San Juanico Bridge, Leyte
We crossed the San Juanico bridge a little past 8pm and we were all starving from the long drive from Catbalogan where we stopped for refueling purposes. By crossing the bridge, we got to the province of Leyte. We were advised to eat at Stephanie Smoke House – Eat all you can.
For less than 300 you were entitled to unlimited food including dessert except for the halo-halo. The banquet consisted mainly of seafoods from steamed crabs, buttered shrimps and grilled tuna to name a few.
As I’ve mentioned, halo-halo wasn’t included so we decided to pay a little extra to try it out as it looked really good.
After dinner, it was time to look for a hotel to stay at. Hotel Alejandro located along P. Paterno st was really impressive especially when the lights are turned on at night.
The hotel dates back to 1932 and used to be a house which hosted several functions of the USAFFE during WWII. Unfortunately, the hotel was fully booked as several foreign guests were there for a convention.
We went around once more to look for a place to stay at but this all original Datsun 180B caught our eyes along the way. The interior was intact and the shell is straight. The daughter of the owner told us that the car came from the father of actress Lucy Torres – Gomez.
At the next street which is Burgos st, we found a nice and clean pension house. Rooms started at 800 pesos which includes cable tv, hot shower but no breakfast. Since we’re all tired, we decided to book ourselves for the night.
The next day, JP and Rouel gave their cars a much needed bath by bringing it to the nearest car wash service in the area.
The boys gave it a thorough cleaning especially the interior as were accumulating rubbish from the past few days of driving.
Right after the car wash, the guys picked up the rest of the gang from the pension house and then rain started to fall… we all decided to explore the town and go back to San Juanico bridge so we can experience it in broad daylight.
We first stopped at the Provincial Hall where Joao posed for the camera with one of his t-shirt creations that had a line that said “libud ta sa banwa”. That line is in Ilonggo, one of the many dialects in the Philippines which means “Let’s go around town”, quite appropriate if you would ask us.
Second stop was at San Juanico bridge, the country’s longest bridge. This bridge links the provinces of Samar and Leyte together. Its around 2,200m long and was constructed way back in 1969.
To be honest, we weren’t really that impressed with the bridge. It’s not that long and as you can see its not wide.
Worst of all, it had lots of potholes and the connection in between sections isn’t smooth. It’s so rough that it feels as if the dashboard of the Gemini wants to come off.
As you can see in this shot, no overtaking is allowed on the bridge.
Once we got to the end (Samar), we made a u-turn to repeat the whole process again and go back to Leyte.
