The manager of the hotel in Virac raised her eyebrows at me when I told her of my plans to ride my bicycle to Pandan – the town at the northern tip of Catanduanes. “Are ...

The real adventure began at the end of my first day when I stopped at the little barangay of Salvacion and met Grandpa and his sea of granddaughters. As I rode along, I pondered just ...

In the morning, Grandpa took me on a tour of Salvacion before I left. He knew everyone in the barangay, of course, and he introduced me to everyone, including his five brothers. Five brothers and ...

I had asked lots of people over the previous couple of days about the road going from Pandan and back to Virac along the east coast. From these people I got a variety of answers ...

San Vicente did not, as I suspected, have any kind of hotel or pension or inn or guest house or lodging. In that situation, I figured I would be sleeping in my tent and I ...

The following day was by far the hardest day of the circuit around Catanduanes – far harder than my ride from Pandan to San Vicente. It didn’t start out that terribly hard. I rode through ...

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I had been assured by many, many people that once I reached Bagamanoc my life of crashing and banging over rough and rocky roads would be over. It would be cement paving all the way ...

I did make it to Gigmoto and though I didn’t find the perfect lodging I was looking for – a nice bungalow on the beach with its own bathroom and water supply – I found ...

My last night in Gigmoto passed pleasantly enough. Domingo and his cousin ate their meal beside me on the dining room table and we all watched TV afterward. They were both quite amused by the ...

I could have stayed at Pururan for another day quite easily, but there didn’t seem to be much point. There was nothing to do there if you weren’t going to surf. And though it was ...

Sunday April 28, 2013 Villa Toledo Hotel, Virac, Catanduanes I got back to Virac perhaps a bit quicker than I would have liked. I was interested in staying in a couple of places an extra ...

Eruption of the Mayon Volcano in Legazpi Monday May 13, 2013 Bulusan Volcano Natural Park, Sorsogon, Philippines It took an effort to load up my bike and cycle away from the comforts of the hostel ...

Bus and Truck Madness - Cycling from Legazpi to Sorsogon City Speaking of a menacing aspect, I was saying that I eventually got on my bicycle and rode the 60 or 70 kilometers to the ...

I’m very happy to report that my next day of cycling – tough as it was, and it was very tough – was far more pleasant than my first. It was different because I quickly ...

It turned out that the camping area was more of a myth than reality. It wasn’t a camping area as such. They just allowed people to put up their tent on a small grassy patch ...

The access road didn’t seem quite as steep going down as it did going up. Perhaps I had just been too tired at the end of the day when I arrived to handle it. It ...

As much as I enjoyed the ride to Matnog, I have to say that it took some time and effort to uncover Matnog’s charm – if, in fact, I ever did. This was not an ...

Once fortified with food (I struggled through my fish head as best I could), I stopped by the tourist information office. I could either catch a ferry across to Samar right away or the next ...

My first night in Matnog at the Richwell Beach Reort did little to ease my pain. There was a restaurant at the Resort and I had been assured by everyone that I could order what ...

I woke up full intending to make the best of the day. Matnog was not going to defeat me. I was going to be flexible and I was going to go with the flow. I ...

Once I’d paid all my fees, I left the tourism office and followed the Filipino woman and a boatman out into the street. She walked up to a big white van that was crammed with ...

Charmless Matnog was not, however, finished with me, and I rode my bike back to my improvised campsite in the Richwell Beach Resort walled compound to find that I had been robbed. True, the robbers ...

The next day, my last day in Matnog, was an odd sort of day. I spent the morning writing in my journal and drinking coffee and hanging out at the resort. This was not quite ...

The trip across to the port town of Allen on Samar went by quickly and pleasantly – at least once we got moving. The loading had taken many hours and we left hours after the ...

I was cycling at a pretty good pace (good for me, that is), and some rough calculations told me that I could make it to Calbayog before dark if I wanted to. However, the land ...

I knew I had only a short distance to cycle the next day – it was about 45 kilometers to Calbayog – and I was in no hurry to get out of bed and get ...

The road from Viriato to Calbayog was just as beautiful as that from Allen to Viriato had been. There were some long and hard climbs, but I barely noticed them I was so wrapped up ...

Saturday May 25, 2013 8:37 a.m. Tacloban, Leyte Several days have passed since I last wrote in my journal and I am now in the large city of Tacloban, the capital city of the island ...

My day of riding from Calbayog to Catbalogan was only a short time ago, but so much has happened that I have to close my eyes and think carefully to bring it back. It was ...

I had been told that after Catbalogan, the road became very hilly and difficult with long, hard climbs. That turned out to be true to a certain extent. The most difficult climb by far was ...

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I had some bread and coffee with the firefighters in the morning and I was back on the road. It was a tough day for me. I didn’t have to cover a huge amount of ...

This will likely be my last day in Tacloban. I will do a bit of shopping and organizing and planning and then I’ll be back on the road tomorrow morning. Yesterday, Sunday, was a pretty ...

I managed to track down more beer and ice yesterday. I doubled down on the beer this time, and as a result I’m a little bit out of it this morning. I slept quite a ...

A few days have passed since my last entry, and I haven’t done anything to write about. I’m still in Tacloban. I should have left days ago, but a very bad weather system passed through ...

Another day in Tacloban gets underway with a good cup of coffee at Bo’s Coffee. This is the very first place I stopped at when I arrived in Tacloban, and I’ve come back many times ...

It has been a long while since I've broken out the NEO. I guess just hanging out in Tacloban didn't inspire any journal-keeping. I did write when I first got there and was busy. I ...

The late afternoon, evening, and night were times of third world battles and I think I came out on the losing side most of the time. For one thing, this room is infested with ants, ...