Day 2 – 7:30 am

The majestic view of Mt. Mayon’s peak greeted us on the road. From where we stood, Mt. Mayon still had her perfect cone-shape figure for which she was famous for. It was simply breathtaking. Anjo said, “You guys are lucky. I’ve visited this place a lot of times and this is the first time I’ve seen the peak clearly. It’s usually covered with clouds.”

Mr. Ping regaled us with stories about Mt. Mayon and the surrounding towns. The name “Mayon” means “beautiful” in the local dialect. Legend has it that the beautiful daughter of the tribal chief or datu had two suitors – a hunter from her tribe and a leader from another tribe. The daughter fell in love with the outsider (just think of Pocahontas). The hunter from her tribe fell into a jealous rage upon finding this truth and killed the lovers. Mt. Mayon eventually appeared on the ground where the lovers were buried.

Mr. Ping continued on to point out the local tourist sites within the towns – the Spanish church built just by women (the first church was destroyed in Mt. Mayon’s eruption), the town hall besieged by guerillas in the early 1970’s, and such.

Day 2 – 10:00 am

A wonderful photo opportunity presented at the Sorsogon Boundary Marker. The marker was aptly decorated with gigantic figures of famous delicacies of the town – blue crab, tahong, and shrimp.

At the DPWH Rest Area, the DPWH and DOT team gave a warm welcome to the travelers. They proudly gave us native treat of puto (rice cake), suman (rice cooked with coconut milk and wrapped in coconut leaves), and blue crab. Behind the rest area was a beautiful view of the bay where the fishermen would catch the tahong and blue crabs. 

Day 2 – 11:30 am

The charming Mrs. Ravanilla welcomed us at the Rizal Beach Resort at Rizal, Sorsogon. A scrumptious feast greeted the hungry travelers along the beach front. What better way of indulging in the succulent Bicol dishes than having a stunning view of the sea, sand, and sun.

Seafood was in abundance as we gorged on fresh blue-crabs, tahong, and a shellfish called by the locals as “Lips to Lips” because you have to suck the meat from the shell.  Naturally, another version of the spicy favorite, Bicol Express, was on the table. Three different kinds of rice was on the table – the white plain rice, the red rice (rice with a red tinge and deemed by experts as having more fiber), and the suman rice (rice in a dark brownish red color and usually used for suman).  Drinking fresh buko juice from the coconut with a straw was a perfect complement to our meal.

We had dessert of fresh fruits but the “star” of the dessert table was the celebrated pili nut. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a pili fruit until Mrs. Ravanilla showed us the way to eat it with sugar or vinegar. The pili fruit is a bit starchy and meaty similar to a cassava or durian. The nut is hidden within a hard shell and the meat covers the hard shell. The pili fruit is an acquired taste—a bit with the pili nut flavor and starchy and bitter. The group decided on a landslide that it tastes best with sugar rather than vinegar. The husband of our gracious host, gave a skillful demonstration of cracking a raw pili nut from it’s shell with the bolo (a large Philippine butcher knife). I tried my hand at cracking the pili nut but to no success. Oh well…better luck next time.

Day 2 – 3:30 pm

A day filled with scenic sites of lush rice farms stretching until the distant mountains, the scenery changed from farming to undomesticated. Going deeper into the mountain, we passed one of the few rain forests preserved by the government. Untamed vines sprawling everywhere, grandiose trees upright and strong in splendor, and untouched by human civilization except for the paved road. The paved road led us straight to Lake Bulusan, a salt-water lake.

The first thought that came to mind was the movie Jurassic Park. The lake with the beautiful and abundant trees on the mountains as backdrop and no sign of any human contact was the perfect setting for a horror movie. I could just imagine a Brachiosaurus passing by with a pterodactyl hovering in the sky.