally crashed on the beds in the guest room and waited for our cousins to arrive.
tune in for part 2 =)
cuzes, bro and moi on our first day in roxas. it drizzled again late in the afternoon so it's cloudy as you can see. this was where we heard those (drunk) guys singing/shouting at the nearby ktvs.
tu-KO! (gecko) this is a very big lizard we saw on the first night. it's as fat as my arm and about 7 inches long... and that's just the baby. eep!
roxas city coastline with an island at the backdrop. my tita has a beach house here where we ate lunch the day before we went home. there was a fishing boat on the shore then (not pictured), so it smelled a bit fishy. the fishermen were able to have a good catch that day.
enjoying the sun, sand and sky! (and the water, too! ü)
standing on fine black/gray sand at low tide. it may be of a dark color, but it's as fine as the sand on station 1 in boracay. (which means the sand in station two is a bit coarser. ü)
