The taxi driver taking us from the airport to our rental apartment had an unlucky evening. At some point a loud clanking sound started emanating from the wheels. Apparently, the car drove over a weird piece of metal junk. It punctured the tire and stuck in place. He finished our ride alright, but clearly was not happy about the upcoming expense and trouble of dealing with this.
One of the city’s landmarks is the Basilica de Santo Niño. It’s a large church, centered around an elaborately decorated doll representing baby Jesus. Its enormous gift shop and adjacent street market peddling all sorts of religious items will make the heart of any cold blooded capitalist beat faster.
In many ways Cebu City resembled Manila. Crazy traffic, dug up roads, street kids, iced coffee, smelly canals, colorful transit vehicles. We spent a day exploring by foot, and finished it by ordering pizza using a local ride sharing and food delivery app. Will the payment go through? Did we enter the address correctly? It was the equivalent of starting a new job and having a significant task accomplished on your first day.
The next day we took it up a notch, waking up at 4 am to get to the bus station, in preparation for a long and winding way to the north end of the island. It is only 130 km to the Maya port, which Google Maps estimates will take 3 hours, but in practice takes over 5 hours.
The bus leaves when mostly full, or when the driver feels like it. They charge you 300 pesos for the ride, or 270, or however they feel that day. That’s the equivalent of about 5 USD. While in the city, the driver stops frequently to chat with friends, invite more passengers, or grab a snack in the markets. The traffic was relentless even at 6 am. It was a long journey, so having a good long book downloaded was essential.
