The Long Way Down - Surigao del Norte to del Sur Edition

First of all, can I just say ang saya ng Google maps?

I'm supposed to go to Davao tomorrow but then my brother Jesse mentioned going to Cantilan and visit his internet shop. On his scooter. Having watched too many episodes of Ewan McGregor's Long Way Down, I thought, hey why not?

Short trivia about my brother Jesse: He has one very small ear. When we were kids we called him 1.50. As in, if one ear is one peso, then we'd be two pesos. He's 1.50. I always wondered if he was bothered or if he had insecurities resulting from this. However, I didn't feel sorry for him that much because of the Chinese. My father's Chinese friends who owned most if not all of the businesses in Surigao kept on saying the small ear is swerte. Every hardware store, pharmacy, bakery, grocery, every freakin business establishment we go to, the owner (usually at the cash register) would say, Ay ang swerte. I wanted to ask if my crooked spine was swerte too. Apparently not.

As I don't feel coherent enough let the map speak for itself. Follow the hot pink line =)

- Left Surigao City at 11.30AM

- No decent road from Taganito until Carrascal. Rough riding to the extreme.

- Short break in Taganito to help push a tricycle filled with scrap metal stuck in the mud. The old lady pushing the tryke wanted to pay us and I was tempted to ask if they have antique cameras. Hehe joke.

- In between Taganito and Adlay we saw a Public Toilet complete with politician sign. You know one of those "Public Toilet, A priority project of Gov/Congressman/Mayor So-and-so". I asked my brother, Who cleans this toilet in the middle of nowhere? The nearest house from either side was around 10 kms pa. To satisfy my curiosity, my brother went in to check. Very dirty is an understatement. Curiosity satisfied. It's like they built the thing just for the sake of building one. Kebs na sa maintenance.

- Flat tyre in between Adlay to Carrascal. There were way too many rocks and bumps in the road.

- Found a vulcanizing shop in the middle of nowhere. Only 25 pesoses to get the tyre fixed.

- Arrived in Cantilan with the dust of National Hi-way all over my face at 4pm.

It's just 9 in the evening and the whole town seems to be asleep. Tomorrow we leave for Lanuza for surfing lessons (yay!) until Sunday. See purple line.

Sunday- reverse direction. Repeat. I feel sorry for my butt.