I woke up reluctantly today.

Last night I enjoyed a pizza dinner on White Beach with Erik T. It had been drizzling all day and really quite cool. In my tank top and shorts I was shivering, but most of the tourists fresh off the plane were comfortable in eveningware of bikinis and small shorts. Brr. Lucky for Erik he brought a coat; mine was gathering dust from lack of use back in my hut.
Around 9pm we bid one another adieu and he found his way to an internet connection while I shuffled the 4km back to my resort. With a thin mist filing the air, I rounded the limestone cliff from White Beach and could see the lights on the high coast ahead on Diniwid beach. It had stuck me on previous nights, but the way the lights glowed in the foggy drizzle reminded me of a scene from the illustrated storybook, The Polar Express. When they finally see the North Pole after their long voyage. The resort perched on the high coastal cliff was neatly decorated in white christmas lights and gave off a real polar christmas feel. I scurried through the darkness, past the palm leave umbrellas, under the lit archway and stumbled into my hut. I turned on the light and was just about set to unfoldmyself into bed when I noticed the drip, and the puddle. The roof of my nipa hut, a traditional building made of bamboo strips and palm leaf, was not as impermeable as I had previously thought. I was a bit irritated with this, as it added to the stresses that Mika's had already put on my life in paradise; the water pipe had burst the day before leaving my comfort room dry as a bone.
I sought out Bernie, the owner, who, after some time, came down and semi-reluctantly agreed to move me to the adjacent hut. I packed my things and waited for the filipino chambermaid, who didn't much like me, to make the room up. I discovered later that this hut was far superior; the bed was longer, the mosquito net hung higher, and the mattress was more comfortable. This only made me more irritated.
I woke up to my alarm at 7, but hit the snooze button so many times that it was after 8 when I got up. I finished packing and headed out to pay. Bit of an addition/subtraction ordeal with this girl-who-didn't-like-me-much, then I was off. I paid 2600p for four nights, four breakfasts, and two meals. I trudged heavily along the beach, the sand giving way to my exceptional weight, until I found an offer of All-You-Can-Eat scrambled eggs and fruit. I did this, then further towards the Boat Station. I passed the filipino girl, her sister, and her sister's boyfriend from two nights previous in Summer Place; had a brief exchange.
I docked in Caticlan just as the rain began to really fall. Darn weather. Supposed to be hot hot hot and sunny, not 24C and rainy. I found a minivan bound for Iloilo and found two others waiting inside. They turned out to be a Canadian couple on holiday visiting the wife's family. He was a postal worker with 35years under his belt and an annual 8 weeks of holidays; this was his first holiday overseas and had been his first time on a plane. What a place to come for a virgin tourist! Needless to say he was a bit shocked with everything, but was in good spirits. An Italian guy, Ranato, would join the three of us, and we four would sit for almost twenty minutes waiting for more passengers. Finally, exasperated, the Filipino wife called her brother-in-law and he showed up with his minivan. The Torontonians agreed to charter the van and charge Ranato and I the same fare as the other minivan (250p). Off we went. This seemed attractive at first, but the ride would be quite trecherous. Luckily we would all, including the driver, be entertained by Karaoke and VCDs on the 12 inch LCD screen mounted in the dashboard. I am 100% certain that this entertainment blocked the drivers view, and probably distracted him a great deal as well. Especially when selecting Karaoke tracks...
The roads are shitty in the Philippines, and the highway circling Panay Island is no exception. Gravel ruts, broken cement, potholes in the asphalt, cows, chickens, dogs, goats, children, vendors, jeepneys, tricycles. These all aspired to slow us down. Still, we flew at incredible speeds that only increased the effects of the bumps.
We slowed as we passed a group of about 10 elementary school boys playing basketball with a flat ball on a court only a few feet across. More like keep away, as they couldn't dribble.
We reached Iloilo around 5:30 and were dropped off at the SM Megamall. I left my bag with Ranato and found out inside that the ferry to Cebu, which I had set my heart on taking, left at 6. It was 5:52 at the time. Shit!
We would have to spend the night here in this run of the mill city. Not much here in Iloilo. internet, I guess. I'll have to find something to do until tomorrow at 6pm...