Fountain Show and Singers

Yesterday evening, we walked back to Rizal Park to see the fountain. Albano, the security/doorman at our hotel, had told us that the huge park fountain was operational only in the evening. I figured it was because it was too hot during the day to run it because of the amount of evaporation that would have occurred. Silly me, the reason wasn’t practical, it was artistic. The fountain is actually a light show with flame blasts. A sequence of colored lights run their routine with different and varying heights from the water columns. The ball-looking things on the water are actually water spouts that change color also. I took some video while the speakers played a song about Manila. Here are some of the still shots I took. The yellow-ish blasts in this second photo were flames bursts that came in one of the areas of the fountain, kinda like fireworks. The lights they used changed the colors of the fountains from red to purple to blue to green to yellow. Sometimes all colors were seen in different parts of the fountain.

 

 

We gazed at the water show for awhile, then noticed that music from the nearby amphitheater was competing with songs coming from the speakers. When we walked around the fountain, we found a free music show with two singers. The female singer, with a powerful and excellent voice, was just finishing her set. The male singer was some type of Filipino Justin Bieber. The teens and pre-teen girls in the audience went crazy when he stepped out onto the stage. At one point he walked out in the audience and the girls were screaming as he walked, singing, to a few of them and held their hand while he sang. A real Bobby Sherman moment. We left as he was singing his last song to avoid the crush of young girls.

Intramuros: The Walled City

Today, we walked. A lot. In the heat. We are still getting used to 90 degrees and about 90% humidity. We had an early start today, really early as we woke at 4 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Don’t feel too sorry for us, yesterday evening we had two beers each, then came up to our room at about 6:45 pm. By 7 pm, Phillip was snoring and I turned out the lights and joined him, so our 4 am wake-up meant that we did get 9 hours of sleep. About that beer… San Miguel, the most common beer here and pretty darn tasty. It is a pale pilsner, so it has enough flavor even to this dark beer drinker. Or perhaps it tasted so good because we walked yesterday… We’ll have to try it again tonight!

We walked to the mall this morning because of all the food kiosks and eateries there, planning to eat breakfast. However, like USA malls, it didn’t open until 10 am. So we had breakfast at a nearby diner. Phillip’s breakfast came with  sausages that tasted like a cross between regular breakfast sausage and a hot dog. The love child of Jimmy Dean and Oscar Meyer. No picture of that breakfast, but Phillip did have a mango shake while I ate my fresh papaya slices in the mall. His first mango shake of the day. I bought the papaya from the supermarket in the mall, paying the equivalent of 88 cents for almost a pound of ripe, sliced and peeled papaya in a container with a fork. For a fruit lover, this is heaven with mangos and papayas at their best.

After the visit to the mall, we walked thru Rizal Park and on to Intramuros, the historic walled city. This is the oldest section of Manila, with the wall having been built in the 1500’s by the Spanish. Six entrances, like this one we walked thru, allow people access to the area. Now, it is just another part of the city, albeit one they do not let jeepneys into.  The buildings within Intramuros sustained heavy damage during WW II, as the Japanese used it as a military HQ, just like the Spanish had in previous centuries. Fort Santiago, now a park area, at the south end of Intramuros (which means “within walls” in Spanish) still had canons in the walls and military artifacts around the grounds. We attended a personal  slide show of the history of the area at 2:30 pm, i.e., we were the only ones in the room. That’s probably because other people knew that at 2:30 pm, it was  too hot to be cavorting around tropical military ruins! It was really interesting, though, as Phillip and I walked along the ramparts in some areas of the wall. Here are steps thru an archway that lead to the top. Immediately to the south of Fort Santiago (which is the south end of Intramuros) is the Pasig River. The Fort was built by the Spanish when they built the Intramuros wall.  Not only was Intramuros separated from land to the south by the river, but some areas of the wall still had the moat, which had surrounded the walled city centuries ago. It was neat to see a real moat and drawbridge, but all I could think of was today’s danger from such a feature: mosquitos! The City had apparently treated the waters with larvacide, as Phillip didn’t get swarmed. In the picture of the drawbridge, you can see the chains that would pull it up. The yellowish color of the water doesn’t mean the water is nasty or filthy. The color comes from the flower parts that have dropped off the nearby trees. Tree poop. While we walked along the top of the wall on the north end, we noticed a shot that showed an opening in the ramparts, framed by the lush vegetation that grows here. Almost makes the heat seem bearable when we can see history and natural beauty together like this.

Speaking of beauty, as we were leaving Intramuros, we noticed a crowd near a church. Forgetting that we really shouldn’t join crowds in foreign countries, I walked over to see what was going on. We had come upon a church with a wedding just as the bride was walking into the cathedral. I snapped a few pictures, just as strangers in New Orleans had done when Leslie married Rock earlier this month. This picture is for Leslie!

As we returned toward our hotel, walking thru Rizal Park, hot and tired, what do we see but an ice cream stand. And what flavor do they advertise with the biggest letters? Mango. Time for another mango shake, this time topped with a scoop of melon ice cream. I was more interested in enjoying the shake than taking a picture of it, but trust me, it was wonderful. Tomorrow, we fly to the island of Palawan, to the town of Puerto Princessa. Our flight isn’t till 3 pm, so we’ll have time for some more adventures here in Manila, but probably no long walks.

Successful Arrival: Manila and Samar (my mom)

We all made it successfully to our destinations. Phillip and I are in Manila for a few days  and my mother is with my brother on West Samar. I will say that the flights to get here were real a**kickers. We’re almost too old for this and I know that Mom was probably at her limit. A 14 hour flight to Tokyo, then a 5 hour flight to Manila. We do thank my brother-in-law, Terry, for taking us to the airport and procuring Filipino pesos for us before we left. For those of you who read my 2011 travel postings, notice that Phillip is again not wearing jeans at my request. Yes, we are all wearing the touristy cargo pants, but we accept that we can never blend in with the locals anyway, so why not be comfortable?

We finished our flights and got to our hotel rooms at about midnight last night. We then had to get up at 2:30 am to get Mom back to the airport for her 5:15 am flight to Burt’s island. None of us actually slept during those 2-1/2 hours. Our bodies thought it was noon, not midnight. Still, it

was wonderful to stretch out on the bed, even if we didn’t sleep. We got Mom to the airport via taxi and the nice folks at the airline counter got a staff member to escort Mom thru security and on to her gate, since I couldn’t do it. I took this picture right before she went thru security. Today is her birthday – it’s hard to believe this is a picture of a 91-year old woman who hadn’t slept for 36 hours! I spoke with Burt a few minutes ago and she made it to his house and is now resting.

Phillip and I came back to our hotel after we dropped off Mom and took a three-hour nap. We ate breakfast in our hotel and were amazed at how good the toast was – it was two slices of fairly dense, thick sweet bread. We only put butter on it, no jelly. This was plain toast, nothing fancy to which the restaurant did anything special, but it was delicious. It made up for the instant coffee we were served! After breakfast, we did go next door to Starbucks for real coffee.

We walked to Rizal Park, about a block away. It is a huge public park, with a monument to perhaps the most famous historical figure in the Philippines, Dr. Jose Rizal. He fought for Filipino independence and ended up being executed. This picture is of the bronze statutes, larger than life-size, of the firing squad. A lot of the other statues around Rizal Park were of martyrs who died in the various struggles over the years for Filipino independence.

As we walked thru the park, we noticed the absence of pigeons and pigeon droppings. We saw a few cats wandering around, looking for a handout, but they didn’t seem fat enough to have taken care of the pigeons. Then we saw the pigeon houses. Such a unique way to handle the inevitable pigeon problem! Instead of fighting them, the park provides a place for them, somewhere they’ll want to stay. We spoke with a lady at a food booth nearby and she said the attendants feed the pigeons in their home area. Maybe Fort Worth needs to do that with the grackles? Although the picture doesn’t show a lot of pigeons on the houses in the sun, pigeons covered the roofs of the houses in the shade.

When we started walking this morning, the weather was cloudy with a very light misty rain. When the sun came out, however, it became hot and humid really quickly. We headed back to the hotel so we wouldn’t become a puddle on the sidewalk. I needed to write this anyway… Tomorrow, we’ll head out in the morning for another historic area of Manila. The rest of Manila seems to be like any other major urban center – traffic, homeless areas, high rises, more traffic. I am impressed with the number of trash cans I see, much better than Bangkok. Consequently, the city, at least the area we’ve walked thru, seems cleaner, although it has a layer of grime from vehicle exhausts. More on traffic, I’m sure in a future post. (Note: Sorry one picture may be sideways, having some formatting issues!)

A New Adventure Begins!

The time has come for a new adventure for Phillip and Pat. It’s been three years since our last extended international travel (except for numerous cruises). We leave Tuesday for the Philippines, a three week quick tour of some exotic locales and a visit with my half-brother, Burt, and his family. This trip has been an idea for the past eighteen months and it is now all planned. Why the Philippines? Two reasons: To take my mother to see her son and because it’s a great location for visiting, snorkeling, and eating fresh fruit.

My mom has not seen Burt since 1990 and I haven’t seen him since 1984. Some of you hadn’t even been born (can we say “Robin”?) the last time I saw him. He retired out of the Navy many years ago and settled in the Philippines with his Filipino wife, Lin. My dad never wanted to travel to the Philippines, as he had been there during WW II as a sailor and had no desire to return. After Dad passed away in June of 2012, I had the thought that Phillip and I could take Mom during our 2014 travel year. Phillip was on board with the idea and Mom’s health has stayed strong. Her daily trips to the gym have certainly helped that. She will turn 91 the day she arrives on Burt’s island, Samar. Mom of course jumped at the idea and is excited beyond words as our travel date approaches.

The Philippines consists of over 7000 islands; we will visit 4 major islands, starting with the big one that Manila is on. We fly into Manila (via Tokyo) and I send Mom on another flight the next day to Burt. Phillip and I will go to Palawan, then Cebu, and on to Samar to visit Burt and pick up Mom for our return to Manila and then back to the USA. Our route is counter-clockwise on the map. I had initially planned a different route that included Tacloban, but Typhoon Yolanda made that route impossible. Although the map shows four direction changes, we will actually make six. On Palawan, we will travel to the north end of the island to El Nido for a few days, then back to the middle for a few days in Puerto Princessa. On Cebu, we will fly into the east coast of the island, but will travel to the west coast to stay a few days in Moalboal.

As in our previous travels, we may miss our family. I know that this time, however, we will miss one family member in particular, Zelda. We recued her from the Humane Society over two years ago and she has been our constant companion at the ranch and in town. We delight in her antics (chasing reflections on the floor, whining whenever she sees cows because she so much wants to chase them, herding a five gallon bucket around the yard) and she has become a good watch dog (usually, although she has slept thru Chris’ entry via the front door).  I know that Leslie and Rock will take good care of her and that if she and Daisy (Leslie’s dog) develop any issues, that her alternate home at Chris and Kathryn’s with Riggs will be fine.

I hope to post regular entries to this blog, regaling you with tales of the big city of Manila, the beautiful beaches of El Nido, island hopping tours, the Underground River, and food experiences. I will say up front that, unlike in Ecuador where we ate the national exotic dish, cuy (roasted guinea pig), I have no plans to eat the Filipino equivalent dish, balut. Balut is a boiled duck egg containing a partially developed embryo with feathers. That’s not to say I won’t, but I have no plans to!

We leave in four days, so I guess it’s time for me to start packing. I know my mom has already begun!

Farewell to Freddy and Bahia sights

This morning was our final opportunity to buy fresh shrimp from our buddy, the bicycling fish vendor. I saw him at the market yesterday and told him we would want two pounds of shrimp this morning. About 9 am, we heard his familiar “pescado! camarones!” Phillip and I went downstairs, with our camera, to buy our shrimp and tell Freddy that we would be leaving on Monday. I was able to tell him, in Spanish, that we enjoyed buying our fish from him. He gave us his phone number to call him when we return to Bahia. Such a nice guy!

After we put our fresh shrimp in the refrigerator, we decided to do some walking. Two sights in Bahia remained for us to visit before we leave on Monday, the museum and the Mirador La Cruz. My Lonely Planet book noted that Bahia has a good museum. When we arrived, the security guards told us the guide was in a meeting, but we were free to see the exhibits and take pictures. Sure enough, the museum was quite good, with an extensive collection of artifacts that even kept Phillip interested! They had a reconstructed ship that the Bahians used about 2000 years ago and many relics from nearby Chirije, an archeological site. One floor was an art gallery and another was dedicated to pictures of the mangroves. The security guard even took us up to the roof patio to get pictures of the city and the bay. We got a great picture of the ferry dock with the crowds waiting for the boat.

After the museum, we started walking for the Mirador La Cruz, the lookout on the hill. The lookout is actually in the cross we can see from our balcony. The security guard at the museum had suggested we take a taxi, but no… we wanted an adventure. What we got was a walk up a very steep road! The road wound around the back side of the hill and ended at the lookout. Then, we had numerous flights of stairs to climb to the horizontal part of the cross where the viewing platform was. We were rewarded by a great view of the entire peninsula.

From this view, our condo is on the right, just after the green tree area.

Phillip zoomed in to get our condo, the taller building you can see in this picture. Only the penthouse is above us (the penthouse has more windows on this side than the other apartments do). Phillip took a picture of me up in the lookout to show y’all that I really did climb those see thru steps! 

Phillip enjoyed taking pictures of the cityscape while I slowly walked around, soaking in the view. A few final views, one showing the shallowness of the bay. You can see the sandbars on the other side. The other, a nicely framed view of the bay from the top of the hill.

Adventures on Isla Corazon

Monday morning, we set sail for Isla Corazon. OK, that’s not accurate… no sailboats involved. We took a taxi with our guide from downtown Bahia to the launch area on the other side of the Chone River. Isla Corazon (Heart Island) is farther inland in the middle of the Chone River, in an area where the salt water from the ocean and the freshwater coming down the Chone River met and mix. This condition creates an environment where mangrove trees flourish and the sea birds roost.

We had to wait about an hour because two last minute guests were joining us (two young women from France who were on their last week of a four month trek thru Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador). The launching point had a nice covered area with hammocks, so Phillip and I watched the local birds and the people come and go while we waited. Also, our guide showed us a video about the ecological impact of cutting down the mangrove forests, something that has happened in Ecuador in the past.

Shortly before 10 am, we loaded into a motorized boat and towed canoes across the river to the island. Probably because of the current and distance, the guides don’t paddle us over to the island. Once we arrived near the island, the two French women, Phillip, and I transferred into a canoe with our guide, Francisco.  I think he put us in by weight to balance to canoe, and I ended up in the front of the canoe, an excellent vantage point to video our journey thru the mangroves. I got a picture of our group by holding the camera over my head and shooting back.

We began seeing the birds even before Fransisco paddled the canoe into an opening in the mangroves.  These long-legged white ones were on the west side of the island.

This is the opening that was cut thru the island for the canoes. Because it was closer to high tide, the canoe could navigate the entire distance. As we entered the canoe channel, the trees closed around us.

Sometimes, the canopy of branches opened up and we could see the sky, but most of the time, it was as if we were in a living tunnel. Crabs scurried along the tree branches. We could hear the birds moving thru, but couldn’t always see them because the mangroves were so dense. And the mangrove trees!

Their roots are branches that go down into the water like hundreds of legs.  I expected them to start chasing after us. Francisco didn’t talk much on this part of the trip, as he didn’t want to disturb the birds overhead and nearby. It was a fascinating adventure  thru the island.

When we came out on the other side, we saw the birds, hundreds of huge birds nesting in the mangrove trees. The frigate birds were easy to spot because of their size and black and white or black and red colorings and markings. Red-throated frigates roosted on this island. The males have the red throat, and they puff it out to attract the female frigates. The more colorful and larger the puffed out throat is, the more desirable he is to the ladies. You can see some Brad Pitt-ish frigates and some Steve Buscemi-ish frigates in the following series of pictures.

After visiting the frigate area, we got back in the motorized boat and went around the island, passing the pelican roosting area. I guess they don’t mind the noise of the boat motor, as they didn’t leave their trees.  I looked for Big Bird, but none of these birds were yellow. They were big enough to be him, just the wrong color.

The motor boat took us to a dock on the island. From the dock, Franscico led us along an elevated wood walkway thru the mangroves. Here, he explained the difference between the mangrove root types. The tree grows up from the roots in the water and mud, but it also sends out “air roots” which are like small branches that grow down, but break off when they hit the water or mud. These air roots don’t have leaves like the branches that grow up. Rather they act as roots, getting the nutrients from the air. We also had an opportunity to plant a mangrove by dropping one of their torpedo-shaped seedlings into the mud.

At the end of the walkway was an observation area. A family of bats lived under the roof. They sounded upset with us because the group took pictures and the flashes made them mad. However, they just put their furry little arms across their eyes and ignored us. Along this trek thru the mangrove forest, we saw these clumps attached to the trees. The clumps averaged about two feet across, and some were bigger than that. Franscico said they were termite colonies. When we ate lunch back at the launch area, we did see evidence of termite infestation in the bamboo covering the patio, hundreds of tiny holes in the bamboo poles.  After our traditional lunch of shrimp, rice, and salad (no soup this time), we returned by taxi to Bahia with the French women.

We enjoyed this day’s adventures, especially the spooky mangroves and the fascinating red-throated frigates.