Friday, August 28, 2015

Visayas!


I'm going to do my best to catch up on the last two to three months of our travel. From Indonesia, we returned to the Philippines for about another month and a half to conquer the Visayas. We'd be meeting my Auntie Aida there and Uncle Abel, but had a couple days before catching up with them. From Manila, we fly straight to Cebu and headed for the beach town of Moalboal nearby. It's a nice quiet town, and was a good introduction to Cebu. We spent a couple days there relaxing and snorkeling, then decided to rent a motorbike to ride around the entire southern tip of Cebu. One of our first destinations was Oslob, where the main attraction is swimming with the oceans largest fish, the whale shark. The entire operation is kind of a shit show, there are so many boats full of locals and foreigners alike. Everyone's thrashing about in the water (Filipinos seem to be deathly afraid of the ocean, go figure) and once a whale shark appears for feeding all hell breaks loose. Everyone tries to get their selfies in, and seem to miss out on really watching these amazing creatures -- but it's all part of the experience I guess. From Oslob we continued up the coast, we attempted a day long hike traversing the island of Cebu from Osmena Peak, our second destination, to the popular KAwasan falls, but after refusing a guide (they always rush you) and repeatedly getting lost we gave up and headed back to the peak. Osmena Peak is absolutely beautiful, and we spent lovely night camping there before retuning to our motorbike and riding to the falls. The bike was a great way to see the island, and we learned our favorite way to see things in PI -- no hassles to deal with, and you get to go at your own pace. After our little Cebu adventure it was finally time to meet Aida and Abel, we'd been looking forward to seeing familiar faces the entire time, and couldn't wait to meet up with them and get our real tour of the VIsayas. We met up at the mall, chewed down at the buffet and started making plans. We were going to spend the day looking at condos (amazingly affordable), having dinner with more family and friends and the next day we'd catch the ferry to the island of Leyte, where'd we'd visit my Auntie Lourdes in Palompon, and then head on to Villaba, my Grandmas hometown. We spent one last day exploring Cebu with Aida, Abel and my Auntie MItchelle -- who took it on herself to be our own private tour guide of Cebu. We caught the night ferry to Leyte, and found ourselves on the doorstep of my Auntie Lourdes around 3 in the morning. She had fallen asleep, and we were caught outside for a while, but eventually found ourselves in her home... I found it crazy how similar it was to my own Grandmas home in Sacramento. After resting there a few hours we headed on to VIllaba, stopping to surprise a family friend, Marisel along the way. She was the first of many people we'd meet who were so welcoming and kind, and so tied to the family and community that still exists in Villaba. It seemed that almost everyone we met in that town was a relative in some way, or some close friend of the family. It was really an amazing place to be, and I'm so grateful to my aunt and uncle for showing us around there. We were able to stop by the site of my Auntie PApings house -- this is a place I've heard so much about. It was where my mom stayed when she visited PI and was the meeting place of the family for so many years. Unfortunately, it now needs to be seriously rebuilt and it was destroyed in the typhoon. Nevertheless, it was amazing to be at that site -- I felt as if I was visiting some kind of museum of my family history. We only spent a few days in Villaba, though I did try my first balut under reassurance of some of the local family that it was a good one. Paul on the other hand probably had about 5 or so balut in one night (Uncle Abel had bought a bag of 25!) which about 4 people polished off with 7 liters of beer -- an epic Filipino drinking nite at its finest. From Villaba we headed back to Palompon, and spent a couple days with Auntie Lourdes and Uncle Doming who was back from Cebu. It was nice to spend some time with them, look through old photos, and be showered with food from Filipino grandparents. From there, the family tour continued -- we returned to Cebu and met up again with MItchelle. She ended up hosting us for almost two weeks in her lovely home -- we weren't expecting it, but it was greatly appreciated and just the recharge we needed after 3 months or so of traveling. She took us on lots of sightseeing around the city, nights out drinking, and even karaoke. When we weren't doing that, we pretty much did nothing -- 'hibernating' as she called it, and it was great. A couple days stretched to a week to almost two weeks, and we enjoyed just being in Cebu and spending time with her and her family. It was fun and comfortable, and really so special to be able to spend so much time with family you've never even met before! When we finally left Cebu, we headed to the island of Bohol. There is some beautiful nature there and we wanted to see it. We made a day of seeing the famed Chocolate Hills, hundreds of perfectly shaped hills -- much like the Chocolate HIlls world in Mario ... Google the actual ones and you'll see what I mean. They are so strange and beautiful, and it seems like no one has a set reasoning for how they got the way they are. We also saw the tarsier, thought to be the worlds smallest primate, though I think they are actually rodents. After a long day of sightseeing, we need up in a small town -- which I'm forgetting the name of. We were checked into our room by a neighbor, and were told the towns fiesta was going on and that the guesthouse owner had invited us over for dinner to celebrate. We rested up and headed over to a house full of people and a big feast, complete with lechon. We had a great meal, and an even better night conversing the locals and our guesthouse owner, an older man who seemed to be a big figure in the community. The generosity was amazing and we were invited over the next day as well, to celebrate the ongoing fiesta. The next morning we got up early and went for a walk along the river, we noticed a family up early roasting their lechon for the days festivities. On the way back we stopped and asked if we could take a picture and were invited to join the party and wait to have taste once it was done roasting. The fiesta vibe of the whole town was amazing, so many open people -- it was amazing to see the ritual of the family roasting this entire pig, not to mention being invited to partake in trying it. This was a small family living by the river, very modest housing, they had saved up to buy this pig and feed it the previous month so that they could have it for the fiesta. Quite different from our huge meal the previous night hosted by a large family, and it was great to see both sides. We spent a few hours by the river with them, talking, eating and drinking glass after glass of tuba, coconut wine. These are the best experiences while traveling, being totally invited in by locals, and it was a fiesta not to be forgotten! We spent the evening back at the guesthouse owners fiesta, and went to bed full and happy! Our last stop in Bohol was Alona Beach, this is where a lot of the rain caught up with us, but we happily spent our days sipping beers under the cover of umbrellas at the bar. From Bohol we headed to the small island of Siquijor. It's known for being a little spooky, having its own versions of witches and voodoo and concoctions whipped up in 'cauldrons'. We may have seen a little of that, but just spent our days enjoying the island, riding a motorbike around the entire thing. The Philippines has beautiful island after beautiful island, it's incredible really and one can only do their best to take it all in. From Siquijor we headed to our final island, Negros. This was one of our favorite in PI. The main town of southern Negros, Dumaguete was by far the nicest big city we visited of the Philippines. It was clean and pleasant, just nice to spend time in. There is a lot of nature not far from Dumaguete, and we rented a Bike to spend our days exploring the beaches for snorkeling, soaking in the natural hot springs and jumping from waterfalls. Trying to get to the waterfall was our biggest adventure, as the river was at full force with the rain. We had to cross a few times and al it's had to turn around, but finally made it and the effort was well worth it. Casaroro falls was tall and powerful and it was quite exhilarating to be at the bottom of it. From Dumguete we headed up to Bacolod, our last stop in PI. It was a big city, so we quickly escaped and headed up to a nature park to camp for our last couple days in the country. I forget the name of the place now, but it felt like the PI version of Yosemite. Campground and lodges, restaurants and different facilities all in a beautiful surrounding. Our favorite was the hot springs, which were really boiling ... At night you could watch the bats flying all through the sky. These quiet days of camping ended out our time in the Philippines -- the Visayas was our favorite part, and on top of it being beautiful and a little more laid back we got to spend some unforgettable time with family. I did my best at recounting it here, as it's been a while ... It was incredible to be in the Visayas where so much of my family has roots, and if anyone is reading this that we spent time with there, thanks so much for taking us in and adding to the experience -- it will stick with us forever!

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