What can you do when the sea is so mean to you?

Nothing.. there's nothing you can do when you're in the middle of the sea while its huge waves are hitting you and your boat.  There's nothing you can do but to hold tight and pray that everyone lands safely.  

This is the story of our trip from the Calaguas Island -- we left the island as early as 11am because we have a loooong journey going back home; 10 hours including the boat ride.  The sun was scorching hot on the first hour of crossing the sea, but it rained really hard which resulted the huge waves.  We didn't expect that or maybe the boatmen did, that's why they were in a bit hurry to get us back to the mainland.  

I was so terrified that time that I already accepted our fate and promised to myself that that will never ever ever happen again if we survived.  I think we're still lucky that nothing more happened aside from the huge waves; no whirlwind, we weren't hit by a thunder, and no huge whale to ruin our struggling boat.  

Our boat was a bit huge, it's quite huge actually for 6 passengers, and we thought to ourselves that we're lucky, not knowing that a few more people could have been a huge help to balance it.  You see, while we were being hit by this angry sea, there's this huge possibility that our boat flip, turn upside down and leave us struggling for our lives.

We were sharing the boat with this small family; they were from the nearby province, I think Sorsogon or something, and like us, they also love traveling.  So while I was thinking about death during those times, I was trying to distract myself and talked to them instead, and shared our experiences and what we're experiencing that time.  

We didn't have life vests, one of the boatmen said we don't need it, only the kid had it because his dad insisted.. we could have done the same, that could have lessen our worries.  But he's so confident that nothing bad will happen, despite what was happening.  

Our engine died, I think twice, during the storm, and there was a scene where they were cupping water out of the bottom part of the boat where the engine was.  That added to my fear to die in the middle of the sea, being fed to the sharks and/or piranhas even though I don't think we have those in the Philippines.

After an hour more of raining, of wave hitting, of praying, we reached the land.  It was like, we've been traveling for weeks and months searching for something to land on.. somewhere peaceful.  We were all wet, but we were able to protect our bags and our gadgets.  That could have been so terrible if we don't get to show the beauty of the paradise which gave us this unforgettable, death-defying souvenir of all.

Calaguas Island

Calaguas Island

Calaguas Island

Calaguas Island

Calaguas Island

sunset at Calaguas



Travel Tuesday