A Case of Mistaken Identity

Last Saturday (21 October 2006), I decided to tarry and take pictures. Taking my “mid-age but reliable” (it’s not that old) film camera, I took a tricycle ride to the outskirts of Ilaya, an area near a very coralline seashore in the Mactan island. It was about five in the afternoon when I arrived there. It was my nth visit and my first during sundown.

I headed to the cleared-out mangrove swamp. A few of the mangroves remain, mostly along the sides of the swamp. There were two road dikes cutting across the swamp. The first one is inside a foreclosed property, the Coral Reef Hotel. This road dike is intended to connect its beach resort and cottage area to the hotel (which is nothing but mere framework). The other one is outside of the property. This is primarily used by people living in that area to cross the swamp.

The dikes provide good control of the sea water coming in to the former swamp. With the dike in place, the water is actually deeper during high tide. This allowed tourist-ferrying boats to enter into the area to dock when it is not in commission. At the same time, the outer dike made day-to-day fishing (read: fishing for viand in a single meal) easy for the locals.

(Hooked! A local allowed me to take a picture of his catch one early morning during my May 2005 visit to Ilaya.)

I took out my damaged-but-able tripod and headed to the middle of the dike. I was greeted by the locals I meet on the way. They were very respectful and some actually addressed me as "Sir".

It was low tide. One man was actually down in the swamp casting his net. I sat down and dangled my feet in the dike while I waited for the sunset. After a while, the man washed his net and called it a day.

When the sun was slightly down into the horizon, my true activity started. I took initial exposures of the different areas of the horizon and translated them to the aperture setting I wanted. I took a total of 12 pictures. All of them came out good (but only four passed my standards and I attached two of them here. See my flickr link for more.).

(Exposed Framework. The unfinished Coral Reef Hotel.)

(Exposed Framework. The unfinished Coral Reef Hotel from another viewpoint.)

It was already dark when I treaded back. I noticed some flickering dots of light in some mangroves. Fireflies do exist here in Mactan. I also met several fishermen in the dike making their way to their boats in the other side of the swamp. Again, I noticed their courtesy. All this time, since I arrived I did not fold my tripod. I intentionally did so that it would be easy to ward off the aggressive local canines. When I reached the populated area, one woman asked me if I had a great catch. I smiled and quickly replied that I did not go fishing. She then asked me the name of the developer that hired me.

It then dawned on me. They were so respectful because they thought I was surveying the swamp! Just recently, they have seen lots of land surveyors in the area. With the foreclosed Coral Reef Hotel now owned by PNB (Phil. National Bank), owners of the adjacent areas may have had their lands re-surveyed.

This is another case of mistaken identity. This is also the nth time that people thought I am a surveyor. At least, the mistaken identity has afforded me some greetings and extra respect.