Charley is No Angel

Dream On – Charley and the Ghost Rider’s Wish List for the Next Ride

• PDA phone with detachable folding full-size keyboard, built-in camera, rugged construction, waterproof, 240-hour standby time, 12-hour talk time, Smart Buddy SIM, Bluetooth wireless headset, MP3 player, GPS receiver. Cradle for attachment to handlebars optional.
• All-in-one multitool with allen keys, open and socket wrenches, screwdrivers, and flat file.
• Leather saddlebags and hard-case biker backpack.
• More disciplined drivers on the road.
• Well-lit provincial highways and more gas stations along provincial highways.
• That the police officers in the provinces keep their politenesses, their good habits and attitudes (would that the police in the metropolis could follow their good example).
• That the services and the products of tourist spots in the Philippines have the same low prices for the locals and the tourists (not every tourist spends dollars).
• That the local folk everywhere in the Philippines take an interest in their history and culture, preserve their heritage and have pride of place.
• That the government support local tourism through infrastructure (e.g. good roads) instead of just advertising.

Charley Sez: Places to Visit on the Next Ride Around CALABARZON

Laguna
Rizal Shrine, Calamba
National Arts Center, Los Baños
Lugana waterfalls in Pagsanjan, Majayjay, and Fami
Talim Island

Batangas
Mabini Shrine, Tanauan
Old churches in Lipa, San Jose, Bauan, Talisay, and others
Aerial sports, the Manny Baradas airstrip of the Parachutist Association of the Philippines
Beaches along Batangas Bay, Balayan Bay, Maricaban and Verde Islands

Quezon
Rock climbing in Atimonan
Pagbilao Grande and Lamon Bay beaches
Balabag Falls, Real
Pahiyas Festival

Cavite
Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit and other hero shrines
Corregidor Island

Live Free and Ride IX: Charley and the Ghost Rider’s Last Lap

Back in Luzon
Shortly after the M/V Maria Kristina left the port of Balatero in Puerto Galera and sailed by Verde Island, the Ghost Rider knew for sure that he soon had reason to celebrate. Nearly three thousand kilometers worth of riding part of the southern stretches of the Maharlika Highway and the Strong Republic Nautical Highway had, to the Ghost Rider’s mind, the patina of a personal accomplishment, made more fulfilling by the histoy and culture the biker had the good fortune to come across along the way. It was, the biker reflected, cause for a small celebration, and absent champagne the Ghost Rider popped open a can of San Miguel Beer, something the Ghost Rider knew to be truly Filipino.

Few things are as relaxing as having a brew on a ferry ride, and the Ghost Rider felt completely at ease. Soon after passing by Maricaban Island and seeing the port of Batangas come into view, the biker felt relieved that he had come back safely, but with a pang of regret over all the places he had missed seeing on the trip south. Maria Kristina docked smartly, her master an obviously skilled professional, and not long after the barge’s ramp was lowered did Charley and the Ghost Rider make landfall on Luzon on April 1, 2005, the home island they had left six days ago from its southernmost tip, the port of Matnog, Sorsogon.

    

    

      

     Approaching the port of Batangas

    

    

Through the Cradle of the Brave
Leaving the sprawling, modern port of Batangas, Charley and the Ghost Rider entered the city and took the road to Lemery. At the Shell station along the highway in Bauan, the biker made a stop for gasoline and coffee, not minding the heat and savoring the knowledge that home was a short ride through the heart of the Batangas province.

Long before its organization in 1534 and its foundation as a province in 1581, making it the first practically organized province in Luzon, Batangas was already heavily populated. Settlements along the Pansipit river had natives who traded with Chinese merchants form the 13th century, as well as merchants from India and Japan, as archaeologist Robert Fox determined based on findings in the Calatagan Peninsula. Historians believe that the native Batangueños can claim descent from the Bornean datus Dumangsil and Balensusa, who sailed from Borneo to Panay Island and thence to the area around Lake Taal, and that the first Malay settlement in the area was organized near the mouth of the Taal River. In 1570, Martin de Goiti and Juan Salcedo came upon this settlement and founded the town of Taal in 1572, and subsequently the province. Once known as Bonbon after the original name of Taal Lake, the province of Batangas then comprised the southeeatern part of Laguna, islands of Mindoro and Marinduque, and part of Camarines Norte, in addition to its present area. The province then became known as Balayan, with its capital at the town of the same name, where the administration of the province lasted from 1597 to 1732. In the beginning of the 17th century, Mindoro and Marinduque were each given made separate provinces, and the capital was transferred to the town of Taal in 1732. In 1754, after several devastating eruptions of Taal Volcano that buried the old town, the capital was transferred to its present location, and the name of the province was changed to Batangas, the capital town its namesake, derived from the word batang, a term for the numerous logs found in the Calumpang River running northeast of the town.

Batangas figures much in Philippine history. The Philippine flag has a Batangueño ray among the eight rays of the sun, the province being one of the eight provinces that were the first to rise up against Spanish rule during the Philippine revolution (the others being Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, and Laguna). Heroic figures of Batangueño descent include Apolinario Mabini, the “brains of the Katipunan”, Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, seamstress of the Philippine Flag, and General Miguel Malvar, the last general standing of the first Philippine Republic, testament to the bravery of the sons and daughters of the province.

Among the many other things the province is known for – and perhaps another reflection of Batangueño courage – is the balisong, also called veinte-nueve, the fan knife of the province flicked open in a blur of the wrist in the reminiscent of a movie Western gunfighter’s quick-draw of his six-shooter. Charley and the Ghost Rider were reminded of this fact as they sped along the highway through the town of Santa Teresita, passing by numerous roadside shops professing to sell the best of the Batangas blades, all the way to the town of Taal.

Thanksgiving Visits
Built along the Pansipit River, which empties into Balayan Bay, and once the capital of Batangas, Taal is a town whose residents have made an effort to prexerve the Spanish-colonial architecture. The streets are narrow and are flanked by numerous houses whose design can be traced back to the early days of Spanish rule, many of them updated with modern comforts but with façades that would not have been surprising to a visitor to the town one or two centuries ago.

The town is home to the Basilica of San Martin de Tours, known to the local population as the Taal Basilica, a church whose ancestry can be traced to a church in San Nicolas, then part of the town of Taal, built by Father Diego Espina in 1575. Destroyed during the 1754 eruption of Taal Volcano, the church was rebuilt at its present site in 1755, and was once again destroyed by an earthquake in 1849. The construction of the church as it now stands began in 1856, and the Taal Basilica is said to be one of the biggest in Asia.

Charley and the Ghost Rider made a quick visit to the church to give thanks for the near-completion of their ride, and the biker was impressed by the Taal Basilica’s imposing size and the view of the town from the churchyard, like a respected elder overseeing the rest of the town laid on like a blanket on the hillside below. Inside the darkened church, the Ghost Rider felt as if he was taken back to the era where Latin was the language of the clergy celebrating high mass, and he could very well imagine Gregorian chanting echoing off the walls of the church.

Leaving the Taal Basilica, Charley and the Ghost Rider puttered past old ancestral houses that reminded him of Vigan, seemingly mute yet powerful statements of traditions preserved and the old ways never supplanted by the new. The Ghost Rider learned of a local quirk that he found strange: Taal was the only town in the Philippines where people of Chinese descent were effectively kept out, or at least until the American occupation. The biker did not know nor could he later find out what was the reason why that was so; it seemed strange to him that in a country and among a people known for hospitality to strangers, a town could be found without xenophobia but perhaps with a hint of sinophobia.  Charley and the Ghost Rider left the town without this mystery being made clear to them; the biker thought that the people of Taal, of course, knew what was best for their town and he, merely passing through, had best leave the matter to they who belong there.

Charley and the Ghost Rider then made a stop at the Church of Our Lady of Caysasay. The church houses a few of the relics ot Taal’s Spanish-colonial heritage, among them the 10-1/2 inch (27 cm) Marian image fished out of the lake in 1603,  some Augustinian emblems engraved on the communion rails, the ornately carved font, and some baroque motifs on the external frieze. The renovations done to the church, the biker thought, may have hidden some of the traces of the past of Caysasay Church; more’s the pity, was his comment, as Charley and the Ghost Rider left the town on the lakeside road to Talisay, seen on his E-Z map as a covenient short cut home. Only later on the road did he find a reason to grumble at the map, the closer he went to the banks of Taal Lake.    

    

      

     An old Taal house preserved

    

    

      

     The Taal Basilica

    

    

      

     The Church of Our Lady of Caysasay

    

    

Sleeping Fury
Taal Lake was a place of serene beauty and the volcano, said to be the smallest active volcano in the world, was seemingly a haven of peace, the biker thought as Charley and the Ghost Rider paced the road through Talisay. The biker felt as if he was on a jetski on a particularly choppy sea; instead of a frothy wake, Charley left clouds of dust as she surfed through the unpaved road guided by the Ghost Rider. Count your blessings, the biker told himself, if it was raining we wouldn’t be surfing through dust, we’d be slogging through muck.

The Ghost Rider’s irritation at his map was softened at the first glimpse of the lady of the lake. Taal Volcano, placid as it may seem, was once actually part of a gigantic prehistoric volcano  bordering Batangas and Cavite, estimated to be 18,000 feet (5, 500 meters) above sea level which at some point erupted violently and collapsed into a caldera with an opening to Balayan Bay. Between 1572 to the present, more than 40 eruptions have been recorded, one of the most destructive being the one in 1754, not quite unlike the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The 1754 Taal eruption was recorded to have lasted for six months and darkened Manila skies so densely that lanterns would be needed to walk the streets even at midmorning. The eruption may have also been the cause of the closure of the open channel to the sea, later on allowing the accumulation of rainfall leading to the formation of Taal Lake as it now is seen at present.

This may also explain why the freshwater Taal Lake is home to creatures of saltwater origin. The only known species of sea snake that has a freshwater habitat, Hydrophis semperi, is one of them, and the fish maliputo and tawilis endemic to the lake share saltwater characteristics. Peter J. P. Whitehead of the British Museum of Natural History declares the tawilis to be “the only species of Sardinella that is found mainly in fresh water,” and supportting the claim in another way is Dr. Dioscoro Rabor’s personal studies of shark biology in Taal Lake water, before their extermination by overfishing in the 1930s. Local folk also claim that upon diving to the lake bottom 30 feet below one can collect shells of marine life that are normally found on the beaches of Balayan Bay.

    

      

     The view of Taal Volcano from the shore of Talisay

    

    

Charley and the Ghost Rider felt better as soon as they reached the blacktop pavement on the steep uphill climb to Tagaytay. The sun began its slow descent down as the biker and his steed made their way through the familiar roads of the Caviteño tourist city. Going down the road past the Adventist University of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police Academy, Charley and the Ghost Rider drove to Paseo de Santa Rosa. Once there, the biker went in to greet Sonny Dumpit, his friend of Sitio Bar and Restaurant, and a celebratory Miller was enjoyed to commemorate the completion of Charley and the Ghost Rider’s foolhardy ride south. The biker and his steed then left for home to get cleaned up, get a little rest, and thus begin to write the story of an unforgettable southern trek by a battered bike and a biker undaunted.

(Charley and the Ghost Rider wish to thank the following, without whom their southern trek would never have been the same: Joey G., for the North Face backpack and Apexus backpack cover; Benjie, for the Canon Powershot S230 digital camera; Joey V and R’keen, for the USB clip drives; Soy, for Charley’s sashimono; Tatay, for Charley’s tune-ups and repairs; John and Rina, for believing; Jojo C. and the rest of the bunch, for not; Caloy, Jerry, Joni, Kris, and Tom, for road advice; the riders of STRC, Raymond of Calauag, Quezon, the officers of PNP-Sorsogon, Sorsogon and Pandan, Antique, the women of DSWD-Sorsogon, Vienne, Bobet and Jenny of Cebu, Tupeng and Bon Jovi of Puerto Galera, Mindoro, and the people of Southern Philippines, helpful to the shoestring-budget tourist; the Department of Tourism, for not quite being so helpful; Select, StarMart, and Treats convenience stores; Alcatel, for the tough cellphone that withstood three years of abuse and one crazy ride; Smart Communications; E-Z Maps; Miller Genuine Draft; San Miguel Beer; and God, for His protection of a young and foolish biker.)

Charley Sez: Places to Visit on the Next Ride through Mindoro and Nearby Islands

Oriental Mindoro
Mount Halcon
Muelle Port
Other beaches in Puerto Galera and the surrounding Islands

Occidental Mindoro
Diving at Apo Reef and Ambulong Island
Malatontong Falls
Matingkay Cave
Trekking in the Siburan Rainforest Park
Tamaraw spotting on Mount Iglit-Baco National Park
Beaches on Pandan Grande Island

Lubang Island
Trekking, diving and beaches on Lubang Island

Verde Island
Trekking, diving and beaches on Verde Island

Live Free and Ride VIII: Charley and the Ghost Rider in Mindoro

Landfall at Roxas
Dawn had broken over the Tablas Strait as the M/V Maria Felisa began her approach to the island of Mindoro. The port of Roxas, Oriental Mindoro was small, with but a single concrete pier, and docking took nearly half an hour, even if the sea state was calm and not enough chop for the barge to be affected. Perhaps the master of the Maria Felisa was just being cautious, the Ghost Rider thought, as he carefully conned the barge to the pier, waiting for the lines thrown to the dockhands to strain in place before lowering the steel deck for disembarkation. Getting off the Ro/Ro was also difficult, not only due to the small size of the pier but also because of Charley’s cramped space on the barge; another quarter of an hour passed before the Ghost Rider and one of the deckhands removed all the ropes securing Charley to the bulkhead, both of them acting like professional contortionists in the small space where Charley was tied down. As soon as Charley was free, however, she being the first to get off the Maria Felisa, it was not difficult for the Ghost Rider to drive her off the barge and guide the motorcycle away from the port and into the island.

    

    

      

     Morning over Tablas Strait

    

    

      

     Charley cramped aboard the M/V Maria Felisa

    

    

      

     The port of Roxas, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

The island of Mindoro, seventh largest in the Philippines, was already well known to Chinese traders prior to the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, and signs of Islamic, Hindu, and pagan influences had been found by the time Miguel Lopez de Legaspi landed on the island on 1569. Martin de Goiti, in his role as master of camp, sailed to the island on May 8, 1570, and encountered numerous Chinese merchants, who plied their trade frequently on the western part of the island. The Spanish conquest of the island began in force on that same year in Mamburao by Juan de Salcedo, and the island, formerly known as Ma-i, was given the name Mindoro. Two local theories explain the name; the first believes that Mindoro comes from Mina de Oro, or mine of gold, from the gold panning on the rivers of Baco, Binaybay, Bongabong, and Magasawang Tubig, though no major finds were ever discovered; the second states that the name is derived from that of Minolo, also spelled Minoro, a coastal settlement northwest of what is now Barangay Poblacion in Puerto Galera, where in the 16th century Chinese merchants traded porcelain for gold, jade, coral, rattan, and forest products. An excavation of a Minolo grave site unearthed artifacts of Chinese origin dating back to as far as the 10th century, and together with 16th century references to Mindoro purportedly referring to Minoro, the second theory, although less romantic in nature than the first, is much more historically sound.

Spanish settlements were built soon after the conquest of the island, most at the northern and southern tips, but many were destroyed by raiding Moros, who later built strongholds from where they launched attacks on Manila, but they were later driven out by Spanish forces led by Simon de Anda. Later in the 17th century, Mindoro was governed under the administration of Batangas, then known as Bonbon, with Puerto Galera as the island’s capital. Lubang Island was annexed to the Mindoro sub-province in 1902, and full provincehood was attained in 1921. It was in 1950 by virtue of Republic Act 505 that Mindoro was split into the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, with Mamburao as the capital, and Oriental Mindoro, with the capital at Calapan.

Little of this history was readily apparent to Charley and the Ghost Rider as they made sped through the narrow, well-paved concrete roads out of Roxas. The day was hot, and upon reaching Bongabong the biker decided to stop by an inn to get a shower – considering that a room could be rented for as short as an hour, the Ghost Rider thought it to be a pretty good deal. Refreshed and rested, Charley and the Ghost Rider sped on.

Past the town of Bansud, the terrain started rising, being part of the foothills of Mount Halcon. Mount Halcon, the third-tallest mountain in the Philippines at 8,488 feet (2, 586 m) above sea level, is one of the most famous mountaineering destinations of the country. The challenging four-day trek to the summit, through old-growth mossy forest and river crossings, is considered by many hikers to be the most arduous mountain trek one can go on in the Philippines.

Succor in Socorro
What happened on the ride northward, the Ghost Rider later thought, was an example of the kindness and hospitality that characterized the Filipino of the country, a pleasing contrast to what he often found lacking to those of the metropolis.

The uphill roads were likewise tough and the heat was unrelenting as Charley and the Ghost Rider drove past Pinamalayan. The asphalt roads had cracks here and there, forcing the biker to weave in and out within the lane, definitely adding to the stress and the difficulty of the ride. Sensing that he had to stop for a break soon, he waited vainly for signs of a convenience store, gas station, or even a sari-sari store where he could get something to drink and fight off the dehydration that was slowly creeping up on him.

Reaching Socorro, the Ghost Rider was about to give up and just take five anywhere along the mountainous roads when he spotted what he thought was a sari-sari store. Immediately parking, he realized that it was merely a fruit stand selling oranges. Desperate, he asked the women at the table if they had soft drinks to sell; to his bad luck, they had none.

To his surprise and relief, just as the Ghost Rider was making to leave, one of the women hurried inside their hut of bamboo and nipa. She then called to the biker, holding a pitcher of ice water with one hand and a tall plastic cup with the other. The Ghost Rider thanked the woman profusely, and while his thirst was being quenched he was asked countless questions – where he was from, what he and Charley were doing in Mindoro, where they were headed, and so on. The biker was only too happy to share stories of the road, and in the half-hour spent with them, nothing was left of the exhaustion and thirst he had felt, not only because of the cool spring water given him, but because of the kindness and hospitality behind the offer of water. Refreshed, the biker thanked his hosts, and Charley and the Ghost Rider went on their way, warmed by the idea that the customs of the Filipinos of yore still found a place in the 21st century.
 

    

      

     The kind orange vendors of Socorro, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

To Mindoro’s North Shore
Out of Socorro, Charley and the Ghost Rider found themselves going downhill as they rode through Victoria. West of the town is Lake Naujan, and the biker spotted the signage of a few lakeside resorts that seemed incongruous among the yellow rice fields of the town.

To get to Puerto Galera from Victoria, the Ghost Rider saw on his maps, one need not to ride through Calapan; instead, as the Charley and the Ghost Rider did, one can take the left psst Bayanan to get to the road to Baco and thus straight on ahead to Puerto Galera.

Though few, if any, DPWH road signs were seen by the biker, many makeshift signs pointing the road to Puerto Galera could be seen, as far south of the destination as Bayanan, and the Ghost Rider felt confident of his navigation, even if the roads got progressively worse the farther northwest he traveled. Stopping at Baco for lunch at a deserted roadside cantina, Charley’s tires spitting gravel and dust caked on the Ghost Rider’s jacket and jeans, the biker ruefully thought that the scene was much more apt if Charley was a horse and the scene was smack-dab in the middle of a campy Western.

The town of Baco, the Ghost Rider later learned, was one of the jump-off points to the Mount Iglit-Baco National Park. The park is a game sanctuary and one of the last habitats of the endangered tamaraw, the wild animal with V-shaped horns found only in the Philippines resembling the common domesticated Asian water buffalo – carabao to the Filipino – seen in local farms (another animal, according to the Ghost Rider’s understanding of agricultural news, that is also fast disappearing in the Philippines).

After a light lunch of rice and chicken hearts, gizzard, kidneys and liver adobo, the biker started off. The roads to Puerto Galera by then were now barely-graded gravel, the dust billowing behind them as Charley and the Ghost Rider raced northward. The view to their left was of the Verde Island passage, the blue of the sea only slightly deeper than that of the sky, and though the roads were almost as deplorable as those the biker encountered in Western Visayas, the breathtaking view made up for it completely.

    

      

     The road on the way to Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

      

     Charley above the breathtaking view

    

    

      

     Charley and the Ghost Rider at the hill above Puerto Galera

    

    

      

     The view of the bay below

    

    

Reaching Barangay Villaflor, Puerto Galera, Charley and the Ghost Rider happened on Tamaraw Falls. The 423-foot-high waterfall cascades down a cleft on the left of a bridge in the barangay on the way to the beaches. The biker noticed that there were some resort cottages at the bottom of the hill, and after his admiration of the view of the falls dampened by what he perceived as haphazard tourist-oriented development, the biker rode on away.

    

    

      

     Charley at Tamaraw Falls, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

      

    

     Tamaraw Falls, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

    

Reaching White Beach, Puerto Galera, the Ghost Rider felt a sense of ease, in his imagination hearing reggae music playing in the background as he looked around for a parking space. Finding one and making sure Charley was secure, the biker shucked off his boots and stowed them away in his backpack, putting on a pair sandals and shrugging off his jacket, figuring that a person wearing riding gear would look bizarre on the beach. Grabbing a snack and a cold bear, the biker kicked back, relaxed, and enjoyed a bit of sun and surf, wondering if a shop he once saw on a long-ago visit to Puerto Galera was still operating. After the karaoke singing started grating on his nerves (“My Way” seemed to be the all-time favorite song requested wherever one travels in the Philippines), the biker decided to take a wake along the beach, and maybe stumble across the shop he was hoping to find still extant somewhere.

Not a hundred paces from where he started, a grin formed on his face. The tiny shop, no more than a three-sided shack, was still where he thought it used to be, on the sand just by the shaded tables on the concrete walkway. The Ghost Rider had arrived – at Island Tattoo.

Under the Needle
Christopher the tattoo artist – Tupeng to his friends and to the local body art and piercing aficionados – was doing henna tattooing, popular among the visitors to Puerto Galera. The Ghost Rider asked how soon could he get his permanent one, and the affable Tupeng bade him wait for about an hour, what with the numerous customers wanting a henna tattoo. Offering the biker one of the monoblock plastic stools on hand, he graciously allowed the biker to fiddle through the selections of music he was playing on his portable transistor radio-cassette player.

The Ghost Rider, during his wait, found himself engaged in conversation with Tupeng’s customers, at times helping them leaf through the clear books full of illustrations of temporary and permanent tattoos and different kinds of body piercings, at other times just shooting the breeze with those waiting, with the artist offering his astute opinions as he worked on some customer or other. The biker was himself amused as he saw that there was not a single visitor to Tupeng’s shop who did not find the background music – Junior Kilat’s Cebuano reggae – amusingly charming.

Just as the sun began its descent, Tupeng made ready his tattooing equipment. After tracing the chosen pattern on the Ghost Rider’s nape, the artist put on a pair of fresh surgical gloves, broke open from its sterile packaging a new needle, locked the needle in place on the end of his electric tattoing machine, dipped it in a small bowl of ink, and began to work.

The Ghost Rider, his head bowed, his elbows on his knees, tried not to flinch at the first moment the needle pierced his flesh at a rate of 60 times a second, breathing deeply to relax. The needle bit repeatedly into his skin, the sharp, sudden pain eventually turning into a dull ache as Tupeng went along alternately cleaning off blood, dipping the needle in the well for fresh ink, and continuing to trace the curlicued pattern on the biker’s skin. About an hour passed before the artist was finished, the Ghost Rider pleased with Tupeng’s skill.

    

    

      

     Island Tattoo, White Beach, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

     Charley's travel partner, the Ghost Rider, in another fit of insanity

    

    

    

      

     Tupeng the tattoo artist and his pals

    

    

      

     The work of the master

    

    

Leaving his gear at the shop to take a short walk and a stretch, the Ghost Rider found time to take a short nap on the beach, his jacket acting as a beach blanket. Night had fallen by the time the biker joined Tupeng and his friend, the irrepresible Bon Jovi, for a drinks and conversation. Later that night, the Ghost Rider helped put up the tent the tattoo artist and his friend used while working in Puerto Galera, where Tupeng and Bon Jovi turned in for some sleep. The biker, himself already drowsy, took a spot of their beach to sleep on, taken into dreamtime by the the sound of surf and the gentle caress of the wind.    

    

      

     Sunset over Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

Leaving Mindoro
Just past sunrise on what promised to be a cloudless day over Puerto Galera, Charley and the Ghost Rider drove away from White Beach to find passage to cross the Verde Island passage. Puerto Galera, its name literally meaning galleon port, is blessed with coves and bays protected by the surrounding mountains providing ships shelter from storms and high winds. Because of the Moro raids that plagued this important natural harbor, the Spanish moved the Puerto Galera seat of government from its former place at Barrio Lagundian to its present site, constructing watchtowers and stationing ships of war at its entrance. One such ship, the Canonero Mariveles, sunk in a violent storm in 1879, and a cross was erected in the memory of her sailors at the Muelle Pier, with the inscription “Ultima tierra que pesarou los tripolantes del canoneros Mariveles el 18 de Noviembre de 1879”, the 19th-century renovated by Luis Gomez y Sotto in 1938. An odd sight sometimes can be found in Muelle Bay, when chunks of charcoal-black rice grains appear on the beach, mysterious remnants of the damage done by fire to a granary.

It was the port of Balatero, not Muelle, however, that Charley and the Ghost Rider made went to get passage outward bound from Mindoro. Sited in a beautiful bay, the Balatero Port was built partly as a legacy of the Locsin family, part tribute to National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin, the architect who from 1955 to 1994 designed 75 residences and 88 buildings, including 11 churches and chapels, 23 public buildings, 48 commercial buildings, six major hotels, and an airport terminal building. Notable among his work are the Istana Nurul Iman, the 2.2-million-square-foot (20 hectare) floor area palace of the Sultan of Brunei, the CCP Complex (itself a virtual Locsin Complex, with all five buildings designed by him), the Westin Hotel building, and the Manila International Airport (now Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport).

The Balatero Port was the cleanest of all the Ro/Ro terminals the Ghost Rider had visited, and certainly the most efficient, with Charley’s passage booked without the least amount of difficulty. Though the Ghost Rider felt that he could take exception at the crassness of one of the port’s employees, he was generally impressed by the friendliness and promptitude of the service of most of them. The biker had to wait a while, however, as the next Ro/Ro outward bound had an hour yet to arrive.

Wandering around the port, the Ghost Rider found out that Balatero Port was where the participants of the Island Quest: The Nautical Highway Adventure leg of the Island Caravan, the promotional package of the “Biyahe Na!” project of the Department of Tourism. The poster said that the trip was from March 19 – 23, 2005, with stops at Manila, Batangas, Puerto Galera, Calapan, Roxas, Caticlan, and Boracay, but one of the port’s staff said that their landing on Balatero was that day, April 1, thirteen days later than they expected. About an hour later, the band of the local elementary school arrived, practicing tunes for ten minutes before practicing marches under the hot sun. The children’s uniforms were immaculate, the little girls’ makeup thick and beginning to streak because of sweat, all in all looking like a typical tourist photo op. Moving to the shade of the terminal to wait for the arrival of the tourists, they waited, some openly complaining to the accompanying adults about the heat. The Ghost Rider shook his head – the things, he thought, that the Philippines does for tourism. A thought occurred to him: the tourists were traveling through the roads he had taken, and not even half as far as he had gone, and he had not a jot of the fanfare that the arriving tourists had. The Ghost Rider pretended to himself that he was miffed; “Imagine, me, I’d traveled farther than these people and seen more places on this trip and I’m being treated like a third-class citizen?” he imagined himself joking to his friends when he would be telling them about this part of his trip.

The barges finally arrived, the docking and disembarking to the tune of the “Spaghetti” song played on lyres, food served to the tourists, and everything else that the Ghost Rider expected to happen. Boarding the M/V Maria Kristina and securing Charley to the bulkhead, he watched as the the backs of the welcoming committee, thinking without malice, well, it was nice visiting your island too.

    

     

     The Balatero Port, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

    

    

     

     Charley at the Balatero Port

    

    

     

     The Island Caravan folks

    

    

     

     The Island Caravan welcoming committee's band

    

    

     

     The number of people seeing Charley off: none! Whattashame!

    

    

The Maria Kristina’s master seemed to be in a hurry; as soon as he was sure that all the passengers were on board, he had the landing deck lifted and smartly conned the barge away from the port. Soon, the Ghost Rider knew, the biker would land in Luzon, the island he had left seven days ago, on the third day of his wild ride. The home stretch was close at hand. (to be continued)

    

      

     A view of Mindoro and the imposing Mount Halcon    

Charley Sez: Places to Visit on the Next Ride through Panay and Nearby Islands

Iloilo
Andonna Creek, Siwaragan, San Joaquin – reputedly the landing site of the ten Bornean datus
Isla de Gigantes, Estancia – 15th century burial caves
Nadsadjan Falls, Igbaras
Dinagyang Festival

Antique
Mount Madya-as, Culasi
EBJ Memorial Park – in honor of martial-law-era activist Evelio Javier, assassinated on February 11, 1986
Malandog Marker, Hamtic – marker commemorating the landing of the 10 Bornean datus
Anini-y Church – built in the late 1870s by the Augustinians

Aklan
Freedom Shrine – dedicated to 19 Akeanon martyrs in the struggle for independence
Tulingon Cave, Nabas – 20 km long cave
Museo it Akean, Kalibo
Ati-atihan Festival

Capiz
Watch towers, and Old Capiz Bridge, Roxas
Pan-ay Church – baroque church with 10.4 ton, 7-ft diameter bell cast from 76 sacks of coins
Dumalag church – 200 ft long, 50 ft wide, yellow sandstone walls 3 ft thick
Pilar, Suhot, Igang, and Suhoton caves

Guimaras
Trappist Monastery, Jordan
MacArthur’s Wharf, Buenavista – built in 1903 by the famous American general
Higante, Hurot-Hurot, Capitoguan, and Buho Ramirez Caves, Jordan
Guimaras mountainbiking and the Paraw Regatta

Live Free and Ride VII: Charley and the Ghost Rider in Panay Island

Landfall in Iloilo
The Ghost Rider had a glimpse of the Guimaras Island shore as the M/V Maria Angela approached Panay Island, and wondered if the next ride to this part of the country would take him through there. Once part of Iloilo province and split into a separate province on May 22, 1992 by the proclamation of RA 7160, the folk history of Guimaras would have appealed to the romantic nature of his literati friends; the name Guimaras, which replaced its historical name Himal-us, was taken from the legend of the ill-fated lovers Guima, a lakambini or tribal princess, and Aras, a timawon or slave, who defied tradition for their romance. Guimaras Island also would have appealed to those of his friends who were into extreme sports; the island is home to the Guimaras International Mountain Bike Festival and the Paraw Regatta, a race of sailboats built in the manner of the paraws of the Borneo settlers that landed in Panay Island in 1212 AD.

    

      

     Sailing by Guimaras Island

    

    

Far east of where the Malay forebears landed in Panay, Iloilo was where Charley and the Ghost Rider would make landfall. Past the power barges that provided electricity to the island, MV Maria Angela made her way up the river to her berth, prompting the Ghost Rider to make ready for landfall. There was not much to do but wait until the boat docked; Charley was the only vehicular passenger, and the biker did not anticipate any problems disembarking. He was right; as soon as the Maria Angela docked and her steel deck was laid on the concrete pier, Charley and the Ghost Rider rode off the boat and into Iloilo.

    

      

     A view of the moored power barges

    

    

      

     Upriver towards the port

    

    

      

     The customs house, near where Charley made landfall

    

    

According to available historical accounts, Iloilo was originally known as Irong-Irong, and the name appears in the Maragtas legend of the ten Bornean datus who landed in Panay and bartered gold with the Atis of Panay for land in the plains and valleys of the island, and Datu Paiburong was given Irong-Irong as his territory. In 1566, the Spanish arrived under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, and a settlement in Ogtong (now Oton, Iloilo) was established with Gonzalo Ronquillo as deputy encomiendero. In 1581, Ronquillo moved his seat of power to La Villa de Arevalo, named for his hometown Avila, Spain. In the 1700s, due to recurrent raids by Moro pirates and Dutch and English privateers, the Spaniards moved to the village of Irong-Irong, where Fort San Pedro was built, close to the mouth of the river. The name evolved from Irong-Irong to Ilong-Ilong, thence to Iloilo, as it is presently known. The capital of the province, with the same name, was chartered as a city on August 25, 1937.

The first waypoint of Charley and the Ghost Rider was the San Jose Church in Iloilo, located close by the Plaza Libertad. Plaza Libertad marks the spot where Spain surrendered her last capital in the Philippine Islands to the revolutionaries led by General Martin Delgado, and where the flag of the First Philippine Republic was raised in victory on December 25, 1898.

    

    

      

    

     The San Jose Church, Iloilo

    

    

    

      

     Plaza Libertad, Iloilo

    

    

Feeling the need for lunch, Charley and the Ghost Rider drove past the modern façade of the Provincial Capitol to the La Paz Market, birthplace of the famous La Paz batchoy, a soup dish of pig entrails, slices of liver, sotanghon noodles, chicharon, and whatever else Ilonggos mix in to the delicious fare. The Ghost Rider left Charley at the Shell Station near the entrance of the La Paz Market for some batchoy, returning a quarter of an hour later to continue the ride, a wide grin nearly splitting his face, pleased with the excellent batchoy. Nothing beats the original, the Ghost Rider observed, as he and Charley left the gasoline station.

    

    

      

     The Iloilo Provincial Capitol

    

    

      

    

     La Paz market, Iloilo - birthplace of batchoy

    

    

    

Charley and the Ghost Rider passed by the La Paz Church on their way to Jaro Church, seat of the Jaro Archbishopric, to which Western Visayas belongs. An imposing structure, the large stone belfry was damaged in 1945 by an earthquake in 1948 and was subsequently restored to its former state. The belfry and the church are separated by the churchyard between, an uncommon church architectural design in the Philippines.    

    

      

    

     La Paz Church, Iloilo

    

    

    

      

     La Paz Plaza, Iloilo

    

    

      

    

     Jaro Cathedral, Iloilo

    

    

    

      

     The Jaro Cathedral belfry

    

    

Apathy is a Shame
Iloilo, Charley and the Ghost Rider found, had much culture and history in its heritage. J.M. Basa Street, formerly known as Calle Real, has examples of Spanish- and American-colonial-style houses. The first Republic Cultural Heritage awardee in Literature was an Ilongga, Magdalena Jalandoni, who was thus honored in 1969, and her residence on Commission Civil Street is a repository of her collected works. The Rosendo Mojica Museum contains valuable memorabilia, among them social and cultural literature in Hiligaynon, English, and Spanish dating back to the 1890s right up to the 1960s. The Balantang Memorial Cemetery is the only military cemetery established outside of Manila, and like many other military cemeteries around the world, it was the site of a bloody battle, that between the Japanese Imperial Army and the Filipino resistance forces led by Col. Macario Peralta, jr, from February 6 to March 20, 1945, the liberation of Iloilo City. Located by the cemetery is a museum of World War II-era equipment, and photographs and situation maps dramatizing the battles that took place. For sportsmen (those quite unlike the Ghost Rider and his extreme sports pals), the oldest golf course in the country is the Santa Barbara Golf Course located 16 kilometers north of the city. Built in 1907, the 18-hole course is all of 37 hectares in area. The Museo Iloilo and Antique Collections houses artifacts of cultural and historical significance. However, the pride of Iloilo, a shopkeeper informed the Ghost Rider, was the Dinagyang, the Iloilo festival held every fourth weekend of January in honor of the Holy Child, where the festivities lack nothing in terms of colorful parades, street dancing, and flamboyant costumes, and the Ilonggo Lantern Festival, held in the entire month of December.

With all the history and culture Iloilo is steeped in, it was with much disappointment with the people of Iloilo that the Ghost Rider saw that there was little or no appreciation for it; more to the point, history and culture were of so little import that a historical site could be demolished and few would care. Case in point: the ruins of Fort San Pedro. The historical marker was screened from general view by a large restaurant/ videoke bar, and the monument itself was filled with obscene scrawlings, vandalism, and pockets of human excrement. Charley and the Ghost Rider left the area disgusted, not by the state of the ruins, but by the people who, by their own hands or by their apathy, contributed to the damage to a historical site.

    

    

      

     Fort San Pedro, Iloilo

    

    

Riding past schools like Assumption College, Charley and the Ghost Rider made to leave the city. Making a quick visit to a carinderia in the Molo district, where appropriately the biker had a snack of pansit molo, the Ghost Rider decided to drive back and make a quick visit to the Molo Church. A Gothic Renaissance church completed in the 1800s, Molo Church is in the center of what was once known as the Parian, or the Chinese community, of La Villa de Arevalo, the original alcaldia of Iloilo. Like many of the churches Charley and the Ghost Rider had ridden by, the Molo Church had a large sign proclaiming its opposition to the Ligtas Buntis program of the government. Smiling ruefully over this clear example of the separation of church and state, the biker left the church, and Charley and the Ghost Rider headed southwest away from the city.

    

    

      

    

     Molo Church, Iloilo

    

    

    

The roads away from the city were pretty good, Charley and the Ghost Rider found, as they wended through the mountainous terrain towards the southwest boundary of Iloilo province. Three churches along the highway caught the biker’s interest: the Tigbauan Church, the Guimbal Church, and the Miag-ao Church.

Behind the rectory of the Tigbauan Church, located 22 kilometers southwest of the capital, was located the first Jesuit school for boys in the Philippines. Built in 1592, the church has a distinctly baroque feel, though the façade shows signs of renovation without regard for its original architecture. The Guimbal Church in the municipality of Guimbal, not much farther away from Tigbauan, is built of yellow sandstone; it seemed to the Ghost Rider that the preservation of the church was something taken seriously by the parish, what with the walls of the church without any sign of replacement by modern building materials, each of the sandstone blocks still whole and solid on the walls and carillon of the church.

    

    

      

     Tigbauan Church, Iloilo

    

    

      

     Guimbal Church, Iloilo

    

    

The Santo Tomas Church in Miag-ao, Iloilo, however, has the good fortune to be protected for posterity, both by local and international organizations. The construction of the church began in 1787 under the auspices of Miag-ao parish priest Fray Francisco Gonzales, OSA, and then-gobernadorcillo Domingo Libo-on, and was completed ten years later, serving as a fortress in the event of Moro raids. Destroyed in 1898 during the Philippine Revolution, it was rebuilt but was again damaged by fire in 1910. A two-year restoration period began in 1960 under the leadership of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Jaro the Most Reverend Dr. Jose Ma. Cuenco, DD, parish priest Monsignor Fernando S. Javillo, DP, and Disocoro Mueda, municipal mayor. Miag-ao Church was declared to be a National Historical Monument in by presidential decree in 1973, and its unique bas-relief façade contributed to its being one of the four Philippine baroque chuches inclusion on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1993 (the other three being the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Intramuros, Manila, the Nuestra Señora in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, and the San Agustin Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte),  at the same cultural footing as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and temples of Angkor, Cambodia. The Ghost Rider was pleased at the state of conservation that the Miag-ao Church had, it was not until much later that he found out that the UNESCO Bureau of the World Heritage Committee itself was gravely concerned over the government activities regarding the state of conservation of the World Heritage Sites in the Philippines, thus tempering his admiration for those in charge of protecting the few remnants of Philippine history not yet ravaged by shortsightedness.

    

    

      

     Miag-ao Church, Iloilo

    

    

Leaving Miag-ao and taking the road past the entrance of the University of the Philippines Miag-ao Campus, Charley and the Ghost Rider knew that it was a race against time to reach their next overnight stop. Avoiding the road to Anini-y, considered the town having among the best beaches in Iloilo and riding uphill to San Joaquin, they did not stop by the San Joaquin Church and its cemetery, to the Ghost Rider’s dismay, and drove past with only a fleeting glimpse of the stone steps up the hill. It was a disappointment to drive by without being able to see the bas-relief of the 1859-built church of the battle between the Spanish and the Moroccan Moors in Tetuan and the hexagonal coral-block chapel of the cemetery built in 1892.

The roads past Miag-ao were fairly good blacktop, but as soon as Charley and the Ghost Rider began to climb San Joaquin, the surface that met them deteriorated to dust and gravel, all the way to the provincial boundary. It was appalling, that the blacktop turned perfect, about 50 meters to the boundary arch, and lasted another 50 meters past it to become once again dust and gravel, but as the Ghost Rider thought, Well, that’s the Philippines for you – roads built to fit press releases that our taxes are at work, the rest lip service; under repair, under rehabilitation or any of the hundred-odd phrases bureaucrats use to mean poor paving, the budget having gone somewhere else. Having been used to traveling bad provincial roads, it was only their slow progress that they worried about, and thus Charley and the Ghost Rider entered the province of Antique.    

    

      

     The view along the road through San Joaquin, Iloilo

    

    

      

     The Iloilo-Antique boundary arch

    

    

Riding into the Sunset
The roads eventually became better as Charley and the Ghost Rider traveled the western coast of Panay Island, on the coastal highway of Antique. Making a quick stop at the Shell station at San Jose de Buenavista, the Ghost Rider worried that there would be no gas stations open at night along the coastal highway (later on his hunch was proven correct), he decided on a full-tank fill-up. The biker planned a hard ride as long as there was daylight, knowing that at night it would be slow going. A fleeting thought entered his mind; a friend had warned him that Panay Island had a pretty large share of insurgency, and for a moment he imagined that his family and friends would read a newspaper article about a biker set upon by the Antiqueño version of the New People’s Army. He shook his head to clear it; the anonymity of his ride and Charley’s speed was their defense against that sort of harm.

Not that there were no stops along the way.

As Charley and the Ghost Rider rode away from San Jose de Buenavista, the sun flared and began to set, a river of gold seeming to form connecting the sea and the sky. Slowing down to for a better view – knowing full well that there was no time to lose – the biker decided to absorb this rare moment of peace, where sea and sky were unsullied by the smog and dirt typical of the metropolis. It was not until the light had turned feeble that the Ghost Rider decided to press on – but not for a moment did he regret his decision.    

    

     Charley at San Jose de Buenavista, Antique

    

    

    

      

     Sunset along the road along the Antique coast

    

    

Darkness Falls
Life in the coastal towns of Antique seemed to be limited to the indoors, the Ghost Rider thought, as he passed town after town with nary a streetlamp in sight nor people along the road. Past the town of Patnongon, where he saw a marker proclaiming it to be the site of the oldest Malay settlement in the Philippines (circa 1200 AD), the biker rode as fast as he dared, wondering if there was any place for a stopover. Seeing a lone signboard along the highway lit by a single fluorescent lamp and needing to marshal his strength, he stopped at a beach resort in Culasi, where it was empty but for the four young men in front of the requisite videoke and another man alone with his Red Horse at the corner. The biker bought a Sprite and spent ten minutes gathering up whatever reserves he had for the ride, starting off immediately.

Upon reaching the crossroads at Pandan, Charley and the Ghost Rider stopped for a checkpoint. The local police were polite – a pleasant surprise for the Ghost Rider, especially after noticing that they were all armed with loaded M-16s and spare clips – and one of them noticed that Charley’s chain was beginning to sag. The helpful officers shone their flashlights as the Ghost Rider made the quick adjustments to the drive chain; the biker could not thank them enough. The officers then offered their advice on the roads; soon, they wished the biker luck on his journey, and after shaking hands the Ghost Rider rode into the last stage of his ride on Panay Island.

The road to Caticlan, Aklan was twisty, alternately uphill and downhill, and with no streetlamps along the way, and the Ghost Rider had to impose on himself the utmost discipline to drive no faster than what was safe for such conditions. After what seemed to be a lifetime of riding through the dark and dismal roads, bright lights from dazzled via the rearview mirrors, and the Ghost Rider felt the onset of panic, wondering if it was an owner-type jeep filled with armed bandits seeking to waylay Charley. Speeding up and eventually losing the “pursuer”, half an hour later while parked near the Caticlan port did the Ghost Rider find out that it was merely an Isuzu X-Trm AUV filled with vacationers on the way to Boracay. Shaking his head ruefully, the Ghost Rider knew for certain that the episode would be comic relief for his friends, and he himself chuckled over his paranoia attack.

At Caticlan, Charley and the Ghost Rider found themselves with no place to spend the night. Chatting with the staff of the 24-hour operation Dokito Frio fried chicken shop in front of the port, the biker found out that most of the local hostels closed before ten o’clock (at which time the Ghost Rider had just arrived), and none were to be found willing to open, tourist season or not. The motor launches to Boracay Island were snug in their berths, none crossing until dawn, and the Ro/Ro out of Caticlan was not due to dock until about 5 AM the next morning. With that, the Ghost Rider sloughed off his gear, and laid them neatly beside Charley, and with a borrowed monoblock chair, the biker took a catnap, his leather jacket a pillow on Charley’s seat.

    

           

     Charley parked in front of Dokito Frio, Caticlan, Aklan

    

    

    

Leaving Panay Island

Wake up call was at 4 AM, and the first order of business was to go to the Coast Guard station for the necessary papers to make the crossing. Getting aboard the M/V Maria Felisa was, as usual, an exercise in patience, but Charley and the Ghost Rider were by now used to the waiting.

The sun broke over Boracay Island just as M/V Maria Felisa left Caticlan. Marveling at the peace of the sunrise and of the sea below and lulled by the thrum of the marine diesels of the vessels, the Ghost Rider found a bench to stretch on for while, the ride north on its next leg, the ride through Panay Island now a memory. (to be continued)

    

    

      

     Sunrise over Boracay Island

Charley Sez: Places to Visit on the Next Ride through Negros Island

Negros Oriental
Spanish Fountain, Valencia
Spanish Fortress Remains, Ayungon
Church of Saint Augustine of Hippo and Pipe Organ, Bacong – completed in 1865, pipe organ installed in 1894
San Antonio de Padua Church, Sibulan
Looc Memorial Shrine, Sibulan
Filipino-American-Japanese Amity Shrine, Valencia
Casaroro Falls, Pulang-Bato Falls, Valencia
San Isidro Hot Springs, Tanjay
Inayawan Falls, Canlaon
Canlaon Volcano, Canlaon
Negros Oriental Marine Conservation Park, Apo Island and Bird Sanctuary, Bais
Beaches in Bais, Siaton, Basay, Manjuyod
Cayaso, Mabinay Caves, Mabinay

Negros Occidental
Church of Saint Joseph, Victorias – with a mural of the “Angry Christ”
Chapel of the Cartwheels, Manapla – constructed of actual cartwheels
Chapel of Santa Clara, Talisay – Virgin Mary mosaic constructed of 95,000 polished shells
Vito Church, Sagay City
Victorias Milling Company and Shay Steam Locomotive, Sagay City
Sulfur springs and waterfalls, Mambucal
Mounts Malapantao, Silay, and Mandalagan
Beaches in Cadiz

Live Free and Ride VI: Charley and the Ghost Rider in Negros Island

Landfall in Sibulan

The sea was choppy and the waves had whitecaps as Charley and the Ghost Rider were about to make landfall in the town of Sibulan, Negros Oriental. The launch was bobbing up and down as they approached the pier, and it took a bit of skilled maneuvering by the master before docking could take place.

    

          

     Approaching Sibulan, Negros Oriental

    

    

      

     Making landfall at Sibulan

    

    

The dockhands in Sibulan were no less enthusiastic than those of Liloan, Santander, Cebu. Taking one look at Charley, much to the dismay of the Ghost Rider, and these rough-and-ready men acted all gallant and gentle, taking her across as they would a newborn child or an island princess. The Ghost Rider expressed his gratitude; to his surprise, the dockhands refused to accept payment more than was due them by the rules of the port.

    

      

     Charley about to disembark from the launch

    

    

Sibulan, the Ghost Rider found out, was the site of the first battlefield encounter in Negros Oriental, between the Japanese Imperial Army and several groups of Filipino guerrilla fighters who joined forces against them on October 11, 1942. The Looc Memorial Shrine was erected in memory of those who died in battle on that day.

Getting his bearings, the Ghost Rider found that he was not far from his next destination, and the roads were excellent. Upon reaching the Shell station before the Dumaguete Airport, his first job was to find a tap and rinse Charley off, as seawater has the nasty ability to corrode her metal parts if left to crust on her. The Shell station, the Ghost Rider found, was clean and well-equipped, something the Ghost Rider found a pleasant surprise, as many of the filling stations he had seen on this ride were messy and badly-kept. The Ghost Rider parked by the hose at the far end, and Charley got her shower.

While waiting for his ride to dry off, the Ghost Rider got a snack from the Shell Select convenience store to restore his energy levels. Watching the traffic, he noticed that two-wheeled transport seemed to outnumber four-wheelers at least four-to-one; also. passenger transport was not the ubiquitous jeepney from up north, and the local king of the road was the diminutive multicab. While he was memorizing the routes marked on the map, four rides parked at the convenience store, two of them Sinski scooters each ridden solo, one an old 125 cc dirt bike with two riders, the fourth a Honda Wave with three. The party of seven cheerfully entered the Select store, and came out each with an ice cream cone. Two of them started a conversation with the Ghost Rider, asking about how far he had ridden from, and were both shocked and amazed by his answer. The rest of the group joined in the conversation, and offered suggestions and advice on the roads the Ghost Rider intended to take. One of them joked that the only reason one would ride so far was to forget some girl; the Ghost Rider joked back, yeah, she looks exactly like you, pretty, but taller and with short hair, not long, the jibe much to the amusement of the others. Thirty minutes and four cellphone numbers later, the Ghost Rider bade farewell to the friendly and helpful Negrenses, and rode ahead and soon thereafter entered the plaza of Dumaguete.

Southern Charm, Northerner Charmed

It is no great exaggeration to say that the Ghost Rider fell in love with the island during his initial acquaintanceship with Negros. The name of the island can be traced back through historical accounts, originally known as Buglas by the Negritos, Malays, and Chinese who long settled the island. After Miguel Lopez de Legaspi of Cebu dropped anchor in Bohol in 1565, he sent to reconnoiter the adjacent islands, who reported seeing dark-skinned inhabitants in Buglas, leading them to call it Negros. In 1671, Legazpi partitioned off the island into thirteen encomiendas, with the Augustinians beginning proselytizing the next year; the island was made into a corregimento in 1734, with Ilog as the capital. In 1795, the island was made into an alacaldia, with Himamaylan as the capital. In 1865, Negros became a politico-military province, under Don Emilio Saravia y Nuñez as the gorvernor, his capital in Bacolod. Due to the difficulties in the administration of the island, the Recollect priests petitioned for the partitioning of the Negros, and in around 1869, Governor General Valeriano Weyler executed a Royal Decree partitioning Negros into  the separate politico-military units of Negros Occidental in the west and Negros Oriental in the southeast, with Dumaguete as the capital of Negros Oriental.

It is also no great exaggeration to say that the Ghost Rider also fell in love with the Visayan college town, with its laid-back atmosphere, friendly residents, and clean, cozy beachfront bars and coffeeshops. Dumaguete is the home of Silliman University, the first Protestant university in the Philippines, founded on August 28, 1901, by Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard and Laura Crooks Hibbard originally as an elementary school for boys. A 35-hectare sprawl, the campus contains buildings of American colonial design, many of which served as administrative and penal facilities during the Japanese occupation, among them Guy Hall, Channon Hall, Oriental Hall, and Occidental Hall. The campus also serves as a bird sanctuary, and the university also spearheads the wildlife and marine conservation efforts of the province, through the work of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory and the Silliman University Center for Tropical Studies. The Apo Island Marine Sanctuary is among the numerous sites under Silliman University’s sway, and is also a dive site famous for its plethora of marine life, not least among them giant clams, nudibranchs of colors across the spectrum, and tropical fish that, thankfully, flourish under the protection of the marine sanctuary.

Passing by Silliman University, Charley and the Ghost Rider had a glimpse of Jose Rizal Boulevard. The Boulevard, as it is known to the local populace, is the showplace of Dumaguete, with its tree-lined avenue with numerous cafes and bars having a breathtaking view of the sea. The Ghost Rider thought the Boulevard to be the perfect place for early evening coffee, and regretted that he had not the chance to see the Boulevard at night.

Along the route Charley and the Ghost Rider was taking was the Dumaguete Cathedral and Belfry. The Dumaguete Cathedral is the oldest stone church on Negros Island, and the belfry, built in 1811, is believed to have served as a lookout tower to warn the townspeople of pirate raids. It was restored in 1985 and a skirting garden was designed around it.

To the Ghost Rider’s dismay, he could not have entered Silliman University, as it was a closed campus, so the biker decided to just drive past and find locales of equal historical and cultural note. He was not disappointed; upon arriving at the Benigno Aquino Freedom Park, he learned that the park is the center of Negros Oriental’s annual Buglasan Festival. The Provincial Capitol, with its commanding view of the Freedom Park, has an architecture obviously American and style.

    

      

     Freedom Park, Dumaguete, Negros Oriental

    

     

    

    

     Another view of the Freedom Park

    

     

    

    

      

     The Freedom Park grandstand, center of the Buglasan Festival

    

     

    

      

     The Provincial Capitol of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete

    

    

Driving out of Dumaguete, Charley and the Ghost Rider entered Bais, a place whose beaches are the jump-off point for Bais Bay and Tañon Strait dolphin and whale watching, sightings especially of the pygmy sperm whale common between May and December, and of the Bais/Manjuyod Sandbar, where in low tide beachcombers can stroll and look like they walk on water. However, Bais’ claim to fame is the Central Azucarera de Bais, established in 1918 by Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas SA, or Tabacalera, as the first sugar mill in the country, and has on display turn-of-the-century steam locomotives used to haul sugarcane and bagasse. The air smelled heavily of molasses as Charley and the Ghost Rider rode by fields under harvest, trucks heavily laden with cane, and mills busy refining sugar, and the scent stayed with them until long after the right turn out of Bais proper, riding out into the mountains.

    

    

      

    

     Sugar mill along the road through Bais, Negros Oriental

    

    

    

    

Through the Negros Mountains

It was while riding in Negros that Charley and the Ghost Rider were introduced to the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, its name an obvious reference to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s vision of the Philippines.

The Ghost Rider later found himself particularly unimpressed. If the roads were any reflection of her vision, then there was no consistency in its execution, and everything was done for cosmetic value and praise releases – which, the Ghost Rider thought, was an affliction of many politicians in the Philippines.

    

    

     The road to Mabinay, Negros Oriental was not steep, but it was all uphill (no problem for a toughie like Charley)

    

    

    

      

     Looking down fifteen minutes later...

    

    

Most of the road surface through Mabinay was well-maintained and well-graded, but this did not hold true for the whole route, Charley and the Ghost Rider found. They had survived the appalling roads of Eastern Visayas, through potholes within potholes and broken pavement reminiscent of purposeless jackhammer action, but it was on this ride that they found skill and presence of mind to be critical to safety. The route through the center of Negros Island was alternately dreamlike and horrific, with bad patches in the most unexpected of places. At one point, the Ghost Rider was forced to pass a large cane-bearing truck whose axle failed, right in the center of the uphill blind curve.

Though towns along the route are relatively isolated, there is much to see and visit if one has the time. The Cayaso and Mabinay Caves, for instance, are among the natural wonders in the area; the Cayaso Cave has an underground river in the midst of a three-kilometer long, six feet wide subterranean passageway, with its different chambers of stalactites and stalagmites. The Mabinay Caves is a warren of 32 major and minor caves identified by a Dutch-Belgian  expedition in 1990, with its own underground river and limestone formations. Among the Mabinay Caves, Pandalihan Cave is known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations and is accessible by foot, as is the Panligawan Cave, while the Odloman Cave is said to be one of the longest in the country. The Ghost Rider learned that spelunking expeditions can be arranged through the Tirambulo Highland Resort in Mabinay.
Pasaka-an Spring is another of Mabinay’s well-kept secrets. A spring-fed lake in the middle of a forested area, the locals enjoy its calm through picnics and swimming parties. The Ghost Rider remarked later on that he hoped that the swimmers took clean showers before jumping in, as the Pasaka-an Spring is also the source of potable water in the area.

As soon as the roads began to lead downhill, the Charley and the Ghost Rider began to feel better. The roads were fine all the way to Kabankalan and past the town; Himamaylan’s roads were just as good, however, the race was not against bad roads but against time. Getting Charley’s tank filled at Himamaylan at what the Ghost Rider presumed to be the last Petron station for a long part of the next leg, they prepared to ride as fast as was allowed without stopping. The gasoline station attendants warned the Ghost Rider about the highway through Binalbagan, Hinigaran, Pontevedra, San Enrique, Valladolid, and Pulupandan, which they claimed were fraught with lawless elements, and the nearest available response could be found at Bago; the Ghost Rider answered, if help could be found that far, then the only recourse would be to ride faster than whoever was pursuing. The gasoline station attendants agreed that such was the only option.

    

    

    

      

     What goes up must fly down (Charley downhill towards Kabankalan, Negros Occidental)

    

    

    

    

      

     Charley nearly zoomed past the Himamaylan Church in the race to Bacolod, Negros Occidental

    

    

    

    

    

      

     Charley at the Himamaylan Church, Negros Occidental

    

    

    

    

The Ghost