cebu biking |

15 May 2012

Liloan Lighthouse and Beach Kayaking

Charlie: Last May 5 I finally convinced Yannie for only the second time ever to join me on a bike ride. Of course I had to throw in a lot of sweeteners to convince her to bike with me, like making our destination the crystal blue waters of a beach and promising to let her use my own bike.

Our ride started out very early in the morning some just before the sun could paint the sky entirely blue. Our primary destination was the Lilo-an Lighthouse, some 24 kilometers away and after that, find a beach to cool off. Everything went smoothly, the morning chill lovely to the bones.

After about an hour of riding and 1 bike crash in the middle of the road later we arrived at the Lilo-an Lighthouse or Parola as what the we liked to call it.

I could’ve sworn that the lighthouse was much bigger the last time I visited it. Hmmm… I hastily concluded that maybe we had slipped into a multidimensional portal when we crashed our bikes and transported ourselves into the land of Lilliput by accident.

Thankfully, Yannie pointed that the real lighthouse was right over there.

Much relieved that my hastily concluded hypothesis was wrong, I took more pictures of the lighthouse. After that we proceeded to find some chow and a place to dip our feet on some refreshing beach water.

Yannie: It was past 9:00am when we thought we’ve finally found our refuge, the beach! Yes, but it was not the total comfort that I had anticipated. Imagine this: Outstretched on the cream-colored sandy shore were clusters of crowded tables and chairs with a thick number of flocking beach-goers. The sea was brimming with swimmers and kayakers blissfully oblivious to the hot spell above the ground. The water was graying on the near side while bluish farther on with a scattering of seaweeds here and there. Karaoke sound was blaring at full volume from side to side. It was ear-splitting. But I had no time to whine about it nor did I want to march out and scout for another place. Although the place wasn’t so perfect in terms of relaxation but it’s perky and decent enough as we were on a shoestring budget. Also, I felt tired and hungry to say the least.

By favorable chance, we were seated to a modest spot amidst the clamor . We instantly pigged-out on our food and loosened up a bit afterwards. As the moments soaked by I observed a lot of peddlers rushing in and out of the resort. It was amusing how they make their table-to-table sales pitch like it was a big day for business. With so much activities and buzzing people around, it was indeed!

a woman with her bucketful of ice cream bar*a man selling green mangoes* another woman with who-knows-what-she-is-selling* another man puffing a cigarette selling taho* an ungendered person selling summer shorts and dresses!

my personal favorite was this man and his playfully chromatic lifebouys, which any child would dote on.

The liveliness of the surrounding was so contagious that you’d look obnoxious and out-of-place if you just sit and watch around. Yet after feasting on our brunch, the water became more somber for it was already swarmed—with people and seaweeds.

Suitably, a few minutes later, I found a subtle solution! To go kayaking! The trick was to propel far off the sea, that way we could swim to our satisfaction, hassle-free. So we rented 2 single kayaks, for racing sake. I was so stoked since it was my first sea kayaking experience. The race hasn’t even started when Charlie tipped over just after his first paddle, capsized all the way. I was sure I saw some kids laughing at him, 😀 Certain I was on a winning notch in the race then. It was so exhilarating that all the piercing muscle pain that i felt had gone even before i realized it. Oh wait, i haven’t told you the best part yet, we paid the 2 rental kayaks at a bargain price of only 100 pesos/hour!

Charlie: After our fun in the sun Yannie took a nap while a whiled away my time counting coconuts and ants. When it was time to go we biked back on the same road. Tired as we were, we had to stop over to take a picture of the glorious sunset