Day 368: Coron - Cebu - Maya

So today was another day spent in getting from A to B - and I didn't even arrive at B in the evening! This is something that I really don't enjoy in the Philippines: it is extremely complicated - and takes a long time - to get around.

But here's the full story: I had a noon flight to take me from Coron to Cebu. The Coron airport is tiny and located in the middle of nowhere about half an hour from town. No reason to go there the usual two hours before the flight, you'd think. I made a point taking an early airport shuttle anyway - and it was good I did: the shuttle drove around town for about 90 minutes, picking up other passengers, before finally making its way to the airport. Coron has about 10.000 inhabitants - there shouldn't be enough 'town' there to drive around for 90 minutes, but somehow my shuttle managed.

Anyway, I got to the airport on time, the flight was on almost on time, and an hour later I landed on Cebu island, at the other end of the Philippines. It took me a while to figure out where the regular taxis were located at Cebu airport - coming out of the arrivals hall, there were only airport taxis that were about twice as expensive as normal cabs. A short cab ride later, I got off at the northern bus terminal to catch a bus to Maya, located at the extreme northern end of the island. Maya is less than 150 kilometers away from Cebu City, yet the bus ride took almost five full hours - an average speed of 30km/h!

In Maya, I wanted to catch a ferry across to Malapascua island. Since the ferries run only during the daylight hours, I had to spend the night in Maya, in just about the only guesthouse that exists in the village. The owner of the guesthouse saw me coming in the bus and rushed out of the shower to come pick me up from the bus station - very sweet of her, and definitely the best thing that happened to me today :-)