Less than a two hour flight from Manila and we were already landing in Davao City, Mindanao. Josh and Belinda were there waiting to pick us up. They showed us a great time for the two days we were in Davao. We attended church, had lunch on a beautiful white sand beach, were introduced to kinilaw (a new favorite dish similar to civiche using vinegar instead of citrus juice), and grilled tuna jaw. Before we knew it David was there to take us further north to a smaller city - Malaybalay.
It doesn't look like much but there's a lot of meat on there and it was great!
After a month and a half in Manila, Malaybalay seemed small but actually has a population of 153,00 as of 2010. It didn't take long before we were headed out of town to visit a village. One night in Malaybalay and we were off on our first motorcycle adventure in the Philippines. David was our 'guide' for the two weeks in Mindanao and this first trip was a test of sorts to see how well we'd do on the bike. I've had about six months experience riding a dual-sport (street legal dirt bike) in Indiana. All of my experience was on the road however.
We didn't see much pavement on this trip:)
We rode for a couple of hours before we finally got to our destination. The terrain was rough! For me it was anyway... We went up and down some steep 'roads' some clay, some gravel, and some really chunky gravel with large boulders mixed in. David only had to take the bike up one short hill for me. It was a steep clay hill with big ruts I just couldn't seem to stay out of. I felt pretty tough getting through certain parts of the road especially with Erin on the bike (who did great). I was soon humbled by a local riding a little 100cc motorcycle with a few hundred pounds of rice strapped to it going over the same stuff I was with ease!
Our destination was a small village with a baptist church pastored by a national. We just had a short visit before it was time to head back home.
Check out these pictures from our journey!
Having merienda with the Pastor and his wife
Had a little trouble getting back across...
After a full day of riding on dirt roads we were all pretty tired. We were just about home when we had a little accident. There are dogs pretty much everywhere on the street and you never know what they're going to do. David was a little ahead of us and barely missed a dog crossing the road. The dog turned around, so I thought we were in the clear. It took two steps away from us then turned and went right under our front tire. We were going around 25 mph when we hit the road. We think Erin went over the bike and rolled while I stayed with the bike and slid. To add insult to injury the dog bit me! Erin came away with a few scratches. I had a bit of road rash and had to get rabies shots! It was a bad end to a great day. We are both all healed up and fully recovered from our crash.
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