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Lost in Batangas

I brought Lola Bats (my 93-yr old grandma, my dad's mom) to Padre Garcia, Batangas to visit the old house and her friends. As with every Lola's-day-out trip to Padre Garcia, we just had to visit her hometown of Cuenca and visit my cousin and his family in Alitagtag (still in Batangas). However, the bridge at one barangay (Pinagtung-ulan, San Jose), which links Cuenca to Lipa City, was not passable to traffic. We went through an alternate route, one which starts at Palanca, San Jose and ends at the heart of Cuenca town. The road was far from flat; the narrow road led us up the mountain and then down a ravine to a stream, then up again, and across four bridges... all in a lush forest. We reached our destination, barangay San Felipe in Cuenca after an hour.

It was night when we left Alitagtag; I decided to follow my cousin's advice and use the same route to get to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) Tollway (which is a 20-km drive straight to Sto Tomas town). The dark made me disoriented, and I think I must have missed the turn to Palanca because the road I was at was a more open road; no ravines, no bridges. I asked the barangay tanods and policemen for directions to the STAR Tollway. Everyone I had asked said I was on the right road. At the end of this narrow road is the Tollway.  If I remember correctly, we passed through Bungahan (Cuenca), Natunuan (which I am sure is in San Jose), some other barangays, I think, then Balete and Balagtas. These two barangays I've never heard of before. Even Lola Bats was clueless, but then again, she's 93 now.

Finally, the narrow road ended at an intersection with a police station. I stopped again and asked where the STAR Tollway was. The man pointed across the road, but I just stared at the signboard of the police station: we were in Batangas City! All along, I thought we were going to either San Jose or Lipa City! I was shocked that instead of turning north, we headed due south!  If I had made a left turn somewhere, we would have ended up in Bauan town, nowhere near any tollways, and closer to Tagaytay City than I intended. The interchange at Batangas City is the very end of the STAR Tollway; very close to the Batangas Port, the gateway to the Philippines' nautical highway.

I have always wanted to drive the whole stretch of the STAR Tollway once it's open to traffic. And in this instance, I did, not because I intended to, but because I accidentally came across it. 
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Comments

  1. rene june hernandezMay 3, 2009 at 3:14 AM

    memorable cuenca batangas....i lost half my tooth there

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna CuevasMay 3, 2009 at 10:28 AM

    buti hindi nainip si lola

    ReplyDelete
  3. rochie cuevasMay 5, 2009 at 7:43 AM

    rj: bakit kaya?

    anna: si lola pa ang excited, naalala daw niya yung mga barangay na dinaanan namin... dun daw sila dumaan ni lolo noong may traktora pa. haha! long-term memory!

    ReplyDelete

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