Hitchhiking in Philippines: Tuguegarao
14th of March, 2025.
I wake up with the sunrise and it’s beautiful! I pack up my stuff and get ready to leave. Jeff tells me they can give me a lift to the intersection. Great! Jhoana gives me two of those cheese muffins which I love. Yummy!
I think I wait for over one hour until somebody finally stops. Although there are very few cars coming this way too.
Michael, Emer and Jorly are going to Echang, a small town just after Santiago. I was expecting to get at least to Santiago, a bigger town, so from there I know it will be easy to, at least, reach Tuguegarao, the biggest town towards my destination in North, and it’s about 6 hours driving from here. Michael, the driver, tells me about the tribe people who live in this region, the province of Isabela. They are called Aeta, and they look like a mix of Philippino and African people. They are kind of nomads, moving from one place to another, and they live also by the highway. The ones I see by the road, seem to have very few resources.
From Echang, I start walking holding my sign which reads Tuguegarao. A car stops soon and a lovely lady called Joy tells me to get in. She is only going to the next town, Alicia, but at least I can get across Echang. It’s noon, so the sun is burning hot. Joy lives in Switzerland, after moving there with her late husband. She is adorable and very surprised about my travels. I ask for a few bananas she has on the back, and that’s what I have for lunch. When we get out of the car, she tries to hitchhike with me but I tell her it will be difficult for someone to stop here in town, so I start walking.
Things get complicated. A pick up with a woman stops and after holding me up for a few minutes, while several cars pass by, she tells me that, even though she is going to Tuguegarao, she’s stopping at home to do some stuff now, and is only going there in the afternoon. So? I think she’s just too afraid of me; not able to identify my good character even after listening to my whole story; and simply curious to know what I am doing. It’s OK to be curious but please, don’t waste my time, making me wait under the hottest sun, carrying 23 kg just to satisfy your curiosity.
Another pick up stops and again, two guys inside ask me what am I doing. Seriously? Is that SO difficult to understand? They tell me to be going only 5 minutes ahead. Of course. I lose it a little bit and tell them that nobody who wants to take a bus would walk under the sun like that, holding a sign with the name of a town. They come back after some minutes, and the driver tells me he wants to drive me all the way to Tuguegarao. He seems genuine, but not so much the man with him. As I tell them that I cannot accept for him to drive me there because of my principles of not costing anything to the drivers who give me lifts, the other guy laughs. I look at him and say that principles are not something funny, something to laugh at it, but something to be true to it. The driver actually seems ashamed of his friend, and tells me that he understands.
I manage to hide under the shade of a tree while I wait for the cars to come. A few people pass by and talk to me, asking if I need help to come to the bus station. One of them, Rachelle, is actually very lovely, and she tells me she admires me for what I am doing. How sweet!
After two and a half hours waiting, finally somebody stops. Din, Sherika and their niece Tika are going to a mall in the next town, Cauayan, so they take me there. Sherika is gorgeous and she reminds me of the Aeta people. From the mall I start walking again.
When I am almost outside the town, a man in a van asks me if I want a ride to Tuguegarao. Finally!
Pastor Melanio, his wife Glaiza and another preacher, Moises, are going to Tuguegarao to deliver a motorbike there (we are riding with it inside the van), and to preach. Actually, pastor Moises gets out of the car a bit earlier. We have some sandwiches with bread spread, so I finally get something to eat. I have three sandwiches. Laugh. Soon after, Glaiza asks me if I want to try some Dimsum. I say yes! She strikes me like someone lovely but super humble about it. Dimsum are some dumplings (either fried or steamed) and yellow rice. You also get some sweet oil with onions, and soy sauce. Everything is delicious and I finish it all very happy!
As we arrive in Tuguegarao, Pastor Melanio tells me he will ask the people from the church if I can camp in their garden, as it will be after dark by the time we get there. Great!
At first, I think they were a bit suspicious at me, and that’s just by the look in their faces; but soon enough I think they understood who am I for real, and everything is fine.
The head of the house, Ricky, a tuk-tuk driver, invites me to come to the church. As I am exhausted for walking and standing under the sun for so many hours today, I try to refuse. Even more when they tell me that we will be back at 23.00 hours. It’s now soon after 19.00 hours. But as they tell me that there will be nobody left at home, I feel kind of obliged to go.
When we first arrive at the sports court where the service is being held, everything seems fine. The space is divide between men to the left and women to the right. All women wear long dress or skirt, and they all have long hair. I am wearing trousers and have short hair. As I sit in the “women’s” side, many of them come over and take all the chairs from around me, moving it somewhere else away from me, and soon I am surrounded by nothing and nobody, with all the women in somehow around me.
One lady with whom I was talking since the beginning, tells me to come and have some instant noodles in a separated area. I come and eat. Then, things start to get weird.
I am invited to sit with two senior men, who are holding their bibles, and soon another senior woman join us. There’s also a young man, and the lady who gave me the instant noodles. I can tell that she doesn’t agree with whatever is that they are trying to pull.
And they are trying to baptize me! Only after I’ve been here for some minutes! The senior man who can read in English, read two passages of the bible and them ask me if I am ready to accept Jesus Christ as my saviour and something else I can’t remember, because now he will start to explain to me how the procedures for the baptism work. What? I tell them, calmly and respectfully, that I came here only as a visitor, to watch the service. They keep on reading other passages of the bible, but the whole point is basically trying to convince me to accept their faith and ask to be baptized. Nope! After some time, I think they realize that this is not happening, so they take it easy and soon the two senior men leave.
I have some fried noodles with the others, and some delicious sweet noodles and jelly salad with all purpose cream.
We go back to the sports court and this time I think people know already about me so I am “allowed” to sit next to other women. A lovely lady invites me to come and stay with her, as she lives alone, but I explain to her that I am already staying with Ricky’s family.
They sing and read passages of the bible. Pastor Melanio preaches. The young girls siting next to me seen very happy to meet me, so I tell them that we can take photos later, after the service. They get super excited.
When the service is about to finish, the nice lady who invited me to stay with her, tells me I must come in front because they will give me some blessing for my protection. I wish I hadn’t come, and I wish they had asked me if I wanted to come. She stays right beside me and tells me I must repeat everything what the pastor says. He starts smoothly, only saying some simple things, I am kind of not really repeating it because I don’t really feel like it, so I’m more like mumbling the words. Until, again, he uses those same sentences which the senior man tried to make me “accept”, something about Jesus Christ being my saviour and all that. What? You cannot do this to people! This is wrong! This is actually deceiving, and if there’s a god and a Jesus Christ, I’m sure that this is not what they expect you to do when they say for you to go and preach the word of god, and to help others to understand it. Deceiving is lying, and lying is one of those 10 commandments which a guy called Moises supposedly got from god. No need to say that I didn’t repeat one single word. I get very disappointed with all this and let that clear to them.
As the kids ask me for photos, I go with their flow because I know it’s not their fault. They are all very naive and innocent to all this. And they are so happy with the photos. Soon, many people are asking for photos and I simply keep on smiling and taking the photos with them.
When we are on our way to Ricky’s house, as we talk about many different things, he asks me how I’m feeling. I honestly don’t even know what to answer, but what ever is that I say, he turns into a completely different thing. He says that before I was tired and now I am not, and that’s because when you praise the lord you few happy. I was not praising the lord! I am super tired, exhausted, but I am being polite, as your guest, because you are helping me.
What surprises me the most as I lay in bed is the memory of the people from the Universal Church, in Manila. It’s not because they were Brazilians but their attitude. Not once, not even for a moment, I felt pushed to do anything regarding their church. Yes, I watched a service, but it was a very short one; and even though they prayed for me, it was just something that they were doing because they believed it would help and protect me, and not because they were trying to persuade me to accpet their religion as mine. And I admire that posture very much.
10 Years Around the World 