Thursday, March 17, 2005
Sienes: Jojie Alcantara's travelogues
By Cris G. SienesDifferent Strokes
NOW that I've retired from the government service and am missing all my travel and all the beautiful places I visited, I'm beginning to appreciate and enjoy Jojie Alcantara's travelogues. For of late Jojie has been writing about places that I visited yearly when I was still with government. Reading her travelogues evoke a montage of memories, all of them roseate and pleasant. For instance, Jojie recently wrote about Hinatuan town in Surigao del Sur and of the enchanted Hinatuan River. Hinatuan I visited every year before the devolution because we had a DSWD municipal branch office there.
Like Jojie I also sampled the cool and inviting waters of Hinatuan River. Nobody, however, not even our kind hosts, former DSWD co-employee Lily Balbuena and had husband, Jess, told us that Hinatuan River is enchanted. But if old folks in Hinatuan say that the river is enchanted, then it is enchanted. I don't want to break the spell of enchantment woven over them. Off Hinatuan town are two small islands where the Balbuenas always took up for a swim or for a picnic on weekends during our yearly visits there. The Balbuenas owned a pumpboat, so it was so easy for us to go island hopping or visit barangays across the sea from Hinatuan. The small island nearest to Hinatuan is rich with queer shells and big pear-shaped sea cucumbers, which, we were told, when dried and treated, are Chinese delicacies.
We gathered a boatful of shells and sea cucumbers while frolicking at the island once. The farther of the two islands, about 45 minutes by pumpboat from Hinatuan, is called Fisherman's Island. The Balbuenas own the island, which is a gem of an island. The entrance to the island is like a small cove where the waters are not so deep and are so crystal-clear that you could actually see the strange and exciting world below. There were big wooden rafts floating at the cove then. Standing on those rafts, you could clearly see schools of different species of fish frolicking below. And, if you wanted to fish, you could actually see the fish nibble at your bait, so that you would know when to hook them. A small boy, the son of a DSWD co-employee who was with us during one of our visits to the island, tried fishing.
He was rewarded with a rich haul of katambak and deep-sea bugaong. But since it was the thrill of fishing that the boy craved for and not the fish, he left his catch with the people in the island. Fisherman's Island I can never forget. Returning to Hinatuan after feasting on lechon and other delicacies brought by the Balbuenas, the skies suddenly darkened, the winds rose and blew hard, and the waves rose to frightening heights. Buffeted by the huge waves, our small pumpboat was being tossed like cork in the open sea. I thought we were all goners. But the man operating the pumpboat knew how to ride with the waves, so we made it safely back to Hinatuan. Jojie also wrote about Bislig City and Tinuy-an Falls.
I also visited Bislig yearly and also beheld the beauty of Tinuy-an Falls. But what I cannot forget about Bislig City was our DSWD dormitory there. Built on what was formerly a hospital morgue, many strange things happened at the dormitory at night, so we were told by guests and officemates who had slept at the dormitory. Chains being dragged along the hallway, slippers walking by themselves, a fierce-looking black lady that appeared past midnight near the comfort rooms, unseen beings taking a bath in the bathrooms at night, and many other horrifying tales. But we found a way to beat all the ghosts in our dormitory, if indeed there were ghosts there. We made it a point to get drunk before we retired for the night. And we did not sleep in our rooms but in the sala with all the lights on. No ghosts would dare haunt drunks snoring loudly with all the lights ablaze. Joji also mentioned that very beautiful cove in Marihatag. That cove I also visited. In fact, during a break from one of our travels for the Office of the President for Mindanao, I actually took a dip there with co-workers.
I wonder if Jojie has visited the blue lagoon in Cantilan, also in Surigao del Sur, or Hayanggabon near the boundary between Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur. There's an eatery there in a sleepy lagoon which offers freshly caught fish for kinilaw or sinugba. A few meters beyond, standing like a sentinel at the entrance of the lagoon, is a gem of an island, with cream-colored sand and tall coconut trees swaying in the breeze. From the eatery the island looks like an oversized pizza pie. Like I said, now that I've retired from the government service, I'm missing all the fair and beautiful places that I visited. But thanks to Jojie's travelogues, the memories of my visit to some of those places remain. Point to ponder: "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." (Robert Louis Stevenson: Virginibus Puerisque, El Dorado)
