Adventures on a Rowboat in Caluwayan, Samar Province

Let me pull my dusty typewriter of the shelf and punch in a story.

I've been meaning to write this adventure of mine, sometimes we've got personal fears, whatever that is, and at one point in life we overcome it.

And my fear is a body of water, like rivers, lakes, and the sea.

Who knows what creature is lurking down below just waiting to grab you with its tentacles, drowning you as it dissect you into pieces, eek! Creepy.

I might not be brave or outgoing like my older siblings, but I do enjoy outings as long as I feel safe. And by saying outings, we do that several times a year: family gatherings on rivers, lakes, and beaches! Bodies of water, you name it. Quite crazy, you know, maybe my parents were just helping me conquer my fear.

My mom is a fan of swimming, every summertime and sometimes even on rainy days, we go with our family and relatives, hosting a pool party. Yeah, mom like to socialize and she likes bring us to the crowd sometimes. Remember meeting that random woman who is the friend of the cousin of the sister of the great great great grand whatsoever. That's a joke of course!

Okay, let me formally start.

So the pandemic robbed me (everyone) two years of our life! We aged dping nothing but online classes and social media.

Going out can be a relief at times.

When visiting Leyte, people normally go island hopping, but maps tell you to visit historical places instead. So we did that. We arrived in Ormoc City, that's in the Philippines, too! We had a private bus and took us north of Leyte, quite dizzying, I had nausea all throughout. I could have vomited if not because of Bonamine.

We stopped by the the life-size I-Shall-Return site, MacArthur Leyte Landing Memorial National Park, Palo. That was in Red Beach, a quick stop to have lunch on the grasses. It was fun, short glimpses as my mom catch up with another woman who she seem to know for quite a long time already but I have no idea who she was.

After the lunch, we continue our trip and passed along the San Juanico Bridge, linking Leyte and Samar islands. Whoever built that, salute! Imagine crossing the treacherous sea everytime you want to visit someone on the other side of the world?

We passed through several more islets and bridges before finally arriving in our final destination in Marabut, Samar. We immediately settled in our cottage and basically just stayed there for day one. I am never a fan of saying hello with people, but my parents do. I did chose the bed on the attic since it has a very nice balcony facing the beautiful sea.

Basically, the resort span long and our cottage is on the northern end. On that location, next to the seawall was a short drop to the actual beach which was full submerged during high tide. The waves would be level to the seawall when the seawater was high.

We had a big dinner with other people on the banquet hall adjacent to the bar. Of course, I'm not allowed to drink, but it looked so nice, the colorful drinks that dad and his friends had.

Some tourists were camping outside that night, mind you, the outdoor was still great! Though mosquitos were everywhere, so indoors is practically better.

The next morning, we had our breakfast in the banquet hall, it was a crowd. I felt uneasy, but food, food is spilling here and there. There were games and music, but I wasn't into that. Maybe my dad noticed, he rented a rowboat for us.

The sea was quite calm that very moment and there was another rowboat with us, so a bonus, I felt even safer! Each row boat can carry two more people aside from the tour guide, and of course I needed to be accompanied by an adult. As soon we departed the shore, I immediately forgot that I was afraid of the sea!

It waaas a beautiful place at all angles, for real!

The tour guide, wasn't really a tour guide, he was a rower or the rowboat. He didn't talk at all, he just paddle us around the nearby rock formations. It was small to be called as islets, but were just huge in person. The water was a bit murky, but not so much. Also, it wasn't really that deep as some locals were walking by around waist-high water.

Anyone can walk too, but never advisable. There were groups of yellowish jellyfish here and there and the seabed was full of dark green seaweeds. Later on, I personally tried to row by myself. Not a pro rower, so we didn't move an inch, it was just for the photograph. I was really amazed by the rock formations, cliche, but it really was carved by the forces of nature!

After rowing around, we docked at the shore, and I was still mesmerized by the experience.

We had lunch again at the banquet hall and the music and games continued. I thought it wasn't bad at all, joining the crowd. They didn't mind my age, I played the Blackout Bingo where the first to complete all numbers in their card wins. Bingo! I lost with just one more number remaining on my card.

After that, someone tipped us that there was a hidden cave just nearby our cottage. The adult guys, were first to discover it. It wasn't that big and was pretty dark inside, and no bats were seen inside.

In the afternoon, it was time to pack our things up. I was a bit sad, I was hoping we can stay one more night, but we needed to go home already. Along the rugged islets in Marabut, it was a beautiful scenery to see, but going on a rowboat and seeing the rock formations at the sea was really a life-changing experience for me.

^{All Photographs were shot with Canon PowerShot A480 (2010)}

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Sometimes, I don't know why my old self went to places like this one—alone.

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