Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Batanes Escapades!

Hello everyone!  I had an unplanned travel weeks ago.  My superior tasked me to go to the Division of Batanes to orient Grade 2 participants on their contextualization after her conflict of schedule.

Being the focal person for Grade 2 learning resources, I accepted the responsibility and booked my flight to Basco, Batanes.  Yey!

However, my journey was not all "beds of roses" as I was booked at 6:45 a.m. at Clark International Airport (miles and miles away from my place) so I had to travel from Binondo, Manila to Pampanga a day before my scheduled flight.  Compared to NAIA terminals, Clark airport is smaller in size and space.  It has had reasonable benches but cannot accommodate a huge influx of international and local travelers. I was sleepless for the entire evening.

At 4:00 a.m., passengers began to form a line to their carrier so I rushed to PAL desks to check-in and to avoid a long queue of tourists.  I learned that transactions on the above-mentioned airport start at that time.  After that, I proceeded to another room and paid my terminal fees and the rest was easy.

The trip would be my first travel to Batanes and I got so excited, maybe because of the great feedback from my colleagues who previously been there.  So I formed an impression to my mind that as soon as I was done with the orientation I would give and during free time I would visit places they kept on sharing with me, but with whom?

So, my friends, I will not discuss how things during the contextualization go through day 1 but of my escapades in going to various places in Basco, Batanes.

Lucky enough, Dr. Romel Costales (DepEd Region 2 supervisor)  had the same plan of traversing to similar places discussed by my colleagues.

In our itinerary, Sabtang Island will be the first place to be visited.  So the very early morning of day 2,  we went to the port and waited for the boat that will bring us to the island.  While waiting, we grabbed the opportunity to visit the famous Honesty Store which was only a stone-throw away from the port.  I felt so amazed to see that place that even though there was no storekeeper the transactions were business as usual.  What struck me most during that short visit was these words written on the table, "This store is too little for dishonest people."  Amazing!

OMG, I will cut short my storytelling due to urgent tasks I will be attending.  But don't worry, I will be attaching some pictures.  Please enjoy the pics.