Road Trip - Luzon to Visayas to Mindanao (Leyte to Surigao Part)

For the longest time, i have been wanting to write a post about our road trip experiences every time we go home to our home island, Mindanao. My good intentions vanished when i can no longer find all the receipts of all the expenses that we paid at ports. It's a good thing that last 2012 Christmas vacation, i was able to keep some that part where we have to ride the ferry boat from the Benit Port of San Ricardo, Southern Leyte of the Visayas to the Mindanao Port of Lipata, Surigao City.

There are two entry ports from Southern Leyte with which to depart from: Liloan and San Ricardo. From previous experiences, road tripping from Samar, you have to drive an extra 41 kilometer from Liloan to get to San Ricardo and although the roads are properly maintained, you need to drive through an extremely tight and winding road called Saddle Point which even the DPWH has considered to be dangerous.

Pls. see related article

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=1141340182422

Anyway, since ferry boat ride is much shorter in San Ricardo(1 hour) as opposed to Liloan(4 hours) many still prefer Benit port.

Here's a breakdown of the fees that we paid:

Vehicle fare (starex)- Php 2,110.00
Adult fare-140.00
Child fare-70.00
Terminal fee-16.00
PPA fee- which i think was 20.00 per passenger. I lost the ticket :)

Anyway, i posted here some photos of the tickets i was able to keep. I really hope, i will be able to improve this post to be able to help other Road trippers to try the Maharlika nautical highway and explore the Philippines by car. Let me just add that the drive from Samar to Leyte is the most refreshing and such a sight for sore eyes for urban dwellers. The coast is such a beautiful sight to behold and food along the higway through small carenderias are tasty , fresh and inexpensive, if you know how spot one. It's easy actually, you only need to find one that's clean looking.