DAY 1: Roxas City to Altavas

Day 2: Our First Roadblock

Our first day of our trip was a smashing success! We were pleasantly surprised how smooth things were going. Unfortunately, our luck ran out on our second day. We hit our first roadblock. While checking our bikes and making small tunes ups in the morning we discovered that one of the bike pedals on our bikes was broken! The tread inside the pedal was completely stripped and the bike pedal would not stay in. At this time, we weren't too worried about it as we didn't think it was too difficult to fix. The staff at our hotel were incredibly friendly and gave us directions to the nearest bike shops. Once we arrived at a bike shop we were told that we needed a new part to fix our bike pedal. Unfortunately, none of the bike shops were able to accommodate us with the part we needed. Roughly 3 hours had passed and we still had a broken bike. We were unsure of what to do and we wanted to hit the road as soon as possible. Thus our final decision was to purchase a new bike from one of the bike shops. We decided to donate our wounded bike as it was still useable. Especially, if the pedal gets replaced. We gave the bike to a kind 17 year old kid who helped us through the entire process of trying to fix the broken bike. Needless to say, he was incredibly happy. Overall it was a crazy morning, but we were finally on our way by noon.

About a kilometre into our bike ride we made our first stop to handout some sports equipment to a few kids. Giving out the first piece of equipment and seeing the joy and smile on the faces of the children made us forget all about our chaotic morning. It was exceptionally heartwarming to see how grateful the children were when they received an item of sports equipment.
During our bike ride it became quite evident how popular basketball is out here as we passed countless basketball courts. Therefore, we
made a concerted effort to stop whenever we passed a basketball court with children there. Especially if they didn't have a ball. Something that we also noticed, which was a little surprising was how many makeshift volleyball courts there were. Once again we made sure to stop whenever we passed a volleyball court with children.

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Every stop we made was rewarding, however, one of our most memorable stops was when we passed a house that was having a birthday party. There was a little girl who was having her 10th birthday. We decided we would give her a few badminton rackets and a skipping rope. We also serenaded her by singing happy birthday. Everyone at the party were so friendly and grateful to have us there. They provided us with delicious juice and tried to convince us to eat some cake, but we were full as we just ate lunch. 

By around 5pm we reached our destination of the day Altavas. Altavas is small town roughly 40km away from Roxas City, which is where we started. Before we went to find accommodation for the night we passed another basketball court where there was a men's basketball game happening. We stopped to watch as there were many spectators there. It was fascinating to see how into the game the spectators were. After the game we shot around with some of the local kids. It was an enjoyable experience to say the least.

In the end, a bumpy start to our day turned into a fun, adventurous and successful day. Every encounter we had was enjoyable and the overwhelming theme here so far is how kind and friendly everyone has been to us!

Much love, 

Issac 

Practicing their bumping skills

A group shot after we gave these kids a basketball. The boys want to be like Lebron James.