When Ms. Lala Ambray, Provincial Tourism Officer, fetched me at half past 7:00 o’clock, I was already in my faux tourist get-up. It was a beautiful June 16 Wednesday morning, the sky was spotless, and we were headed for San Agustin, Surigao del Sur for the launching of Britania Island Tour Package.
The invite said, "be our guest and critic (sic) who shall evaluate/assess the whole tour product and its features for possible modification and refinement." We would also sit as jurors of the "Layag Design Contest," a corollary activity of the launch.
We reached San Agustin’s Town Square before 9 o’clock. Two years ago we would have been half-way still. But now that the highway had been fully concreted, travel time is cut in half and not to mention, many times more comfortable.
We walked toward the sea, to the lighthouse that looked like a three-tiered cake for its conical shape. Visitors from all over Surigao del Sur and Caraga Region, apparently done with breakfast, were now chatting, milling about, and blowing smokes. We stopped midway to look at the dead fountain’s focal point---a snaking swordfish in heavy paint! Does water spew forth from its sharp-toothed mouth?
Somebody smiled and we realized it was the amiable first lady of San Agustin, Ms. Mercy Alameda. Beso-beso. She then introduced us to the regional directors of NEDA and DILG and other visitors before leading us to the table weighed down by fruits and some edibles. We politely declined as we were still full.
It was past 10 o’clock when the Municipal Tourism Officer briefed us on the day’s activity. From San Agustin we had to proceed to Salvacion where all vehicles would be parked and everybody must take either a tricycle or a motorcycle to Britania. This way, she said, we’d get first hand experience on how it is to be a tourist in Britania. Well…
After about 10 minutes, we reached Salvacion Junction where the newly-built Tourist’s Information Center gleamed and smelled of fresh paint. (Lala Ambray commented on the placement of apostrophe; I let it pass, the activity being not about punctuation.) Too eager to greet us in their rehearsed lines and smiles, the reception staff made us write, among other things, our name on a logbook. In exchange we got a shell-laden, hand-painted “Welcome to Britania” lei and a fringed buri hat.
Tricycles and motorcycles vroomed to life after visitors mounted them. DILG Provincial Director Bulabog made me ride a motorcycle driven by the barangay captain of Salvacion. Good choice as he was a driver skilled at maneuvering his red-and-black Honda away from craters, puddles and rocks that littered the unpaved, narrow road. And most importantly, he knew his facts: From the highway, it’s 2.8 kilometers to Britania; the proposed road (not the private road currently being used) leading to Britania had been converted from a barangay to a national road, which means it may be completed sooner than usual.
Expectedly the road was better than when I last visited it, which was the Monday after Easter this year. However, despite our suggestion made weeks before the launch, there were no signages to guide tourists like me who have no sense of direction. (Although we saw one tarp on our way home, tourists would easily miss it as it was not conspicuously placed.) Thankfully, LGU-San Agustin had replaced the two rickety wooden bridges. But still it bothered me to see that garbage, mostly cellophanes and diapers, remained caught between the gnarled roots of mangroves that richly and beautifully line the dirt road. Unchecked, this may drive persnickety tourists away as it hints at the water quality of Britania. While this can easily be solved by a coastal clean-up, it’s really community education that will have a far-reaching effect.
When I reached Britania, the crowd was already thick at the area where the welcome program was to be held. Under a humongous blood-red umbrella were monoblock chairs and a long registration table. A rostrum stood beside a royal blue cloth that hung in front of a wall and pinned with words welcoming guests and visitors to Britania. As though in a concert, a group of men and women in blue, peach, and red floral outfit sang Kamayo ditties specially composed for the occasion.
As one important guest spoke after another, I couldn’t take my eyes off the rice cakes and the fresh young coconuts because my stomach was roiling from hunger as it was almost noon. And then finally, Gov. Johnny T. Pimentel, NEDA and DILG Regional Directors Cochingco and Bordeos unfurled the tarp just when the crowd turned restless from heat and hunger.
But lunch was still an island and a Layag Design Contest away!
*****
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