Just the thought of the colorful sails I have to see in the morning I wasn’t able to sleep well, I woke up early but my family wasn’t that excited as me. They took their time moving around, my mother even washed clothes twice, she said the sailing competition will not start early because it is still low tide, the management will wait until high tide.

When we arrived at the beach shore, there were only few people around and the sail boats were far behind the shore because it was indeed low tide.  Thinking the competition didn’t start yet, my mother decided to have breakfast first because she was starving, I didn’t go with them and I went to the shore alone to take some photos.

While, I was there taking my time roaming around I have overheard the older men who went near their sail boats that someone had already won and they started removing the sails on their boat. I chuckled out of disappointment, my mother and sister owed me big time “low tide my ass” which means those group of men we saw walking to the shore before we reach the events place were already the contenders heading to the finish line.

When they’ve finished eating breakfast they picked me up and we went home directly because my sister has to attend a meeting at 10AM and has to attend the parade in the afternoon as well. Along the way we met some bikers and we already passed by them when I realized that they were in the biking competition, arrrgghhh I didn’t snap some photos of them.

Well, in the afternoon we returned to town to watch the float parade of Ginoo and Binibining MIMAROPA 3 Festival, it wasn’t entertaining like the parade on the first day of the festival.  We did some errands in town which made us go home a little dark already.

Fireworks display in Odiongan isn’t a normal occurrence; firecrackers maybe yes (joke).   We directly went home after the last tribe finishes their performance without waiting for the winner to be announced because we still need to go home so we could return to town to watch the fireworks display at 9 o’clock in the evening.

We had dinner and after I feed my pets we went to town, we are bit late because the fireworks display already started but we are still along the way (Odiongan National High School), the gate 2 of Odiongan South Central Elementary School was closed so we have no choice but to run to gate 1 which is only open for pedestrians.   We are able to see half of the fireworks display, kids and kids alike were amazed with the fireworks display in the sky that they keep saying “Wow” and it was indeed a wow.

After the 10 minutes fireworks display we went to the night market, while waiting for my sister finding a parking area we stand at a corner and I started asking my mother if I am already smelly from the whole day activity, what is epic when I turned around I saw a “balut vendor” and that’s where the foul smell was coming from, the vinegar for the balut.

The night market wasn’t that large but it was already good to have one, there are different items on sale at the night market from souvenir shirts, bargain clothes and dresses, souvenir key chains, paintings, Christmas decors and etc., The other end was food stalls which is good for hungry night goers and visitors looking around at the marble stores at the Children parks.

The ground demonstration was held at Odiongan Sports Complex and it started around 6 o’clock in the evening, it was full of people.  There are many police around and even marshals to ensure the safety of everyone but no matter how they prohibit the people not to get too close, there are still some who doesn’t follow and the worst they sit in front of you.

When we arrived at the sports complex there wasn’t a good spot to see and took pictures anymore, even there was, I can’t left my mother alone but with her permission she let me go upfront which I did.  I sat in front of some people which gladly they let me after ensuring I am not blocking their way but as expected there are some who sat in front of us but we are able to asked them to leave, upon seeing that there was a space upfront where most camera men or people with cameras were seated I have asked permission to a classmate who work in the local government if I could also seat upfront too, I wasn’t permitted initially but then she said yes upon seeing there are some other people who were seated there too.  Thank you L.

Seated upfront I was able to use my camera well, it was only too bad I forgot to bring a tripod and clean my camera at home so my shots where a little bit foggy, good thing I brought extra battery and memory with me or else I will not able to record and took photo of all the contenders.

The Tribu de ESTI was able to show what they’ve got after some troubles on their recorded music/drums background, they didn’t use a lot of props and they doesn’t have many dancers to overthrow the ground but nevertheless they  did their best. The next contender was the Coron Festival of Ferrol,  contrary to what is a norm during ground competition they’ve use lively patriotic music, on their performance they are able to depict how Filipino lives the ancient times, pottery making, traditional Filipino games and they even showcase a couple dancing in top of wooden bench.

The third contender was the Biniray Festival from Romblon, Romblon they were great but obviously they were not the best, their tribe is very small mainly composed of men, the main attraction was the beautiful graceful dancer in his colourful costume and their powerful drums.

The next performer was the Kanidugan Festival, honestly I didn’t know it was our own until the host announces it, I overlooked them at the town parade maybe because their costumes wasn’t that great? (Haha, just kidding), their costume was good but it isn’t too catchy that you would be able to say WOW.  I think the tribes during town fiesta/Kanidugan Festival has a better costume than them.  I love how they started their dance performance, showing how a coconut was utilized and used by ancient people and the modern people today. What is amazing was a young farmer removing the coconut husk using his mouth, darn what a strong teeth he had huh? The Kanidugan festivals has an energetic dance moves that will left you grasping for air because they move like lightning. They were good but they are not the best as well.

The Talabukon Festival follows, they started their performance with a story telling how the giant Talabukon extend his help to the local people when a pirate came to their town.  Their tribe has a great number, what is catchy was their beautiful women dancers who look like fairies to me.  They’ve dance gracefully but their drums and sounds was lame, yes it wasn’t powerful enough to get people’s attention.

The last but not the least performer was the Carabao Festival from San Jose, Romblon.  They started their performance with a powerful introduction. Their clothes and costumes, confident smiles, rhythmic and graceful moves, people cheering was good enough to say they are the best.  I wasn’t able to video their whole performance because I was busy looking at them performing that’s how good they were for me, when they’ve finished it was already dark. Just like the others we didn’t wait for the announcement of winners anymore since it was already getting late and we are planning to go town later to watch the fireworks display.

Update:

The Carabao Festival from San Jose, Romblon won the Romblon Festival Competition.