Whirling in Liloan

Death is both a sad and fun experience. Sad, because we lose a loved one. But a death of a loved one may also be an instrument for the reunion of long lost relatives and friends.

My Auntie from Liloan, Leyte died three days before my father's 10th death anniversary and the beginning of the Holy Week. We, then scheduled our trip for Holy Wednesday to Black Saturday.

Since it was Holy Week, we were not sure of the schedule for Public Utility Transport. We decided to take my sister's car. And off we went.

We started early--four o'clock in the morning.

We had an early start. We caught the sunrise on the way. 

We stopped for gasoline and went on our way. By 8 o'clock, we reached San Francisco, Agusan del Sur and stopped at Jollibee (yeah, where else?) for breakfast. We traveled non-stop until Surigao City, where we had our lunch at Gaisano Grand at a little over 11 o'clock in the morning. Because the schedule for the Lipata-Liloan ferry was still at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we decided to go to my cousins' so we could travel to Liloan together.

We reached Port of Lipata at 3:45 pm.

The Port was practically empty.

We needed to process some papers, yet. I was a bit irritated that the personnel would not yet process the papers because the RoRo (Roll on Roll off) had not yet arrived. And we could not enter the passengers' lounge unless we had the necessary papers. The RoRo arrived at around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. When they finally began working with our papers, there were already a number of passengers in line.

Inside the passengers' lounge were souvenir items for sale.

 My sister almost got us the wrong ticket. We took the line for the wrong RoRo.

There were two ways to reach Liloan: the first was via Benit Port, which would take only approximately an hour and a half sea travel and another hour land travel to Liloan; and the second was straight to Lilioan Port, which would take us three and a half hours sea travel. The first was time- and money-saving; and the second was more time-consuming and more costly. Anticipating our late arrival, and our unfamiliarity of the way; and heeding our cousins' warning that the road was very challenging even during day time, we opted for the ferry that would take us directly to Liloan Port. If we had taken a Public Utility Bus, we might not have minded the first option since bus drivers would know the way like the back of their hands.

Our RoRo departed at 6:30 in the evening, and we arrived at Liloan at around 10 in the evening.

The next day, my cousin, recognizing that it was our first time and possibly the last time, invited us to a beautiful spot there. We drove for about an hour to a really chilling beauty: Hindag-an Falls in St. Bernard Southern Leyte.

These cool falls are protected by lush greens. 

The next day, a Good Friday, was a time for reflection and meditation. My cousin took us to this Shrine of Mama Mary in Hilongos. It was almost a two-hour drive from Liloan. Isolated from the rest of the civilization, the Shrine was at a mountain. It was a long drive, indeed, but worth the journey.

Place for reflection and meditation

At the Shrine, there are the Stations of the Cross that go a long way up through stairs.

 There was a RoRo scheduled for 11 o'clock that night, and we decided to take it. It was that or the other one which would go at 11 o'clock in the morning the next day. We figured we would reach Surigao at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and thus, would travel at night, if we would take the latter.

Taking the late night RORO, we were back in Lipata at almost 5 in the morning. 

We were not able to sleep well the previous night, so we stopped by our cousins in Surigao to take some beauty rest. And then, off we went home sweet home.

More pictures here.