Philippines part deux

After sleeping around 12 hrs, I lay awake for a couple of hours and then finally at 6 am we both got up and decided to walk around the island. The island photos are the ones I lost from my camera- bummer.

View of the beach from our front porch

There weren't always well marked trails and so we found ourselves alternately on the beach, motorcycle paths and winding right through the "skinnettes" between people's houses. Walking right by people's houses made me feel like I was on my mission again. I liked the familiarness of seeing, smelling and hearing the everyday sounds of people preparing for the day. Laundry being pounded out, food sizzling, chickens scratching, groups of men sitting around giving each other a bad time about something or other.

There were several nice beaches located on different ends of the island. We also saw how many restaurants there were to try. Meanwhile we were sweating buckets and getting hotter.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach and sampling some of the yummy foods around the island.
One of the restaurants where we ate and watched them build another boat

I tried to have mango with everything. Mango juice, mango split (like a banana split), mango pancakes. The Philippines has dozens of types of mangoes, but non of the Mexican red and green kind they sell in stores here. In the Philippines they are mostly shades of yellow and orange. I LOVE them.

We decided to leave a day earlier than planned. Most of the tourists were snorkeling or scuba diving and 2 days of bumming on the beach were good enough for us.

This is a nicer version of the boats we rode in and out of the island

Leaving the Island on Wednesday proved to be an adventure. When the boat to go back to Maya was loaded down with people sitting on top of each other and luggage, we sat and waited and waited.

View while waiting on the boat to leave

After some grumbling, someone from the beach shouted that the boat wouldn't be leaving for another hour and a half. Woooooeeee! People started getting off the boat and then the boatman that had helped us all board and taken our money finally reappeared from the beach and shooed us back onto the boat. Close call, I didn't want to have to try demand a refund in Tagalog when everyone spoke Visayan, a different dialect.
While on the water, we encountered a barge being pulled by this little red and yellow Tug-boat

After the 4 hr bus ride back to the city of Cebu, we found a great little hotel called The Diplomat.

Ahhhhh, air conditioning

The next morning I finally talked with my parents- it was a huge relief just to talk to someone and know everyone and everything was just fine. Stephen and the girls were up at the Hunt family cabin, so I spoke with them Friday morning (Thursday in Boise). Odessa's first words to me were "Mom, I broke grandma's cookie jar. But it was just an askident. Askidents happen. Grandma cleaned it up because she didn't want glass in my feet."
Good to know after 5 days she isn't missing me more and is still willing to tell me everything- even the bad things. Maybe she knew I was too far away to do anything about it.

Thursday morning we went to Carbon Market, the large open air market in Cebu City. The wet (and dry) markets are one of my favorite things about the Philippines, maybe because I associate them with preparation day, the one day off each week we had on our mission. They sell everything from bolts of fabric, internet time and haircuts to pig's heads and homemade candy at these markets. The fruits and veggies are amazing.

So many kinds of rice!

Jack fruit, or Lanka

After the market we visited the Basilica del Santo Nino. It houses a statue of the Christ Child supposedly brought to Cebu by Magellan, the Spanish explorer who brought Catholicism and Spain to Cebu.

Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral

We also visited the Cross of Magellan, also brought to Cebu by Magellan. This replica is said to contain shards of the original cross.

We thoroughly enjoyed sampling the shops and restaurants along our street and shopping at the SM Mall the next 2 days. Thursday night after a long day of shopping we got foot massages and pedicures at the spa attached to our hotel. SU-WEET.

Friday we left for Manila. We stayed at a hotel right on Manila Bay. We went shopping at one of Manila's nicest malls and found everything too expensive.

Greenbelt Mall

After that we stuck to cheaper malls and market malls where everything was sold in barter fashion from in stalls. On Saturday we visited Fort Santiago which traded hands several times between Spain, Japanese and America.

On our way there we got scammed by a horse and cart driver like this one.

I was FURIOUS because knowing the language and the culture was supposed to keep us safe from such tourist traps. It took me the rest of the night to calm down and I didn't trust many other people after that. All in all, the taxi drivers and Jeepney drivers were decent enough. Although tour books and people warned us about how bad it can be in Manila and how we were sure to get pick-pocketed at the markets, we had basically all good experiences to report.
The next morning I headed to the airport and Briana headed to International Research of Rice Institute in Los Banos for her 3 week class. I hope she is having a good time and enjoys her trip to the Banaue Rice Terraces at the completion of the class!

It was a great trip overall and we had a blast shopping together and experiencing the culture in spades. When we were 16 yrs old Briana and I went to Japan as part of a Japanese language class trip. We were great traveling companions back then and it's so fun to know that 14 years later we can have such a great time together again. Unfortunately the only thing that's changed is that I have 2 kids now that I spent the first days of our trip freaking out about!

Manila Bay sunset

All Hunts were reunited in Seattle and glad to be back together safe and sound. We took the opportunity to spend lots of quality time together this Memorial Day weekend. More posts to follow . . . .