Mindoro Bikepackers Day Two: Sablayan - San Jose

December 28, 2010

First stop: Mercury drug to buy some water
We woke up late at 6:00 a.m. and had to rush to leave Sablayan before the sun gets too hot. First stop was at their local Mercury Drug store to refill our hydration packs and bottles with water.

Having breakfast at the corner carinderia
We had breakfast at the corner carinderia. I don't know if the guys noticed but it seems pork adobo is a staple in these parts. Notice that I'm drinking the bottled water that we bought from Mercury. During the whole trip we didn't attempt to drink from the tap to be sure that we're free from any possible stomach bugs.

The soy milk stand 10 kilometers from Sablayan
Just ten kilometers from the town of Sablayan is a soy milk stand where I drank the most delicious soy milk I've ever tasted. What's so cool is they make their own soy milk with only some salt and sugar added - no preservatives. It sells for only P10.00 a bottle.

The rough road to San Jose
The road to San Jose is a mix of this type of road and cemented roads. It seems easy at first but it can get pretty tiring after riding on it for kilometers and kilometers on end. Add to that the heat of the sun plus the dust coming from speeding jeepneys, trucks, buses and SUVs. In this stretch, there are only a few trees, so what I do is I time trial from one tree shade to the next, trying to imagine that I'm riding the Paris Roubaix. Weird, I know, but it helped me finish the ride.

The Road to San Jose
This is a short stretch of wet pavement before we hit the bridge that's near the gate to the Sablayan Penal Colony.

Getting some sodas from a roadside store
Here's us having some softdrink and trail mix bars at a roadside store. They thought we were from the military. I guess it's because of my tummy. Those washboard abs are a dead giveaway.

The Road to San Jose
We were laughing at how some roads were cemented and some were not. It was as if only the favored barangays were able to get a small percentage of their elected leaders' pork barrels and the rest were just left behind.

Lunch in a carinderia in Concepcion
We had early lunch in this roadside carinderia in Concepcion. They weren't expecting a lot of customers so they had to buy some rice from a nearby competitor. We stayed here for about 45 minutes before we continued riding.

The view
People ask us what made us do all these things. Well, this picture tells it all - we're fans of those electric poles and hi-tension wires. Oh! And the wonderful scenery adds some value, too!

The uphill after the Patrick bridge
The locals said that there were only a few climbs for this stretch of road and they were correct. The problem is when they said climbs, they're not short at all. Here is a shot of the climb after Patrick Bridge and we had to rest in the middle to recover. Why hello granny gear!

Domeng Resting on the street, literally
We are no supermen. Here we are resting at the side of the road about 10 kilometers away from San Jose.

Enjoying some watermelons in the outskirts of San Jose
Ed was craving for watermelons since Sablayan. So when he saw a store selling watermelons when we arrived at San Jose, we just had to stop and enjoy some. Just look at that happy face of his.

Having the bike washed after two days of biking in Mindoro
After eating at Jollibee and checking in our hotel, we brought our bikes to a nearby carwash to have them washed. Eric, being an owner of a carwash himself, supervised the washboys and taught them the proper way to wash a bike.

Going up to our hotel rooms
With the bikes washed, we went up to rooms in Mindoro Plaza Hotel to shower, rest and get a massage.

Domeng and Eric go online to check out what the folks back home are saying
While I was having a massage session in our room, Domeng and Eric went to an internet cafe to check what the folks back home are saying on Facebook.

At the San Jose town plaza
Here's the three of us at the town plaza after we had dinner at Macky's Lechon and Restaurant. Ed didn't join us because his foot was swollen from drinking soy milk and eating string beans.

Check out the bikes from San Jose
Check out bikes from the locals of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Far out! Can you say lowered?

Check out the map of our ride:


Read about the whole four-day adventure! Here are the links to the entries:
Day One: Batangas City - Abra de Ilog - Sablayan
Day Two: Sablayan - San Jose
Day Three: San Jose - Roxas
Day Four: Roxas - Calapan - Batangas City

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