story of a girl

 And so not even the dark skies and heavy rains stopped us from heading to BICOL …

With high spirits, Kulot, her sister and I pushed through with our four-day escape to the southeastern end of Luzon.

We took the Penafrancia Benz Deluxe night trip to Naga from Cubao and slept comfortably though the 10 hours travel. Taking the Friday night trip instead of booking an earlier flight was a very good decision because we didn’t have to take the day off from work and risk getting our flight cancelled because of the weather. The only snag was the heavy traffic we experienced in SLEX but who cares when you are cozily sprawling in a lazy boy and watching a good movie on a flat screen TV. And anyway, just minutes after the bus left the terminal, I was already busy dreaming about our destination.  

We reached Camarines Sur at past 7 in the morning on Saturday. I don’t usually love long rides but that one was pretty nice (because I wasn’t awake majority of the time, haha!) and it’s something I’m looking forward to doing again if only to have a repeat of that travelling-in-a-lazy-boy experience. We were immediately fetched from the bus terminal by the people from the Camsur Watersports Complex, where we booked for an overnight stay. Although they follow a strict implementation of the 2pm check-in time, we were allowed to use the facilities of the complex while they look after our bags.

The place is lovely, it has clean surroundings and the people are very pleasant. Instantly, I fell in love with CWC.

The reception and the villas are a little far from the cable park but walking around the place won’t be too much of a problem. And should the laziness strike, there are shuttles available to bring you anywhere within the park for free.

We lounged at the clubhouse for a while before actually checking out what else the place offers other than wakeboarding. The swimming pool was unavailable at that time so we were led to try the newest attraction: the Lago Del Rey, a giant manmade lake just across the cable park with inflated water sports facilities like slides, icebergs (for climbing), kayaks, obstacle courses and a lot more. I learned that part of that giant lake is also for riders who prefer to wakeboard behind a jet ski than through the overhead cable system. For Php120 an hour, we got to be kids again who enjoyed the hell out of the giant slide, climbing our hardest just to freak ourselves as we glide our way into the deep water. Thank God for life vests!

The container turned cabin we booked was already available by 1pm so we headed back to rest before taking on the bigger challenge.

After much contemplation, we all decided to give wakeboarding a chance to get to know and love us. For beginners, we were taught to kneeboard first. And boy was it hard and scary but after falling off on my first try and seeing others experience the same thing, I went on for another ride.

It was a natural kind of high, speeding through the waters with only your balancing and navigating skills to depend on was a real challenge but I was on a high doing it and on my second try, I was already imagining the joy I’ll have doing the real wakeboarding thing and riding the ramps, just like the skillful foreigner riders . We promised to go back in September since the trip to CWC was just a siding to the Sorsogon itinerary where we attended the wedding of Kulot’s friend.

And have I mentioned that the service we were given was impeccable and that the people were real darlings to us, when they let us (as in kami lang) use the exclusive pool in the Mansion Villas since the one in the park was under repair? My CWC trip was another one for the books. I’d have no problem going back the soonest time possible.

Kudos to Gov. Luis Ray Villafuerte for developing the place into the world class spot that it is now!

After the CWC overnight, we took long rides as we headed to Irosin, Sorsogon to attend the wedding on Monday. The next thing we knew, the vacation was over and real life would have to start again in the next few hours. But of course, we squeezed in to see Mayon Volcano in Cagsawa Ruins on Tuesday before heading back to Manila.

It was a little sad though that another friend wasn’t able to join us, it could have been happier with her around. This trip to the Pili region had been the perfect culmination to my exciting summer of ‘09 (though it’s kind of not counted anymore since we did it in JuneJ).

And so not even my now empty savings account would stop me from going places, not now, not after having one hell of a summer!