South East Asia with Long Nguyen Day 11

Day 11- Back in Cebu

It was a big change, going from Moalboal back to Cebu City. Moalboal is such a quiet small town, and Cebu City is a huge city with honking vehicles, people everywhere, and a ton of pollution. As we left Moalboal the night before, the weather had started to move in.  By the time we had gotten back to Cebu City that evening, the weather had moved in on us. We woke up to a cloudy morning with expected showers. We had headed back to the city because we had heard that there was a downhill race, and we all wanted to go check it out. We loaded up the trucks and headed for the other side of town. We had hoped the rain would lie off, but it started to sprinkle when we rolled in to the ghetto of Cebu City. It was an unreal scene to see people who lived in these small huts with nothing, and a random downhill course in the middle of the ghetto.

The riders put on their pads and helmets, and headed up the short hill to get in some practice runs. The track was pretty strait forward, but I knew the day was going to be difficult shooting in the rain and mud. I put on my camera rain cover and hoped the rain would hold off.  After a short practice, finals were under way. As the day went on, the rain started to fall harder and harder. My camera bag and myself were soaked as I waited for riders to drop in for their race run. But what I didn’t know was that they were going to be the last riders to drop in, since they were special guests.  After sitting in the rain for 3 hours, the wind had picked up, but I got word the riders were on track. They came through one by one, sliding all over the place. After everyone made it down, we were all soaking wet, and called it a day since we knew the weather wasn’t going to let off anytime soon.