Kalibo

The 7:30 p.m. flight to Kalibo, Aklan, departed on time with only eight passengers on board.  It is an exhilarating experience flying with having so much space as you like on the airplane that made me imagine with a smile of having charted the 45-minute flight. The explanation as to why they could not change into a smaller aircraft was that the next flight to Manila had enough passengers waiting to fill the plane.  A short ride onboard a motorized tricycle gave me my first view of the city. After settling in the room, dinner followed with a short walk along Roxas Avenue. By 9:30 p.m. I joined most of the residents and we all called it a day.

As the sun was rising the next day, it was a good time to walk around the City to observe and learn.  The walk around could be called an environmental scan.  I found myself, at a barbershop and treated myself to a shave. The barber confirmed the observation that most residents went home early and that Kalibo is a daylight city as night life was very limited.  Our 11 a.m. appointment with the lawyer to settle matters in relation to my mother’s estate resulted to another meeting in the afternoon to make the necessary amendments to the legal documents. 

Lunch was in New Washington along the mouth of a river and we had to choose our fish from nets raised out of the water.  This was indeed a very pleasant surprise, having boiled and grilled “Mangagat” and “kinilaw na pasayan” (raw shrimp) was a feast.   The ride to and from the restaurant back to the lawyer's office, presented scenes of cultivated rice fields with more waiting to be made more productive.  Urbanization was also invading the traditional agricultural land.

  The local government had drainage improvement work on-going, and  a stop over at the local Land Transportation Office showed how busy the public servants were.  However, the waiting area for your name to be called was an opportunity for significant improvement to protect those concerned from the sun and rain. 

The requested room service massage from a local spa was very professionally superb; one must note that the appointment must be made before 8 in the evening. Another early to bed night which, in my opinion, is a blessing as this enables one to have ample time to rest and recharge.

Departure was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Upon check-in, we were informed that due to the need to change aircraft, our flight was reschedule to 7:30 p.m. Three additional hours at pre-departure flew by with a magazine and lots of people watching. The inconvenience of unexpected waiting time reminded me that you cannot have all flights on time with the “charted flight” feeling.  Such events always are tests of the choices you make. Let me say thank you to Josephine “Joecon” Concepcion and Rafael “Toto” Ong Jr. for their kind and gracious hospitality. The first trip to Kalibo was a pleasant and fruitful trip and is now one happy memory.*