November 28, 2019 | San Vicente, Palawan
Right from the get-go, visiting this laidback and lesser known town of San Vicente was on my #BakitHindi list. Which is very much unlike El Nido, by the way. The contrast is interesting. Medyo macculture shock ka dito if you fancy the crowd. But for an introvert like I am, it was a haven.
San Vicente features the longest white beach in the country. Ang sarap sanang libutin ng 14-kilometer shoreline with a motorbike but the drizzling afternoon didn’t permit it. Driving through the town, though, while getting chased by the rain with Kuya Allan, my driver-guide, was fun in itself. Really. My body’s still aching from Taraw aftermath but I traveled long enough to know that a joyride like this was a must.
We stopped by at Secret Beach to snack on fresh coconuts. Unfortunately, Tatay was not around to pick us some. We lingered a bit and talked about Kuya Allan’s archery career and whatnots. Simple pero hindi daw madali ang buhay nila dito. That’s something I often hear from the towns I’ve stayed with. We’re just seeing a glimpse of their reality and we just want the good side of it. I guess we all have our kind of hard in this life and nobody had anything easy the way we imagine it to be.
It was around 5 PM when we reached the top of a hill in Brgy. Alimanguan where Bato ni Ningning is settled. I talked and joked around with the locals while biding my time. They’re telling a story that the sun was setting in a different spot before. And as if on cue, the sun began to climb down and turned everything to something beautiful. We rode back to the flat land in a chilly November dusk seeing Venus and Jupiter aligned with the crescent moon in the night sky. It was a good day. As always, thank You, Paps.
