Saturday morning, after being cooped up all week, my wife and I really wanted to get out and about. My wife had found a photo of the Mangrove Boardwalk in Tanjay and suggested we go there. Suits me.
We thought it would be nice to have another kid along to keep our son company. A phone call was made to one of his aunts to check if a cousin could come. Since we had room in the car, the aunt and two of my son's cousins would ride along with us.
The Mangrove Boardwalk in Tanjay is a mangrove swamp that has been made into a park for tourists. According to britannica.com:
"Mangrove swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines throughout the world, usually between 25° N and 25° S latitude. The mangrove swamp is an association of halophytic trees, shrubs, and other plants growing in brackish to saline tidal waters of tropical and subtropical coastlines. This coastal forested wetland (called a “mangal” by some researchers) is infamous for its impenetrable maze of woody vegetation, unconsolidated peat, and many adaptations to the double stresses of flooding and salinity. Approximately 68 species of mangrove trees exist in the world. Their uneven distribution is thought to be related to continental drift and possibly to transport by primitive humans. Mangrove swamps are dominant particularly in the Indo-West Pacific region, where they have the greatest diversity of species—30 to 40 species of mangroves, compared with about 10 species in the Americas".
While everyone was getting ready, I searched online to find directions. Getting to Tanjay would be easy. As a matter of fact, we have driven to Tanjay a few weeks ago when Sibulan was having an electric brown out. We'd just hit the highway and go north.
Locating the Mangrove Boardwalk would be a different matter. I was able (yesterday) to find the location on Google maps, although using the map for directions might be tricky. The roads leading in were not named, and I wasn't certain that we might not come across other unnamed roads not shown on Google maps and be lead off into areas we didn't want to go.
As an aside - I wanted to include a screen shot of the Google map I looked at yesterday, but I was unable to find a map today showing the location of the Mangrove Boardwalk......not even with my browser's history.
We decided to simply drive to Tanjay and ask for directions to the Boardwalk when we arrived in the city. In Tanjay, we stopped at an eatery and my wife and sister-in-law talked to a couple having lunch. The conversation was in Bisaya, so I would have to rely on the two women.
Soon, we were back on the highway, going north. It became clear that whatever direction we received were of very little use to us. We noticed a road sign for Luca Boardwalk. This didn't jibe with our directions, but I had seen a road on Google maps going to Luca pier which was north of the boardwalk.
Taking this road lead us to a dead end with no mention of the Mangrove Boardwalk. The road at the dead end was a bit cramp, but I was able (just barely) to turn around. Fortunately, at the dead end, there was a tricycle picking up a family to take them to a funeral or wedding, or some special event. The driver said he'd be driving right past the road that would take us where we wanted to go, so we could follow him.
Thanks to the driver, we found our road. He would not accept a tip from us.
We arrived at the Boardwalk, no worse for wear. Leaving, we had absolutely no problem finding the highway, but don't ask me for directions.
No comments:
Post a Comment