While traveling between Metro Manila and Naga City in the Camarines Sur, I took the opportunity of taking photos of sections along the coastal roads in the towns of Quezon Province. These include roads in the towns of Atimonan, Gumaca and Atimonan, which face the waters of Lamon Bay, which in turn joins waters of the Philippine Sea as well as the Pacific Ocean. I have old photos of coastal roads on the other side of the province on the Bondoc Peninsula and will feature them in another post.

An old tire placed along the sea wall to advertise “vulcanizing” services to motorists, particularly truckers passing along this highway. “Vulcanizing,” of course is the term used for various services concerning ones tires. The shoulder stretching along the seawall serves as parking spaces for trucks plying routes along the Pan-Philippine Highway.

A peek at a small harbor located at the mouth of a river – there are many small ports located along Philippine coastlines. In some towns, there are several including those serving fishermen rather than passengers. One can see the lighthouse at some distance from the bridge where I took a quick shot.

There are many stores and eateries along the road and many travelers can choose among the carenderias or turu-turo’s. I haven’t tried eating at any of these eateries along this route but during field work, we routinely check out where we can have lunch or merienda. In some cases, you can even have viand cooked for you if you don’t like what’s being offered on the counter (often it’s just pots or pans containing various viands for the selection of the customer). For such seaside towns and barrios, I assume there’s a good supply of fish that can be cooked a number of ways.

Many stores have their usual customers (suki) among truckers. The wide shoulders provide for parking spaces but these may also bring about some hazards especially at night, and when the trucks are maneuvering. The excellent pavement conditions, and the level and straight sections can induce drivers to speed up along these roads, and such contributes to increased risk of road crashes.

I imagine it must be nice to live along the coast with a good view of the sea and with fresh air coming in from the east (Pacific Ocean). But then I am reminded of the typhoons that generally come from this direction. Quezon is one of the provinces that’s regularly on the roll call for when typhoon signals are announced.

In cases where the water is not deep enough for the larger vessels or bancas, piers are constructed. Such serve not only fishermen but people living in islands of the coast in Lamon Bay.

Some sections of the road have no inhabitants and can be quite dark at night given there are no lamp posts along the highway.

Typical pier serving large, motorized bancas serving as ferries to islands and other coastal towns. Such maritime transport are often advised to stay at port during inclement weather as they are not as sturdy as they look. Notice the outriggers that serve to stabilize the vessels as they encounter waves in the open sea.

Port of Atimonan – the construction of this port was supported by funds from the Government of Japan. Most ports are under the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), which is an agency under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Tayabas was the former name of Quezon Province which was and is among the largest provinces in the country. Tayabas province was renamed to Quezon after its most famous son, the first President of the Commonwealth Republic when the country was under American rule. Eventually, the province was partitioned into two with towns forming the province of Aurora, which was named after Quezon’s better half. The former capitol of Tayabas was Unisan in the southern part of the province during the Spanish Period, with Tayabas becoming the  capital during the American times. The capital is currently Lucena City, while the birthplace of Manuel Quezon, Baler, became capital of Aurora.

The highway sections from Lucban to Tayabas offers more of the same agricultural and forest scenes with the occasional human settlements along the road and often encroaching on the ROW. Because of the pleasant climate in these areas, flower farms may be found along the road.

Winding sections along the national highway include segments along the mountains with very narrow shoulders defined by open culverts for proper drainage.

There are many combinations of sag and crest vertical curves due to the terrain. The boundary between Lucban and Tayabas coincides with the well-defined vertical curves. Two structures (posts) located at either side of the road mark the boundary.

The national road goes through Tayabas and travelers would have to navigate their way inside the city. While there are directional signs, these are often lost among the visual noise of other signs.

A heritage house in Tayabas – being an old town, there are still many example of the bahay na bato, which were homes to the more prominent families in the Spanish and American Periods. These are very similar to structures in other old towns/cities such as Vigan, Manila, Cebu, Iloilo and Dapitan.

Streets in Tayabas are very much like the ones in Lucban with practically non-existent pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks and a propensity for on-street parking. Such effectively reduces the capacity of road but one-way streets are common in Tayabas, thereby compensating for this issue.

I am always intrigued by this old church along the national highway as you exit Tayabas city proper that looks like its shut and appears to be abandoned. I still don’t know what happened to the church and I’m aware of cases where places of worship such as churches are closed because of acts of desecration. In a way, it is supposed to be a form of punishment for the community for allowing such desecration to happen and the result is that penance, in part, is accomplished by instead going to church in the next town. In the older times, the next town would be quite far considering there were no modern roads or motor vehicles.

Long stretch of highway leading to Lucena – once the traveler leaves Tayabas city proper, he is again greeted with long stretches of road, mostly level rather than on rolling terrain. The highway sections are mostly excellent with pavements in condition and standard signs and markings. In populated areas, signs are often obscured by structures built or placed along the roadside.