Why Llorente?
Llorente is one of the municipalities badly hit by Yolanda but has not been reported as prominently as Tacloban. Christina is from that place.
The Espiritus left Manila last Saturday late afternoon. From Arthur’s Facebook post, it has not been an easy journey, by water and by land.
Arthur posted that that they were in Bulan Port in Sorsogon Sunday waiting for their truck to be loaded together with more than 20 other trucks. While waiting, they enjoyed the pier scenery. One was people watching the Pacquiao-Rios fight. “Everyone was there. It’s really fun to see Pinoys come together when there’s a Pacquiao fight.”
Later, Arthur, the only Filipino tenor who has sang at La Scala, the world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy, reported that they were finally loading the trucks.”Christina Espiritu is happy,” he said. He counted more blessing: “Yehey. Still have signal while on ship.”
His next post was when they were approaching San Isidro port in Northern Samar: “We came in at 4:30 pm then engine failed. Stuck about 1 km away from shore. Then got power back but it was high tide already. Ramp was too high for trucks to disembark. Now we have to sleep in the ship till 4 am which is low tide. Then we could go. Problem is, all the restaurants and markets around are closed. Just diet for now w peanuts and skyflakes and coffee. Staying strong.”