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| St. James Church right at the Relief Map of Mindanao. |
At around 10AM, the rain suddenly stopped and when we looked at the window, it was actually sunny outside although still wet, obviously. Apparently, we were given a chance to explore Dapitan City for half a day. It actually turned out just right that it rained because it gave us time to bond with my relatives and we had a good time talking.
So, we changed clothes immediately and prepared to ride off to Dapitan City. My uncle asked if we could leave after lunch but we insisted that we leave already and just have lunch at Dapitan City. We were running out of time, hehe.
First off, we visited St. James Church together with the now destroyed Relief Map of Mindanao. Too bad, there was no map already. All that were left were grasses which in fairness were clean and well-maintained. Below was the entrance to the Relief Map of Mindanao but you can't see any maps anymore. Well, there were still remains of paint but that's it.
We went inside the church and examined the interior which was still beautiful although it didn't appeared to be original. We also paid visit to the statue of the most famous man in Dapitan City.
We did a few walks at their plaza and just see people interacting and observing. You can sense some historical feelings to the area or maybe just some placebo effect, hehe but it did feel nice going around the place. We also saw a couple of old houses nearby.
It was at 11:30AM when we decided to go to Dakak. My wife initially proposed we had lunch first but I was still good and my daughter also said she was not hungry yet and I also thought Dakak was just a few minutes away. I really thought that Dakak was just around 2-3 kilometers from Rizal Shrine. I was so wrong. We were initially riding at 30-40kph because I thought Dakak was nearby and so that we could also have a good view around. After about 5 or 10 minutes and with the clock ticking to almost 12NN, I then sped up because we didn't know if Dakak was near or far from where we were. Hahaha! I was pretty sure I checked the map that Dakak was near Rizal Shrine. I was wrong! Dakak was like 20 kilometers from Rizal Shrine.
We reached Dakak passed 12NN. We didn't plan to go inside because I knew that Dakak was a posh resort and we couldn't afford it both time and money. We only went there to check out the place and take some pictures. We were able to get inside but not all the way through their resort because if we did, we had to pay the entrance fee of a whooping Php1,000/pax. That would have been Php3K for us three. Dakak's roadway was field with beautiful contours and landscapes and was remarkably clean as well. Well, what do you expect from a high end resort, right?
After checking out Dakak, we went back and proceeded to their town area so we could have our lunch. We passed by their boulevard although not as impressive as Dipolog's boulevard. After we passed their public market, we saw the landing site of Dr. Jose Rizal. Instead of proceeding to find some place to eat, we dropped by the landing site to take a couple of photos.
My ladies posed with greatest hero of the Philippine history.
After that, we rode off to the end of the boulevard without finding anything that attracted our stomachs. We then reached this modern Dapitan City Hall and we were back to the main road. Our stomachs were now screaming, LOLZ! It was already 2PM and we haven't had our lunch yet. Even if we still haven't had our lunch, we still managed to take a photo of the city hall. Hahaha!
So we traversed again the main road hoping we could find something enticing to our tummies and yes we did find one. At the Noli Me Tañgere St., we found this small carenderia that sells Pampanga's best bulalo. Now, we haven't tried an original native bulalo. We have been to many rides but we haven't tasted an original Luzon bulalo. Yeah, there were bulalos in malls in Cebu and we have tasted one and we didn't like it. It couldn't beat Cebu's own pochero, both of which are like relatives, beef dish with bone marrows. Ekit's Pochero in Cebu is the best pochero that I have tasted although lately, their taste is sometimes not consistent and I don't know why but still the best. So we ordered this original Luzon bulalo and I can honestly tell you, it was really good. In fact, I can say it beat Cebu's pochero in terms of the quality of the taste. It was really tasteful although a bit oily but still really tasted good. If only Cebu has this bulalo so I can have an alternative to Ekit's-sometimes-inconsistent-pochero.
After our very late lunch, we dropped by Gloria de Dapitan but we didn't plan to ride any of their rides. It was already 3:30PM and we still have to buy tickets at the Pulauan Port so that we could leave the next early morning. Interestingly, it was a Sunday so we expected a lot of people. Well, there were a lot of people outside Gloria de Dapitan but that was because there was a fraternity anniversary, the Tau Gamma Phi. Inside Gloria de Dapitan, there were only a few people inside.
After that, we then rode off to Pulauan Port and processed the necessary papers and tickets so we could get back to Dumaguete City at early dawn. The schedule was a 3:30AM Aleson ship to Dumaguete City.
We went back to Dipolog City already dark. When we arrived, my uncle told us to change up so we could eat dinner. We had dinner at Chicken Ati-Atihan in Dipolog City.
Then we went back to my uncle's house early because we have to leave early at dawn the next day. And so that ended our final day at Mindanao. We'll technically not final day in Mindanao because we were still in Dipolog City but you get the gist. Hehehe...
Thanks a lot to my uncle wearing white, the one behind the guy wearing blue on the right. We could have spent a lot more on pension house and food. Be sure to keep posted for a final blog post with this Family Ride to Mindanao, our departure from Mindanao.
