Catanduanes Hospitable People

In most of the local travels we had, we just looked for resorts,pension house,inns,hotels to stay during our vacation. This is the first time that we experienced the hospitality of the local folk courtesy of our Brgy Captain & friend Lennon Tawat who invited us to see his hometown, Catanduanes. The local folks welcomed their visitors with food, so we hopped in from one home to another during mealtime. Try to imagine the delicacies that we have to taste and enjoy before we transfer to another relative or friend's house. The Tawat being a political clan ( many of his relatives are incumbent government officials) and has close family ties, we are really obliged to go to as many relatives house as we can.

Former DAR Director Lito Soledad (5th from left)

Baras Brgy Capt ( nd from right)

Puraran Brgy Captain (1st from right)

Tita 

Uncle's house (sitting nd from left) and mostly neighbors in Dolores Pasay

PBM Edwin Tanael (3rd from left) and wife Ate Son (4th from left)

Former Vice Mayor (1st from left Standing)

We also noticed that every home has a narra furniture, mostly the sala set, dining set or door panel but in the picture above even the window pane is narra which showed the richness of their natural resources. However, since the local government is protecting the forest, there is an existing log ban on narra trees, not a good news for us who were inspired to get a narra furniture to bring back to Manila but good for the Catanduaenos since their narra industry will have a better future.

Bicol Adventure

Catanduanes Holiday

We were very fortunate to have been invited to Virac by our Brgy Captain Mr, Lennon Tawat to attend the town fiesta however our schedule did not permit us to do so but we were able to attend the birthday celebration of his cousin, one of the provincial board members of Catanduanes, Mr. Edwin Tanael.

PBM Edwin Tanael & wife Ate Son ( 3rd & 4th from left)

We experienced the Catanduanes hospitality to the highest level, from a very warm welcome to  accommodation to their homes to every special guided tours to lunch/dinner invitations to our hosts relatives.

The VIP treatment started at the airport upon our arrival, our welcoming party is PBM himself, our tourist guide is the former DAR director Mr. Lito Soledad, when we attended PBM’s birthday party our group is at the president table, the other guests includes the highest officials of the Catanduanes province such as Vice Governor Bong Teves, the son of the Governor Mr. Tiptip Wong also a town mayor, the 10 other Provincial board members, town majors, vice majors, barangay captains . We felt like we are in the middle of a proclamation rally.

The tour guide Kuya Lito, having served as Director of the Dept of Agrarian Reform for nine (9) years showed us to the tourist spots of the province, we were able to visit 6 out of 11 towns of Catanduanes.

gabi,suman,malagkit

crab,fish.local bagoong

The most enjoyable part of this vacation were the food served in the different houses we were invited, menus that were home made and not seen  in the restaurants. Gariang – relative of gabi, fried palaka, taktakon, fresh pili fruit, kalabaw (sinigang,adobo) gabi with gata

fried palaka