Road Trip: Marikina–Infanta Highway and Infanta, Quezon Province

Last Sunday, my husband and I have embarked on another road trip. 
This time, it wasn't a spontaneous one and it was for a "cause".

The father of my husband's former colleague, and close friend, has passed away last week.
Their hometown is at Infanta, Quezon province.
Since we were still recovering our energy from the recent Holiday celebrations, we weren't able to attend the wake.
So, we've decided to attend the burial instead.
PS - We didn't bring our son because, we feel uncomfortable on bringing him to such occasions.

In preparation for the trip, we diligently Googled all the possible and nearest routes going to the province.
Here, we've found out about the new highway called Marikina–Infanta Highway.
Based from the routes given, one can easily tell that it is the fastest route going to the Quezon Province.
And so, off we go.

On the day of the trip, we got out at around 4:45am.
We went out quite early because we had to meet the rest of my hubby's friends at Robinson's Metro East.
After meeting them, we continued driving along the Marcos Highway.
Upon reaching Felix Avenue, the road made a slight shift from Marcos Highway to Marikina–Infanta Highway.
This highway, which is also known as MARILAQUE Highway (or Manila-Rizal-Laguna-Quezon), is a new road on which we believe is yet to be discovered by other travellers.
There weren't any traffic jams, which was cool!!!
BUT, be sure that to have a strong heart if you want to take this road!

Since the highway is new, it still doesn't have proper street-lighting.
We had to set our headlights to high beam since it was only 5:30am then and the road was still in total darkness.
For 30 minutes, would you believe that we didn't see any vehicles cruising along with us.
The only vehicle that we came across (opposite side of the road) was a motorbike.  After that, we were alone again.
Aside from the pitch-black darkness, mobile and radio signals were intermittent AND it was slightly foggy.
It was scary, actually, because it was like a scene from horror films!
I was even praying that nothing will happen with the vehicle (or US) because, nobody would be able to come for our rescue.
To light up the mood, I played a couple of MP3s on the stereo.

After literally driving through alone, our slightly tensed feelings were replaced with awe and astonishment when the sun has finally shown up.
We didn't know that we've been surrounded by majestic and towering highlands and local rivers!

The Agos River

The Agos River

We were able to reach Infanta, Quezon within 3 hours of travel time, shorter than the usual 4 to 5 hours.
We immediately went to the house of my hubby's friend and paid our respects to his father.
He was buried at around 3:30pm.

Afterwards, we ate at a local burger chain and left the province at around 4:30pm.

Here are the pictures that I've managed to take while on the road:
NOTE:  I didn't take too much pictures of the province itself because it was a burial and I gave my respects by not photos.

Infanta Fishing Port

Overall, the whole trip was literally EXCITING!!!
I've already experienced foggy roads "from and to" Baguio City but, I am telling you, this was a whole new experience!