Batanes, Itbayat Island, An Old Man and Me

When I woke up the early afternoon was already hot and humid and the whole area was totally quiet with an eerie remote feeling. The sights, the sounds and the smells somehow seemed really different. Sounds odd I know, but even the people I had met, although briefly, seemed different. It could almost have been a different world.
No, it was a different world.

I've just got to say, if anyone wants to truly get away from anything and everything, as in stop the world, jump off, and disappear from view in the known world to a beautiful hideaway, then I think Itbayat Island must be way up on the list of perfect places. Maybe number one on that list.

Itbayat Island is not only the largest of the Batanes Islands, it's also the northernmost inhabited place in the Philippines being strangely located about 900 km from Manila but only about 180 km from Taiwan.

I slowly gathered my thoughts and recounted the events of the previous day whilst preparing a breakfast, well of sorts, on my new camping stove.

I think that this was the first time that I had ever gotten really p****d off with my bro-in-law. I had told him so in no uncertain terms. Then after sulking for a couple hours I apologised, gave him a hug, and told him I would take the tent and my stuff and camp out as I had planned. Even though it was still on the land of Nanay Fem there was absolutely no buildings in view in any direction
as far as the eye could see.

Before I had finished breakfast, and almost without warning the sunshine seemed to melt away, the sky got suddenly dark, the heavens opened and an unforgiving rain poured down.
As I peered out of my tent the mountains became grey and menacing. I began to feel a bit vunerable and silly.

Thankfully the storm only lasted a short time. It seemed to be gone just as quickly as it had arrived and the suns golden glow returned to bathe the whole area.

Travelling around as a tourist can sometimes result in time constraints. Means, we just don't take time out to 'stop and stare'. We just sometimes miss the opportunity to appreciate that the real life experiences around us will often give us the biggest and fondest memories, and the biggest and best rewards.

My bro-in-law and myself had planned to enjoy a 2 hour walk to Mount Karoboboan, just for fun, and catch a wonderful sunset, weather permitting. I had just started to pack up the tent when I heard shouting.

There wasn't supposed to be anyone in this area, and besides whoever it was sounded a bit angry.
Looking around I saw a figure, I could still hear him shouting. It was an old man with a stick, he was frantically shaking the stick and shouting something I obviously couldn't understand.
As he got closer, he suddenly started shouting in English, "hey Joe, hey Joe, I'm not the devil!", "hey Joe, hey Joe, I'm not the devil!"

I have to be honest, even though he appeared to be an old guy, even though he appeared to have some difficulty with his mobility, I admit to becoming a little nervous, a little anxious.

Almost subconiously I began to mentally consider just running off, out of harms way. But it seemed like it wasn't real, not really happening, I almost just stood there frozen.
He got closer and closer, and as he approached he was still shouting and waving his stick.
Finally, he was directly in front of me, wearing dark glasses and a white vest he was tall and thin and very wet, in fact just as tall as me.
He reached out towards me, very firmly grabbed my arm and threw down his stick and .....

It looks like I must apologise because this story may be too long for a regular thread, so if you want to read more and finish the story please go to my blog here:-

http://www.british-filipino.com/entry.php?31-Batanes-Itbayat-Island-An-Old-Man-and-Me