defy gravity!

i almost threw a hissy fit when we arrived at the San Carlos City pier.

“Mao pa gyuy pag larga sa barko,” the trisikad driver triumphantly informs. and just in case my dismay wasn’t apparent behind the Versace bug-eyes, he pauses and underscores the alacks and alases with: “Makit-an pa gani nimo ang lobot pag liko o!” it was a minute after four.

we sped off to Guihulngan, a good hour away to catch the 5:15. busoy, wenwen’s twin brother was already waiting for us at the Toledo pier, and i had to call him to meet us at the Tangil pier in Dumanjug instead. i hate inconveniencing other people, knowing that he had to travel further to the other pier, negotiating some rough territory in Aloguinsan. i was silent for the full hour, which hung heavily in the car. a silent jude is not a happy jude.

“There’s the boat,” Michael echoes the triumph in the trisikad man’s voice. we made it in good time, and i breathed a sigh of relief that came out in a sentence: “I would have killed you if we hadn’t made it.” but i was already smiling. i would have loved to have gone to Dumaguete to catch the midnight boat to Cebu, if it wasn’t for busoy on the other side. maybe next time, eh?

“Oh, no…not airconditioned,” I sighed as we made our way to the 2nd tier of the ferry. i was all set to go on bitch mode again when the lady with the apple mangoes sped past. Ay,kalami! i bit into the salted raw mango and grimaced in delight…this was heaven! shrugging off my gloom, i quickly surveyed the, ahem, snack bar and took in my favorite chips: taquitos! I was saved. little did i know that the silver lining behind all this hassle was still to come.

a few minutes into the trip, i tell Jesse Glova (my makeup artist) that if it was morning, and given the glassy sea, there would have been dolphins along the Tanon strait. he nods, expecting nothing…and moves to take a leak when, suddenly, out of the still water…a head bobs! then two,then four…dolphins! i scream for him to come back as the passengers are enthralled by a single dolphin that jumps, twists, and swims beside the boat for a good 10 minutes. the family travels with us halfway to Cebu.

“Di na sila musulod ug Cebu kay hugaw naman ang tubig,” Jesse jokes. but there might be some truth in that. as soon as we come close to the Tangil pier, flotsam and jetsam of a sinister kind greet us: plastic bottles and all sorts of nonbiodegradable packaging. the biologist in me shuddered.

but the treat was A treat. i had to travel to Palawan to see dolphins in the wild when they travel alongside inter-island vessels a few kilometers from home all the time.

hissy fits just seem so unecessary when the sun sets on Canlaon volcano behind you, hiding behind muted red clouds, the glassy sea broken in places by a dolphin showing his stuff beside you. and singing bahasa songs, we lull ourselves into seeing the silver linings.

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