The ABC and D of Adventure! (Part 1)

A - A CAR'S TALE

While my cup of coffee was still hot, I prepared the things that I needed for a one-day adventure with friends. I'm an experienced traveler, I believe so, and I only need 30 minutes tops for a short trip like this before I can say, "I'm all set." I posted a "Bilar, here we come" status on my Facebook, finished my cup of lukewarm coffee and bid farewell to my blog with a self promise of writing about the said trip when I get back. So here I am.

I was excited for this trip after being on a self-imposed house arrest for a week so I didn't mind waiting for almost an hour for my friends in the next town where I will catch a ride with them going to our destination - BILAR. I ordered macaroons and mango juice in a bakeshop near the junction of Loay and the interior national highway. I sat down and waited for my friends who were still 20 kilometers away looking for calamansi to go with the tequila. The thought of calamansi triggered a slight hypersecretion of my salivary glands and the tequila brought tachycardia secondary to moderate excitement.

After several jeepneys passing by and passengers looking at me like I'm actually a tourist from another place (yeah, just bear with me okay?), a green Toyota Corolla parked in front of me. My friends were smiling, their white (or beige maybe, I'm not sure) teeth still managed to glow behind tinted glass windows. I smiled back at them, stood up and got inside the car in a flash. And so our road trip began...

Our hostess from Bilar could hardly wait for our arrival that she flooded our SMS inbox asking for our location. As we coursed along the steep and winding road going to the man made forest, I smelled something. I didn't mind it at first until I saw smoke coming out from the front hood. "I think I'm seeing smoke", I said in a not-so-sure tone. Then the car stopped. "Uh-oh"...

TO BE CONTINUED...