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TWENTY NINE During most of February and March while in Tagaytay we looked at properties mostly on the ridge. We were amazed at prices. For example the price per sqm for ridge property was between 15,000 and 25,000 peso. To put this in perspective that is approximately $32.60 and $54.34 per square foot or about $1,320,000 and $2,160,000 per acre. Probably the least amount of area you would need to build a house and have room for parking, etc...is 4000 sq. ft and that would run about $175,000 dollars. We decided to pass on this as well. After much discussion we decided to move back to Dumaguete and make a firm commitment to find a property to build on. We also talked about Joe, Lynn's son. Lynn wanted to send Joe to Canada for schooling. I felt that was not a good idea at his current and very vulnerable age of 14 and better to have him with us in Dumaguete for at least one year and possibly two. I also wanted to get to know him better and see what fatherhood was all about. After at least a year and probably two here we would definitely send him overseas for High School where he would get the kind of great education he should. She agreed. We then had Joe come to Manila for our trip to Dumaguete.
We already had the truck with us as Lynn had arranged to have it shipped back to Manila form Davao with some of our stuff. The rest of our things in Davao could be shipped directly to us in Dumaguete once we got settled again. We decided to get a 10 foot container and put all the stuff we had with us into it and ship that from Manila to Dumaguete. We in turn would drive to Dumaguete using the famous Nautical Highway driving.
The nautical highway is a series of roll on roll off barges that go between islands. Once on a particular island you drive from the RoRo drop off point to the next drive on RoRo point depending on where you are going. It is pretty cool but the roads can be quite taxing. Our particular route was RoRo from Batangas to Calapan, Mindoro. Drive to Roxas City, Mindoro. RoRo from Roxas City to Caticlan, Panay. Drive to Iloilo, Panay. RoRo from Iloilo to Bacolod, Negros Occidental. Drive to Dumaguete. We left Tagaytay on April 14. The trip took us 4 days and cost almost 25,000 peso or $525.00 including RoRo, Gas, Food and Hotel. We could have gone by ferry with the truck plus our three passenger fares for about 15,000 pesos. Despite road issues and the higher expense (remember my truck is a gas guzzler) it is still worth the trip as you get to see different areas of the Philippines. Try and do all your driving in the daytime or you will miss some beautiful things. BTW, the RoRo from Roxas City, Mindoro to Caticlan, (Aklan) Panay passes right by Boracay Island and you can easily park your vehicle and take a 30 minute pump boat to Boracay Island and stay there for a while or just for the day. Also, right across from Boracay and next to Caticlan is Aklan province. There are miles of beautiful beaches and this area is quickly being developed to handle tourist overflow from Boracay
Once we arrived in Bacolod we decided to drive to Dumaguete by going down the western part of Negros (leeward side) and around its southern tip and then up to Dumaguete on the (windward side). On the way we would stop in Punta Ballo near Sipilay which is located in a beautiful bay and has great diving. If it wasn't so isolated it would be a great place to live but, there is nothing there. Furthermore , the road to Dumaguete from here has a stretch of about 22 km that is barely derivable. I think I must have aged the truck by at least a year on this trip. Think of driving your truck in Florida or most anywhere in the states for 5 straight years and it still wouldn't even come close to the wear and tear from the roads we encountered and drove in 3 days. LOL 2005
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