All my life I have constantly heard Dabawenyos boasting to others and among themselves the fact that, unlike other cities in the country, white sand beaches are just five minutes away. In a sense, while it may be true, it’s still quite a stretch, because technically, the white beaches aren’t really here but across Davao Gulf and second, it’s never really five minutes.
As far as I know at the present time, one has actually got only three ways at crossing the gulf to Samal and the numerous beach resorts situated there. If one were not bringing their own transportation, they could go straight to the city’s public wharf located in downtown Santa Ana where regular passenger boats are docked and waiting to get passengers and goods across. This access has been around for decades and has been operational even prior to the coming of resorts in Samal and Talikud Islands. Even prior to the 70s, it has been servicing both visitors and island residents alike to and from Davao City. Incidentally, it’s also at the Sta. Ana wharf where boats dedicated to the popular island cruises are available.
The second jump-off point to the island is the resort terminal along kilometer 9 in Sasa. There, service boats owned by two prominent beach resorts will ferry vacationers across to Samal in five minutes or a few more. For those resort visitors who have come with their vehicles, they can leave them at a parking area also provided for by the resort management.
Finally, for those who wish to travel to the island by car, the third option is the Davao-Samal ferry service at kilometer 10. Here, alternating ferry boats carry both vehicles and people to and from Samal, with Babak as the entry point to the island. However, bottleneck alert though, heavy traffic is common, especially on weekends. During such time, the queue to the ferry on both sides, reach more than a mile long! Just last weekend, while on our way to Panacan, we espied what seemed like an endless line of stalled vehicles on the left side of the road, most of which had their hazard lights a-blinking. Someone from our street who travels regularly to Babak to visit family once intimated that they’ve been waited for more than two hours at one time due to the huge volume of vehicle going to Samal for that weekend. That explains why at times, we could hear them already revving up their vehicle to leave their residence in the early hours of the morning.
On the brighter side, both Davao and Samal residents meanwhile, await the ongoing construction of a bridge that would eventually connect both hubs. It still remains to seen when this important link will reach fruition, but when that happens, five minutes away might sound a bit less of an exaggeration. Or is that right?
