Olango Tango
After all the shoots and edits, Sher invited me to go with her to neighboring Olango island. Our excuse was to look at the locations for her upcoming thesis for next term, but we really just wanted to chill and get away from it all.
I had inadvertently become the inspiration for her thesis, which is about a datu's son trying to be something he is not just to please his dad; he , only to come out in a spectacular dance number in the end. The datu's son's name, by the way, is Elias. Since I had been such a wellspring of inspiration for her, she wanted me to come with her and take a look at the places, and see what we can work with. Her producer, P, was supposed to come as well, but he had plans with his BF.
To get to Olango, we had to take a boat harbored close to Hilton. It's a short, 30 minute boat ride. It was great feeling the sea breeze on my face, and hanging out and bonding with Sher.
Sher rented a trike for the day once we landed at the Olango Pier. It's a very long arm of cement, just because the boats have to dock far from land because water is so shallow around Mactan Island and Olango Island, both being coralline formations.
It was a 20-minute trike ride to the Southern end of Olango island, where the bird sanctuary was. It's a collection of very wide tidal flats that grow up to 7 feet deep during high tide but are sandy beaches at low tide. THis makes it excellent feeding ground for birds who collect fishies and shells stuck in the sand. This also made it pretty difficult for shooting, because we had to time the shots to the tides. It's all worth it, though, because it's the most beautiful place I've seen in the whole world, and they did do a good job of protecting this vast land from development and human colonization.
After that, we rode to Talima Island Resort, which was an awesome place, secluded from everything else. It faced Mactan Island, so you can see the lights at night. We hung out by the sea until before sunset, then took the boat back to Mactan Island.
Riding the boat back, I felt a sudden pang of pain. I had just been in an awesome place that I wanted my brothers and dad to go to, but they can't. They are away from me, and I suddenly missed them. No matter, I will be seeing them in a few days.