One morning during our four-day trip across Leyte, we decided to walk the length of the San Juanico Bridge. It was not a first for me, having gone through the longest bridge in the country, both during the early mornings and evenings of Tacloban City. I could write about this latest crossing, but my previous experience at this bridge was far more interesting. Let’s roll back four years ago.

EVENING WALK AT THE SAN JUANICO BRIDGE

It was not in my planned itinerary to visit Tacloban City, or even pass it during my recent trip down south of the Philippines. A missed flight back to Manila from Cebu City for a connecting plane ride to Northern Samar forced me to reevaluate my plans and do an impromptu Plan B—that being a combination of sea and land trip from the Queen City of the South to a little known island in Northern Samar.

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We were undecided if we were going to push through with our visit to the Pai Memorial Bridge. We debated, what can we really see there? It’s just a bridge after all. But with plenty of time left to spare before sundown, which we plan on spending at the Pai Canyon once again, and with nothing else on itinerary, we finally decided to give it a quick visit.

THE ARMY GREEN PAI MEMORIAL BRIDGE

The memorial bridge, which a few dub as the World War II Memorial Bridge, is located some ten kilometers from town. Coming from the Pam Bok Waterfall and the nearby Pai Land Split, it was actually much closer to where we were lodging at the time, the Pai House Of Love.

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En route to the northern provinces of the Philippines, I almost always wake up just before the bus I’m riding crosses the Abra River. From the newer Banaoang Bridge, I look out the window and gaze at the skeletal structure of the defunct Quirino Bridge parallel to it. And almost always, the bus would zoom off the bridge without me being able to take even a single shot or let alone take my camera out from my bag.

ABRA RIVER UP CLOSE

The chance finally came for me to photograph the twin bridge that connects the town of Santa and Bantay in Ilocos Sur as I revisited Vigan City a month ago. Aboard a van full of media peeps, we traversed the rain-slicked roads to Barangay Banaoang and alighted just before the twin bridges.

But we were there, not really to take photos of the massive structures, but to cross it using a zip line.

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The day was fresh as we start off from Tuguegarao via our Lakbay Norte 3 bus on our way to Ilocos Norte for the third day of our Northern Luzon invasion.
We passed verdant countrysides, half-asleep and half watching the onboard movie starring Justine Timberlake. For the life of me, I just can’t figure out how someone from N’Sync can turn into a good actor on a good movie. Oh well, I guess good for him.
The gang stopped for a few minutes at a viewpoint just before we crossed into Ilocos and took some pretty pictures of the sweeping vista of Pasaleng Bay in Cagayan Valley. The view was breathtaking; the azure sea going off into the edge of the world with Northern Ilocos framing its left flank.

With nothing to do right after riding the waters of Chico River, I and a few of the Lakbay Norte guys decided to visit the nearby Buntun Bridge for a sunset shoot. The sky was already turning some reds and oranges over as our tricycle roared into the roads of Tuguegarao.

There was almost nothing left of the beautiful colors we saw from the highway as we alighted from our ride. The sun was already out but there were still a few afterglows. Well, we were already on location, turning back’s a waste of time so we shoot with what we have.

Tuguegarao’s Buntun Bridge is the longest river-spanning bridge in the country. Its 15-section span crosses the Cagayan River and connects Tuguegarao to Solana Cagayan. It’s so long you can sing the full Philippine National Anthem from end to end.

After a day of shooting rocks and smashing into enormous waves, we decided to cap our second day in Baler by risking our lives and cross the rickety hanging bridge traversing the Tibag-Sabang River.

Heights really don’t scare me and hanging bridges are supposed to be fun. So I was not worried one bit when our good host, V, told us that we’re gonna cross one; I thought to myself, no problem, piece of cake.

We arrived at a rather remote place in Baler, parked our car, and headed up the concrete steps to our next rendezvous; I gazed up from the stone steps and came into full view of the bridge we’re gonna cross. It is the longest freaking hanging bridge I’d ever seen.

The day was grey as we went out of bed; after four days of excellent sunny weather we finally got a taste of the real climate in The Netherlands. It was drizzling as we zoomed to Rotterdam, the working district of this country. The architecture here was very different from the cities we visited previously, here modern skyscrapers and bridges outnumber the classic Dutch brick structures. 

The rain was not gonna let us down, we went out with our cameras wrapped in plastic and started shooting the city.