I’d like to start this article by saying my greatest thanks to Liam’s family for letting me stay in their home in San Teodoro. It has been 4 years since I visited San Teodoro and it was very nice to see Liam’s family again. The kindness, acceptance and warm welcome is well appreciated.

About Liam Bigornia – Liam and I are block mates since Freshmen College. We can easily relate to each other since we both came outside of Manila. He is from Mindoro and I’m from Mindanao. Cary and I visited San Teodoro at sophomore year and it was one of the best trips.

Dorm boyz Liam, Morky, Lulut, Lordz and me

We planned his homecoming together with Jaycee’s despedida the other week but canceled due to some unlikely circumstance. It was disappointing for Liam and his family and I felt we needed to personally give an apology to his mom so I decided to visit even if I’m alone.

“Thank you Tita Lilia, Neil, Christia and lola. And also Liam, despite you didn’t come with me and I became a proxy!”

Lesson:

1. Oriental Mindoro is the eastern part of Mindoro and you can’t find a Tamarraw here.

2. Mindoro mountains are NPA infested. Bring ID and documents when you go to the mountains. Align your travel with local officials. You’ll never know. (learned the hard way)

3. The Baco mountains is dangerous for travelers at this season. Traumatized by the Saclag incident and didn’t proceed with Baco mountains tour.

Original Target Destination: San Teodoro, Puerto Galera, Baco, Calapan

Actual Destination: San Teodoro, Puerto Galera

Album:

Quezon City to Batangas Pier
Village to Cubao FX – 25 Php
Cubao to Batangas BUS – 175 Php

Woke up early for a Kernel upgrade requested by customer at 6:00-07:00. Lead conference with Joanne, Ryan and Richard for a parallel shadowing for KT purposes. Was so relieved everything went into plan.

Immediately took a bath and ate my tuna breakfast. Prepared my bag and set off to my adventure.

Took an FX cab from the village gate to JAM Bus station Kamuning Quezon City. I then got into a Batangas Pier bound Bus where “Iron man” movie was playing.

I had to get a good watching spot so I took the second row where I eventually sat beside this pretty girl. She was eating a packed McDonald’s crispy chicken fillet. Found out later that she’s a sophomore in UPD who live primarily in Batangas. Cool. Unfortunately I was too shy and I did not get her name! lol

Anyway, moving on the trip was around 2 hours and 15 minutes. I arrived in the pier quarter to noon. It was my first time to visit the International port in daytime and it was indeed a sight to see.

Proceeded to get my ticket to my destination and left with my boat.

Batangas Pier to Muelle Port
Father and Sons Batangas-Muelle ticket – 200 Php
Puerto Galera Environmental fee – 50 Php
Terminal fee – 10 Php

Puerto Galera is a 2nd class Municipality of Oriental Mindoro. It has several barangay which include White Beach and Aninuan.

Fact: 3 trips to discover Northern Oriental Mindoro

1. Muelle – This is the main barangay of Puerto Galera. Muelle is full of history and a tour around the town is quite good for travelers. The biggest boat available would be Father & Sons Shipping.

2. White Beach – This is the most visited site of Puerto Galera. Lots of restaurants and hotels can be found here.

3. Calapan – This is where commercial ships dock. You would have to go through Calapan if you have a car. Travel to Puerto Galera from Calapan would take 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Asked around local dispatchers for the biggest boat that travels Puerto Galera and pointed to Father & Sons Shipping.

The total trip costs around 260 Php which includes boat fee, environmental and the terminal fee.

The trip was around an hour and thirty minutes. There was a stop over in Barangay Sabang, a local destination for male foreigners who wants to “have fun”. Sadly this is known to be a Puerto Galera’s SIN town.


I sat beside and met Capt. Ed of Montenegro Lines who is just hitching a ride to his hometown Muelle. We talked a lot especially about islands and places in the Philippines. Since he is a seaman, he is able to travel around the Philippines. He shared his best places and he was kind enough to tell me the names of the islands in Batangas (which I forgot evidently).

Noticed very good sketches of my favorite anime “Naruto” and “Bleach” in a clear book… I asked who the artist was. Capt. Ed and I were amazed it was the “Brent twins” Daniel and D.

I coined the them “Brent twins” because they live in Brent International community and studies in Brent International school. They are very fluent in English and they don’t understand Tagalog. Nosebleed!

It was very cool meeting young artists! They are just visiting their rest house with their English father near the Muelle Yatch Club.

Arrived in Muelle Port and discovered the town.

Muelle Town
Tricycle to Calapan Terminal – 10 Php

You can easily find Muelle’s cross after docking in Muelle port. It has the inscription: “Ultima tierra que pesarou los tripolantes del canoneros Mariveles el 18 de Noviembre de 1879″. It commemorates a battleship which guarded Puerto Galera in the war, the Canonero Mariveles.

You can see a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops in the Muelle Pier area. It is very expensive and a budget traveler would not dare eat. :)

Walked outside the pier area and followed some signs which led me to Muelle’s Belle and church.


I was also able to find the Excavation Museum near the area.





The municipal hall and gymnasium of Muelle is very accessible too. It is just a minute walk away from the museum.


I was hungry and tired. I noticed this restaurant made of wood and hut, “Frontline”, in front of a national school. I ordered “Tapsi” meal. It was the biggest scoop of rice I have ever seen! The food was very tasty and delicious but my stomach had enough and cannot store more.

I met Debbie, the restaurant owner and she was very nice. Greetings and whereabouts information were shared and it was nice talking to her friends too.

She informed me that the trip to Calapan is limited due to some mountain works where they use dynamite. This is to clear the mountain side for road construction to proceed. The road will only be opened from 09:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

It was almost 3 PM so I had to hurry up. I took a tricycle to Calapan Terminal.

Special advisory: Starting August 31 onwards, the road from North (Puerto Galera) to South Oriental Mindoro (San Teodoro/Baco/Calapan) will be closed from 09:00-15:00 SGT.

Jeep to San Teodoro
Jeep fee – 40 Php

This is the best “road trip”! The sun was going down and I was in the mood so I join some people on top of the jeep. It was very good seeing the mountain and see view from the top. Travel time to San Teodoro was 45 minutes.

Tamarraw Falls

Tamarraw falls is a famous falls in Puerto Galera. It is a big water fall. It has 2 pools in the bottom where tourist can take a bath.

Video of Tamarraw falls view in youtube:

We were lucky since there was delay in the dynamite preparation and were allowed to pass even if it was 3:30 already.

Municipality of San Teodoro
Walk

San Teodoro is Liam’s hometown.

Tita Lilia was in Calapan when I arrived. I was greeted by Liam’s brother, Neil. He showed me around San Teodoro.

Eventually we just stayed inside an internet cafe and played DOTA with the locals! Haha I noticed most of them are AGI/farm driven and are not costumed to playing against city folks who are aggressive in the early game. I did not give them a chance to kill. Dominated! Haha

Met Neil’s barkada and we stayed an hour in the beach.

It was already dark when we went back. I met with Tita Lilia and Liam’s sister Christia. It has been a while and the kid has really grown. Or am I getting old? :)

Bigornia Residence

We dad dinner and shared stories of what happened for the past years. They were kind enough to offer me Liam’s room. I was a super proxy! Thanks Liam! :)

Sleep.

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Day 2: Encounter to follow