May 26 - Out the door by 6:30 today. I don’t want to take any chances since we are flying blind on transport. There is no way to coax information out of the internet for this island, and my inquiries in town suggest that it is fine but start early.
So the sequence ends up being:
1) Tuk-tuk from Sabang Beach to the minivan terminal in Puerto Galera. A few guys at the ‘T’ road crossing in Sabang call one for us (200 pesos).
2) Minivan from Puerto Galera to a seemingly miscellaneous roadside just outside of Calapan (400 pesos). The coastline is rugged along the way, making for a queasy, curvy route. The sun is just right off the water to the north, merging the color of sky with water, that a container ship appears to be floating in the air. Near Calapan, the rivers form wide, meandering flats with gravels and cobbles. Not a typical river form in the tropics, where muds usually dominate. Also an abundance of rice growing.
3) Transfer at the aforementioned roadside ‘station’ to another minivan. Fortunately this one doesn’t feel the need to pack to bursting before we move on down the road (1200 pesos). This part of the route is thankfully flat, through many km of rice paddies.
4) The minivan screeches to a halt along the side of the road in Roxas and we transfer directly to another minivan. This eliminates entering the town proper, but I sense that this is no coincidence, as the fare is the same as the last one (plus this time we pay a seat for the packs). 1600 pesos.
5) Make an unexpected stop in Bulalacao, another town without much going on, especially in the minivan station. We, and the other passengers, are summarily ejected from our previous ride and into another vehicle. This time, they want to really fill it up. I am very cautious here, wary of the ‘hand-off’ trick, where you pay full fare on the first ride and end up being pressured to pay again on the unintended second leg. They actually do try it, but perhaps because they forgot. We sit in this hot minivan station for almost two hours.
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
6) Up over another twisting mountain road and suddenly, all at once, drop into a flat plain on the west side of Mindoro. There are rainstorms tracing across the horizon. Finally, wheeze into San Jose.
7) Tuk-tuk to our hotel.
San Jose is a non-descript town. It seems to exist as a port facility with the island chain to the southwest. Rice is a big product in Mindoro, bags of it on trucks are everywhere. Eat at a restaurant for half the price of Sabang Beach.
It is Odette’s birthday! Not the most exciting day for her (or us). We get a small cake and do festivities in our room. If it were my birthday, I would have been happy with the present of just getting here.
Philippines