Articles tagged with: barangay
Cycling Catanduanes 8 – My Gigmoto Host Domingo Tatel
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 something that in its way might be a lot better. It was certainly a lot more interesting – a room in a private home.
The owner of the house was Domingo …
Cycling Catanduanes 7 – Good Cop/Bad Cop in Viga
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 from there to Virac, I was told. I should have known better than to trust any of these informants. One road from Bagmananoc to Virac may indeed have been paved. …
Cycling Catanduanes 6 – Trying to Say “Bagamanoc”
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 some pleasant countryside and villages, occasionally climbing up some steep hills and bouncing and crashing down the other side. My goal for the day was the barangay of Bagmananoc – …
Cycling Catanduanes 5 – The Barangay Captain of San Vicente
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 understood from many conversations I’d had that I should present myself to the barangay captain to obtain his permission and protection. I rode around San Vicente, and people actually made …
Cycling Catanduanes 3 – Videoke Nightmare in Caramoran
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 no sisters at all. And then DNA evened up the affair quite a bit by providing him with an entire sea of granddaughters. The five brothers were all farmers and …
Cycling Catanduanes 2 – A Night in Salvacion
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 where I was going to spend the night. I was prepared to spend the night in my tent, but I wasn’t fully organized for that. I did not have food …
Cycling Catanduanes 1 – “Are you sure?”
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 you sure?” she said, with her eyes widening and her voice rising a couple of octaves at the end – sounding almost panicked on my behalf.
“No,” I said. “I’m not sure …
What Exactly Is a “Barangay” in the Philippines?
I made some changes in my plans. I had a flight from Taipei to Manila on March 1st at one o’clock in the morning. There were some problems with that date and I decided to postpone my departure for a month. I could have paid a fee and simply changed the date of my flight. However, the fee for changing the date was as much …