The trip to Puerto Galera was amazing! It started around 4 in the morning. I woke up to head out with the Jeepney magazine crew at 4:30 this morning. Our goal was to get to our destination around 8:30, but we had a few problems on the way that led us getting here around 10:45 instead.
We all hopped into the car around 5:00 because the vehicle we were going to use was not there. We were able to grab another vehicle from our contact, Jeff Long. So we hopped in and we were off. We had some trouble finding the road we needed at first but we gave a shout out to some people along the road and found what we wanted. We managed to make it to the expressway and about 30 minutes down the road the car started loosing power, so we pulled into a shell station to check out the engine. We turned off the car and checked everything out. It seemed to be fine, but when we went to start the car, nothing happened. It was completely dead! There was no mechanic around, and we had no tools, and no bus to hop on to. 20 minutes later we called Jeff to see what he could do.
It was now about 6:30 in the morning so we were getting desperate. We wanted to make good time. We decided to try to jump start the car and see what happens. Well what happened was, it started! So we let it run for a bit and shut it off to see if it would start on itÕs own, and it did. So we decided to try to make it the rest of the way which was another 1 hour ride. We really wanted to try to make the 8:00 boat to the Island we were going to so we had no other choice to hop in and go.
Well we made it. It was 7:50 when we got there so we ran to the ticket counter and got tickets for us all and ran inside to jump on the boat. We made it with about 20 minutes to spare. After a quick peanut butter sandwich, we were called to hop on the boat. At first we werenÕt sure if it was our boat, but they confirmed it with us. So we were off! It was a sweet boat. Looks like one of those boats from the discovery channel. It had some bamboo things sticking out each side to keep the boat from rolling.
We got to the first destination at White Beach, Puerto Galera where we had to drop off the first set of people. We then started to move on but they we going in the wrong direction! Luckily we had translators to talk to them and let them know we needed to go West of the Island to get to Bamboo House Beach. We were a bit confused, and so were they. They told us that the boat was too big to go over to that area because it was too shallow, so we had to get out where we dropped off the first set of people and take some trikes north. So we jumped off the boat and jumped on some trikes and headed north.
We told them we were going to Bamboo House Beach, and they took us to a Bamboo House Beach, but it wasnÕt the right one. Apparently there are two of these. So we continued west and did end up finding the right one. They stopped when the road ended and told us we would have to walk the rest of the way. But that was ok because it wasnÕt too far of a walk. We finally made it to our destination and it was beautiful. We needed to check in to the place and eat lunch before we started our work in the mountain village. Overall, it was an awesome travel experience. And tomorrow we get to do it all over again but in reverse.
I love how God is putting me in places that I never dreamed I would be in. I am so glad to be able to do this with Jeepney Magazine and am so glad they invited me along. This is turning out to be some of the best experiences on the race yet.
IÕll update you with some photos and details of what we did in the village in the next blog.
