The long way home

Papa finally got home today after being stranded since Thursday, thank God! It was just supposed to be balikan trip, all he brought with him was leche flan and chocolate muffins for my brother. No thanks to the landslides that blocked Marcos Highway and Kennon Road, he got stuck in Baguio with no change of clothes and no cellphone charger. Still, my dad is a very hard-headed chum and wanted to come home already, especially since Mama just came back from a week in Surigao yesterday. This is the same guy who went up to Baguio in the midst of typhoon Pepeng, after all (while my paranoid office took us home early as a safety precaution--and dropped us off in front of our doorsteps).

And so, my dad is home, safe and warm, but not after three bus rides, one jeepney ride, one van ride, one tricycle ride (12 of them crammed in one tricycle!), and three long, muddy hikes...

the Victory Liner bus from Baguio took them only up to here

damaged road

hiking along the highway

lapuk

boulders along Kennon Road from the landslides

more walking along mud

finally, dry land

this bridge in Pangasinan was impassable...

because it collapsed

Seems like my dad had quite an adventure--and a 12-hour adventure, at that! He's exhausted and is getting a massage as I type. I'm glad that he's as tenacious as he is (he seemed to forget that he's a heart patient, my God!), because if he weren't, he'd still be in Baguio right now, and we'd still be deathly worried.

Anyway, it looks like he enjoyed the way home. Who says baby-boomer dads can't camwhore?