Conquering the Final Frontier: Kia True North Takes on Batanes

Photos by Ulysses Ang

They say it can’t be done: a ride and drive event in the Philippines’s northern most point: Batanes. It certainly sounds like a challenge, a challenge that Columbian Autocar Corporation, the country’s exclusive distributor of Kia vehicles, happily accepted. Consider this: the weather in Batanes is unpredictable at best, being the only place in the country to experience four seasons. Then, Batanes is the entry or exit points of typhoons, so careful planning is needed to ensure everyone’s safety. Finally, the logistics of mounting such an event is daunting: it required 10 Kia vehicles from a Picanto to an Optima Hybrid to be shipped as cargo (there’s no Ro-Ro or Roll On, Roll Off in Batanes) from Sual, Pangasinan for 32 hours before unloading them one by one by crane with nothing more than a thick piece of foam separating the delicate metal body from the rusty steel chains.
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