Beyond the Peace Corps and Through the Looking Glass: To Petra’s in Aborlan and Onward to Narra and Will’s

There is one navigable north-south road on Palawan – The National Highway. Actually, it is not completely navigable the entire year…the dirt from El Nido to Taytay often washes out or is an impassable sludge during the heavy rains from June-December, when travelers have to boat from El Nido around to Taytay and resume the macadam there. From Puerto Princesa, ginto sa Palawan (in the middle of Palawan), it is a 7-9 hour journey to El Nido - and I’ve heard more than one story about passengers getting out and pushing the bus to surmount some obstacle, adding another 2 hours to the journey. From the Southern tip of the island (bawal, or forbidden to us in Peace Corps because of possible activity to protect highly controversial mining - google Gerry Ortega, Palawan to see just how controversial), it is another 8 hour drive to Puerto. This is one large island.

Although we are “volunteers” in the Peace Corps, we have strict rules – one of which is that we have to phone our regional manager if we leave the city limits for an overnight during the week. The wonderful thing about being in Puerto Princesa is that it is one of the largest geographical areas of any city in the world and you can drive 2 hours north and still be within the city limits.

This past weekend, though, I traveled to visit two of my ‘batch mates’ (graduating classes here in the Philippines are called “batches” and the Peace Corps adopted that terminology – we are Batch 269 of Peace Corps volunteers) – Petra lives about 1.5 hours south in a tiny town named Aborlan, where she teaches high school and another teacher, Will, lives another 45 minutes south of that in the rice bowl of Palawan - Narra.

This is Holy Week in the Philippines and, as for Christmas (although for only a week; not the whole month) – most of businesses are closed…certainly for the last few days: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday and Easter Sunday. I was told that even most of the transport, multicabs as well as tricycles, halt. However, the weekend prior to Easter was fair game, and I was thrilled to be finally striking out on my own to see some of the island.

I caught a trike from my new place (I’d moved in the day before) at 6:30am to the San Jose terminal and headed for the bus….but everyone told me that it didn’t go to Aborlan today. So, I headed back to Lexus, who said they would leave within an hour – we packed in and launched. Notorious for their lead footed drivers, Lexus must have quite a maintenance bill – we zoomed along between 60-70 miles per hour – exhilarating from the back seat, and unimaginable from the front!

It took us quite a while to pass the enormous expanse of land where the Iwahig prison is situated…. “prisoners” were in the fields working – some with goats, others with cows and some plowing. Begun during the American era, this prison has a gate, but no cells – many prisoners live on the land with their families. They claim a better recidivism rate than most jails. Strangely, the elder brother of the Pastor/Executive Director at my site was a guard at Iwahig for years….and became the only casualty to date. Two years ago the inmates attacked him and stabbed him repeatedly with forks and whatever they had until they killed him. He remains the only death at the prison.

Petra met me at her “terminal” (her terminology – it just looked like a street corner to me) and we crossed the street to the Aborlan market. Lots of fun – bought a walis (broom), some bawang and sibuyas (garlic and onions), kalamansi (yummy little limes), pakwan (watermelon), and clams. Returned to Petra’s nice, clean, tiled apartment and CR and made banana shakes – yummy – before getting into another Lexus van for the 45 minute rollercoaster ride to Will’s in Narra. Petra says I had a broad grin on my face as we carromed down the road…there are 9 bridges between Aborlan and Narra and the rivers – especially the Irawan River - are gorgeous. Palawan surprised me with its high mountains, and the 2^nd highest peak is in Narra. As on other roads, the added benefit of a road trip is a rigorous massage which can actually leave bruises.

Will met us on his bike at the Narra market where we proceeded to the bakery for banana bread (passing up a custard cake, sigh) and we triked to his place – 100 meters from the ocean. This is the Palawan of my dreams – like Matthew said, we hardly feel like we are on an island where we live. Will, on the other hand, has a view of tall palms and water from his 2^nd floor bedroom.

The enviable view from Will's 2nd floor bedroom

In Will's Kitchen

We cooked the clams and made guacamole from fresh avocados, met his counterpart, who lives next door, and set off for the beach – Petra and I headed out for a swim…sandy bottom and really warm water. And then, Wham! - nearly decapitated by a flying fish – man those things pack a velocity! Red Horse all around and I searched for shells….weaving badly (Red Horse beer has one of the highest alcohol contents and gets me every time). Returned to find Petra napping and Will gone for fish for dinner. Yummy grilled fish stuffed with garlic and tomatoes, and a walk on the beach at night.

Found out that we could stay in a room at the beach for 300 pesos (150/each) – so, for $3 each, Petra and I shared a beach bungalow. After a morning swim and more shelling (when Petra shot this amazing 2” long bug)