Mindoro and PanayMindoro a Panay

The Philippines is an island nation. Altogether it's made up of over 7,600 islands, and you can really feel it. We wouldn't get far on our bikes alone, so we're grateful for the local ferries that always carry us and our bikes between islands.

We take our first ferry on day three of the ride, from the port of Batangas. This city is roughly two days' ride south of Manila, and on the way there we got to enjoy a perfect descent down to Lake Taal, in the middle of which sits an island with an active volcano. The lake is huge, 18-25 km long, and it's entirely the result of an eruption from the volcano at its center somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago.

Things were lively at the port of Batangas, clearly they don't get cyclists through here every day. First, at the entrance, we pay a "terminal fee," and right after that another item with a blue slip of paper that the lady at the window calls an "assessment." We don't understand, but we nod along wisely and let ourselves be pointed in the right direction. There, about 8 Filipinos with flipcharts are waiting, selling tickets for our particular boat. Well, one of them sells while the rest look on, which is pretty normal in the Philippines - even in supermarkets they really do have huge numbers of staff compared to the West, on average about 2-3 people per customer.

We buy tickets for us and our bikes and are told the boat leaves from pier number 8. On the way we get redirected, told we need to go through the terminal and put our luggage through a scanner - we look at our over 70kg including the bikes and tap our foreheads in disbelief. In the end, though, the port boss himself says it's all fine, no need for the scanner since we apparently have the "assessment" (blue slip), and we just barely make our ferry. We sail into the city of Calapan and continue on across the island of Mindoro.