TO SEE A SUNSET

A sunset from the Biri Islands in the Philippines.

The traveling life, it's not always paradise and pina coladas. No, really, it's not!

For example, there are days when you spend much of your time trying to get to wherever it is you're going, sometimes spending hours en route, rushing from bus to boat to motorcycle to taxi, and finally back to a boat that you find out doesn't really exist and you'll need to backtrack two towns to catch a bus somewhere else to another boat and...well, you get the picture.

Honestly though, even that stuff's not so bad. It may not always be comfortable, you may have to help hold someone's rooster or week-old baby (we've done both), and a trip that should take a couple hours could take two days. In the end, we usually end up exhausted and in need of a shower and a change of clothes. 

We're not looking for pity, mind you. These marathon journeys do sometimes end up with views like the one shown above. But for those of you who are interested, below are the photos and various modes of transportation it took for us to arrive at the Biri Islands from another island called San Antonio less than 150 miles away.

Take a 7 am banca boat/ferry/outrigger from San Antonio Island to the big island of Samar. 

Take a "bike" from the port to the main road. All prices negotiable, if you're lucky.

Enjoying the scenery while waiting for a local bus, called a jeepney. "One will come," we're assured.

Our chariot arrived. We flag it down, throw our luggage on top, Liz squeezes in...

No room for Kip inside. He climbs up top with the coffee and spare tires. It's 11:30 am and 90 degrees.

Jeepney drops us somewhere. We're told to take a tricycle (motorcycle with a side-car) to the pier two towns over. It's after 1 pm.

At the pier in some town we can't pronounce. Negotiate for a boat to Biri. No boats are ready to leave yet. A few hours later, we strike up a conversation with a nice guy who it turns out is the mayor of Biri. He invites us to join him on his personal banca to the islands. SCORE!  It gets better...

The mayor, Jaime Garcia, Jr., our hero, tells us we're lucky because it's "fiesta day" where we're going. "Where are we going?" we ask. He takes us to Glenda's B&B (that's Glenda above), friends of his who were hosting a celebratory feast and also had a room available. Against their better judgement, they were even willing to rent it to us.

And that's how we got to see one of the most stunning sunsets over a volcano we've ever seen. Did we mention we like sunsets?