Vigan River Cruise
written by halfawakehaiku
on August 10th, 2009
, 5 comments
(3 votes)
The Last stop in Vigan was the newly put up River Cruise. Barely two months of operation the cruise is a project of the local government and as of this time takes guests around the river absolutely free of charge.
It was a Sunday morning when I dropped by the ferry station. The usual Sunday crowd hadn’t arrived yet and so I had to wait it out. I explained I was in a race and they told me they could make a special arrangement for me.
I begged off but one of the boatmen sped off on his bike and plucked out random villagers to ride with me just to fill up the logbook, talk about special treatment. After forty minutes of waiting, cavalry arrived and we boarded the motorized boat. We zoomed off to what would be a pleasant 40minute ride tracing the Mestizo River. The project was just only half done because they still had to clear the banks to make way for a route that would spill over into the mouth of the South China Sea.
They were playing folk music along the trip which I would later find out is part of a prerecorded audio program made to sync with the places of interest along the river. I learned a great deal about the city through the program. And I learned about the lives of then people there who were eager to tell me about themselves and their experiences along the river.
The government put up some statues along the riverbanks which were meant to be visual guides to the proud history of the City. From its founding in 1572, to its surviving cultural products, the trip was quite an impressive experience. We passed by fish pens and kids jumping off trees and into the river. There were quite a lot of things to see including a local lawin (Bhraminy Kite) that was fishing for its lunch by diving for fresh water fish. After the cruise I couldn’t stop thanking the staff and villagers. They even saw me off when I caught a ride outside the station.
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