Day 15: Roxas – Taytay | Cycle touring in the Philippines

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning in Roxas. Time to go eat breakfast and hit the road ...

Shop en-route to Taytay. We knew that the road was going to deteriorate from here on and get much hiller.

The San Vincente turn off. The road starts climbing a lot more from here - good thing we'd had nearly 2 weeks to build up to it.

The San Vincente turn off. The road starts climbing a lot more from here, not long climbs, but lots of up-and-down and quite rough - good thing we'd had nearly 2 weeks to build up to it.

Down in the valley past Abongan. Shops and villages became very scarce along here and the road deserted.

So we were getting pretty desperate for some lunch when we arrived at this village. We asked at one tiny shop if there was any food to be had and they pointed at this place. Turned out they were serving rice-chicken soup for lunch and we were invited in to watch a karaoke TV show.

Taytay is a great little village, with an ancient fort right on the waterfront, and some good places to say. The place had a nice, chilled vibe and good views out towards other islands on the archipelago.

Taytay is a great little village, with an ancient fort right on the waterfront and some good places to say. It had a nice, chilled vibe and good views out towards other islands on the archipelago.

Fishing at sunset.

Had to take a photo of this.

Fighting cock.

Tricyles (in various forms of disrepair) are the dominant form of transport in Philippine towns and their tooting and noisy engines were usually what we woke to most days. This one has broken down and the drivers family are milling round while he fixes it. In the background is the Spanish-style Santa Isabel fort, built by Catholic priests in 1667.