Bike Touring the Philippines
For most of his life, Melchizedek "Merky" Aranas Garcia have been dreaming of traveling the entire Philippines-each of the 81 provinces, there is. His dream came true in 2019 when he biked around the country for the first time.
Merky is just one of the growing numbers of Filipinos who are taking the extreme length to pedal their ways around the country, exploring places most Filipinos can only dream of.
On February 24, 2021, Merky, along with fellow adventure bikers, Romeo Llante of Cavite and Valeri de Guzman of Baguio City started their journey to bike tour the archipelago all the way to Davao City where Merkey lives.
Garcia is a seafarer by profession and when he arrived in the country following a 14-months work onboard, he planned that he will bike his way home to Davao City.
Like Garcia, Llante is an engineer working in the Middle East for almost 10 years while de Guzman is a social entrepreneur.
This is not the first time for the trio to bike their way around the Philippines. Garcia did his first in 2019 right after getting off the ship. Llante also did an extended bike tour in 2019, spending six months on the road alone. de Guzman is also a veteran long-distance biker.
They left San Pedro, Laguna on the 24th of February, and for the next 45 days, they would pedal their way to Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Garcia said that bike touring is an entirely different approach than just doing the Philippine Loop. “With bike touring, your aim is to tour the country rather than just passing by, doing the Maharlika Route all the way to Mindanao and taking the RORO (Roll-on, Roll-Off) ship to cross the island,” Garcia said.
"The goal is to tour, not just speed your way around the country, without even stopping to enjoy the destinations," Garcia said.
“When I was growing up, I dream of biking my way around Mindanao. When I had my apprenticeship on board, I saw how beautiful the Philippines is,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that back then, he had no money and thought of just biking his way to get to places.
For Llante, it was an outlet to get away from the hustle of life in Cavite and from working overseas for an extended period.
What open time, open budget means is that they have no formal plans of what route they are going to take. “Anytime we can change our plan, we can change our route, we can change how long we are going to stay in a place,” Garcia said.
The trio agreed to their plan. They can spend as much time on the road as they can. They passed by countless tourism destinations during their 45 days on the road.
“I wanted to climb mountains,” Llante said. In his 2019 tour, he climbed 11 mountains including Mount Apo, Kitanglad in Bukidnon, Hibok-hibok in Camiguin Island.
They have crossed muddy road, climbed mountain roads just to get out-of-the-way waterfalls, rivers, and communities they wanted to explore.
“Our longest stay was in Samar, where we spent 2 weeks exploring the two provinces,” Garcia said.
They camped out in Huplag Adventure Camp in Bantayan Cliff, Ando Island, Borongan City where they get to experience sleeping on a hanging hammock with a 150 meters drop to the seas.
“We waited for the replica of Magellan’s ship the Juan Sebastián Elcano to arrive in Guiuan, Eastern Samar,” Llante said.
When the El Cano arrived in Homonhon Island, they rented an outrigger to get closer to the ship. “Sadly, we were not allowed to go on board because of Covid protocols,” Llante said.
After the El Cano crossing, they spend the next 2 days in Homonhon and Suluan Islands before heading back to the mainland and off their way to Leyte.
Along with their ways, they were met by fellow bikers who are only too eager to host them. “Sometimes, I informed friends who I met during the 2019 tour that I am passing by,” Garcia said.
“Sometimes, when they met us, they would bike with us to destinations, and when we get there, foods are already prepared for us,” Garcia said.
The trio, along with other bike clubs that hosted them, also held community engagement programs like feeding and giving school supplies for children.
Biking for an extended period of time can be a difficult task and it takes determination and courage just to conquer steep climbs and muddy roads to get to their next destinations.
“Before I arrived from my work onboard, I already planned my bike tour, told some of my friends I’m doing a bike tour again,” Garcia said.
Garcia wanted to invite friends so that it will be more fun. “It is more fun to share the road with friends who share the same passion as you are,” Garcia said.
Llante and de Guzman rise to the challenge of Garcia.
“My bag only consisted of 3 short pants, shirts,” Garcia said. On his backpack, he carries his drone that would prove to be very useful in getting dramatic, scenic shots.
“You only need to bring light materials, all our clothing are quick-dry,” Llante said.
Their daily budget is only 500 pesos per person per day, except for destinations that they would need to spend more, 500 was their daily budget which include foods, hotels, drinks.
"On the road, you need to eat well and hydrate well," Llante said.
“The plan really is to set-up tents by sunset,” Garcia said.
“We would sleep in barangay halls, beaches, gasoline stations, roads with trees we can hang our hammocks,” Llante added.
But mostly, Filipinos welcomed them to their homes, offering sleeping spaces. Experiencing the hospitality of the Filipino people was a humbling experience. "We are strangers and yet they welcome us, provide us shelter and food as we share our stories with them," Garcia said.
“When there is nowhere else to sleep, we would pay entrance fees to resorts and just camp on the beach,” Llante added.
There were days also that they do really need to take a good sleep to recover physically and had to spend nights in resorts or inns. “We need to rest, but hotels are our last resort,” Garcia said.
They also agreed never to travel during nighttime, except for one instance during the first few days of the tour. after pedaling for almost 18 hours, they arrived in Naga City around 11 pm raking in almost 200 kilometers.
“We agreed to pedal only during daylight, where sunset catches us up, we would set up camp for the night, we are not in a hurry anyway,” Garcia said.
200 kilometers is the most the pedaled in a single day, after that, their average is just about 80 kilometers per day.
There are times that they would need to rest at noon for an extended time as the heat of the sun becomes almost unbearable. “We rest where we wanted to, we don’t plan of getting to this town or that town, we stop at sunset,” Garcia said.
When they arrived in Davao City where Garcia is from, de Guzman had to make her way to Cagayan de Oro and left the two. De Guzman could be in Cebu as of this writing, doing her Cebu loop on and on her way to Negros Island.
THE PHILIPPINES IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
Garcia and Llante eventually pedaled their way to this city, spending two days along Sayre Highway, exploring Bukidnon. They arrived here on May 1 and spent 4 days here exploring and meeting with fellow Philippine Bike tour loopers.
Words on the biking community here were that de Guzman was met by an all-female bikers group and was given a warm welcome.
Bike touring the Philippines was a humbling experience for Garcia and Llante. They have pedaled almost 3 thousand kilometers and visited most provinces along the Maharlika Highway.
Garcia’s count crossed out 63 out of 81 provinces since he started his bike tour in 2019. Llante crossed out 11 mountains, and almost visited each province in the Philippines.
They have seen most of Filipinos can only dream of- touring the entire Philippines, learning cultures and traditions, meeting people, and experienced lgendary Filipino hospitality and conquering their own selves.
Garcia and Llante is a testament of achieving dreams even if it means just being armed with just bare necessities.
Garcia and Llante is now planning their next bike tour, hoping that more bikers would join them.
all photographs were provided by Merky Garcia
FOR THEIR 2021 Philippine Bike Tour, Garcia spent 35 thousand while Llante spent 50 thousand.
Since Valerie de Guzman was already in Cebu, she was not around for the interview.
