Dumaguete Days, Part Two

SHIP OF FOOLS

One of the undeniable attractions of the National Writers Workshop for the Manila-based fellowship applicant is the chance to travel, not only to Dumaguete but also to some of Negros Oriental’s tourist spots. My batch certainly took full advantage of that chance virtually on our own, not only once but twice. And we did so on the second week of the workshop.

Since the senatorial elections that year were held on the Monday of that particular week, my batch used the holiday to travel to Bais, north of Dumaguete. Our wonderful workshop coordinator Isabel Patelona and her husband Alex acted as our chaperones during the trip. Once there, we rode a boat that Isabel had helped secure for us and sailed to where one can watch the city’s famous dolphins swim and spring out of the sea surface freely, albeit briefly. We were told, though, that such a sight during summer is rather rare.

But we were lucky: it didn’t take too long before we spotted dolphins, not in the distance, but around our small ship. Not just two or three, but nine or ten. They seem as though they were accompanying us. My batchmates and I were like overgrown grade-schoolers, peering into the water, excitedly pointing at the speeding sea creatures, trying to take pictures of them, each camera click adding texture to the soundscape. I remember one particular co-fellow who tried so hard and so persistently to photograph the dolphins, only to find later that most of what she had captured on film was nothing more than rippling, sparkling blue water.

Much as I enjoyed the dolphins, the real highlight of the trip was Sand Bar. As its name suggests, it’s a sizable mound of sand slighly elevated above sea level. It might seem nothing special in print, but it truly took my breath away when I first saw it. BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL, I thought then.

BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL, isn't it?

We docked at the place for about ten minutes, and my co-fellows and I had more fun taking pictures of it; it wasn’t going anywhere, after all. The three resthouses standing on the mound seemed vacant that time, so we took the time in exploring them a bit, but only around them. The city government owns them, so we kept our distance lest it charges us with trespassing or something like it. It was already 3 or 4 p.m. by the time we left Sand Bar.

As expected, we went back to our lodgings in Banilad spent but satisfied. It was a great way to start the week. However memorable that trip was, the trip that we later took at the end of that week was even more so. But that’s for another time.