The Surigao Adventure
Eli tells me that he wanted to go along with his friends to Lanuza, Surigao for the surf competition. We both had no idea what to expect. We just packed a week’s worth of clothing.
November 15, 2008
12 of us get on a huge pumpboat for a 20 hour ride to Lanuza, Surigao from Cebu. We left Cebu at around 7.30PM. No electricity, no reclining seats, no beds, no comfort lounges. Just hard wood for sitting and sleeping on, tarpaulin to protect us from rain and wind, jackets, blankets and Tanduay to keep as warm, dutchie to pass around, a firewood burner to cook our food and the big pumpboat to take us from point A to point B. At around 9PM we were rained on heavily but luckily, we had more tarpaulin to protect our bags and reinforce our shelter. The boys were braving the rain and wind to secure more covering it felt like we were hardcore fishermen or pirates in movies when they shout at the top of their lungs to get their messages across. Since we had no electricity, we had to rely on battery operated lamps for some light. You know there’s at least 9 more hours you have to spend in the darkness, at least 20 more hours on an unpredictable weather, and the unforgiving ocean. I told Eli that it was the kind of adveture I’d gladly pay for.
November 16, 2008
At around midnight the sky was in all its glory. The stars were all out it makes you want to cry. You can’t see that many stars in the city when the sky is blocked by the smog. Eli and I were making out constellations. There was not a cloud in the sky you could make up a computer matrix out of the stars. Afuckingmazing.
We fell asleep at almost 3AM and woke up at around 9AM. Storytelling, eating, sightseeing and more sleeping the rest of the day and we arrived Lanuza at around 6PM. Problem: The waves are too strong for the boat to come into shore.
Trial and Error: Use the smaller pumboat to bring us into shore.
Result: Smaller pumpboat was swallowed by a wave and capsizes.
Solution: Let the surfers ride the waves on their board to shore to find a local with a paddle boat because a paddle boat can better be controlled in big waves. Like kayaking.
It’s dark now. We can’t even see the shore anymore. Just a few yellow lights coming from the houses. We even thought we had to spend another night on the boat because there aren’t any paddle boats yet, and it’s too dark. We cooked some oats because we were getting really hungry. Soon, the paddle boat came and though we were all brought safely to shore, the paddle boat was a little adventure on itself. Seeing what happened to the pumpboat earlier that got capsized, I wanted to hold my breath and never make any movemements. The locals who paddled know their shit. I thought they would just leisurely paddle to shore. Uh-uh. You have got to have timing. The wave breaks and it could swallow up your boat. We had to wait for a three waves to come in before they paddled like crazy to catch up with the speed the 4th wave so we could be pushed to the shore.
We were supposed to stay at Rob the tripper’s place. But where is he? His phone is dead. Luckily Aileen, a local with an Aussie hubby who also surfs happens to be there on the shore when we arrived. She invited us to stay in her house for the night. We meet her husband Jeff who is a surfer too, and they seem glad to have us around, maybe because there aren’t a lot of visitors there and Jeff is glad to be in the company of fellow surfers. Oh, and they have a huge beautiful beach house with a really nice garden. We retired early that night. Eli bought 2 hammocks from Juan who owns Driftwood Enterprise. I slept on my hammock for one week and I loved my hammock.
Rob arrived later in the evening but we decided to stay at Jeff’s place for the night and transfer to Rob’s the next day.
November 17, 2008
We ride a jeepney to Rob’s place and I got to ride on the roof. You can’t do that in the city and hell I ain’t passing this chance to ride on the jeepney’s roof.
The rest of the week we just totally chilled out and detached ourselves from the rest of the world. We got to relive the days when boiling water takes almost an hour because we still had to gather firewood, start fire, and keep the fire burning by blowing or fanning it. I loved it. So basic, so primal.
Rob’s house is right on the shore and the waves were big. When you sleep at night, it’s not the calming sound of waves that you hear… it’s the drumlike sound of the big waves and the crashing sound when they crash into the rocks. Sometimes it makes you afraid. Sometimes, it makes you feel a wave will engulf the whole house. Surfers come to this place during this time of the year because the waves are big. They’re big they almost drowned me. I kid you not. And I even know how to swim. But I had been used to calm beaches. I had not experienced rough and big waves before, but they’re Eli’s cup of tea. If Eli had not been there, I am convinced I’d have been dead now. I panicked so much I felt I wanted to bawl and cry while swimming to shore for my life. It’s not like you can just walk out as soon as you touch the sea floor. The waves will swallow you and drag you back to the sea. But that didn’t stop me. The next day, I went back in but this time, with a body surf board, and I learned to paddle myself to the sea.
We went back to Cebu by passenger boat this time on November 23rd. I miss Surigao.
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