A couple of weeks ago Kim came to visit. Rather than bore her with the rice paddies here in central Luzon, we headed down to the Visayan Islands. The Visayas is one of three island groups here in the Philippines (Luzon and Mindanao being the other two). It consists of several islands, many of which we visited, and forms the central part of the Philippine's archipelago. It is also home to the luckiest PC volunteers, living on these beautiful beaches for two years. Punks. So....
a quick recap...I picked Kim up in Manila and we flew to Tagbilaran, Bohol. Bohol is home to the famous tarsier, which is the smallest primate in the world. They are found only in a few southeast Asian islands. Rumor has it that they were the inspiration behind Steven Spielburg's E.T. (although they are much smaller). We also saw the chocolate hills, which we thought were the most over-rated tourist attraction here. We snorkeled at Pamilacan Island, stayed at an amazing place on Panglao Island called The Bee Farm, and took a cruise on the Loboc River. At the river we stayed at a place called Nuts Huts, which was in the jungle on the river, therefore lots of bugs and strange noises at night. The first of many non-flush toilets and beds with mosquito nets (Kim wasn't too excited). We left Bohol after 5 days and took a boat to Siquihor. Siquihor is a smaller
island known for its faith healers. We stayed at a dive resort on the beach and rented a motorcycle to tour the island at our own pace. I was determined to find one of these faith healers because i had heard so much about them, and after several wrong turns and wrong-er directions from locals, we found the home of Juan Ponce. He is the most well-known of the island's
mananambals. He felt my pulse points and asked me what was wrong. Um.....hadn't really thought about it, I was just there to see if he would perform witchcraft or voodoo. So I went to my old standby..."Masakeet ang tiyan" (my stomach hurts). He lifted up my shirt and touched my stomach, then rubbed something oily on it that smelled like coconut but had stuff floating in it. He boiled some red leaves, then put them all over my stomach and told me that there was an evil spirit inside. Well, duh. I could've told him that. 13 months of diarrhea, what else could it be? After Siquihor, we took another boat to Dumaguete, on the island of Negros. We had to go there to try to change our flight back to manil
a, as it was holy week, and no boats were running on good friday to get back to bohol. We hopped a very WET boat out to Apo island, which has a marine reserve around the island so is renowned for its snorkeling and diving. After some more scrabble there (we spent about half our time doing this), we headed back to Dumaguete to fly back up to manila. We met up with some of my PC friends there and took Kim out for some videoke, as it is a crime to leave this country without singing at least one song. She was a good sport, and then as the warm beer and wine continued to flow, someone decided it was time for Reyna and I to try balut, as its also a crime to live in this country for over a year and not have eaten it. Balut is hard boiled duck egg with a 15-day fetus inside. Its a popular stre
et food here that all Filipinos eat and enjoy, but the sight of it has always been too much for me. But the mood was right and the buzz was good, so we downed it like good girls, just in time to see Kim off to the airport. What a week. I am back at site now, suffering from a pretty severe case of post-vacation blues. Here are some more of our favorite pictures (as always, just click on the pictures to enlarge):
A couple of weeks ago Kim came to visit. Rather than bore her with the rice paddies here in central Luzon, we headed down to the Visayan Islands. The Visayas is one of three island groups here in the Philippines (Luzon and Mindanao being the other two). It consists of several islands, many of which we visited, and forms the central part of the Philippine's archipelago. It is also home to the luckiest PC volunteers, living on these beautiful beaches for two years. Punks. So....
a quick recap...I picked Kim up in Manila and we flew to Tagbilaran, Bohol. Bohol is home to the famous tarsier, which is the smallest primate in the world. They are found only in a few southeast Asian islands. Rumor has it that they were the inspiration behind Steven Spielburg's E.T. (although they are much smaller). We also saw the chocolate hills, which we thought were the most over-rated tourist attraction here. We snorkeled at Pamilacan Island, stayed at an amazing place on Panglao Island called The Bee Farm, and took a cruise on the Loboc River. At the river we stayed at a place called Nuts Huts, which was in the jungle on the river, therefore lots of bugs and strange noises at night. The first of many non-flush toilets and beds with mosquito nets (Kim wasn't too excited). We left Bohol after 5 days and took a boat to Siquihor. Siquihor is a smaller
island known for its faith healers. We stayed at a dive resort on the beach and rented a motorcycle to tour the island at our own pace. I was determined to find one of these faith healers because i had heard so much about them, and after several wrong turns and wrong-er directions from locals, we found the home of Juan Ponce. He is the most well-known of the island's mananambals. He felt my pulse points and asked me what was wrong. Um.....hadn't really thought about it, I was just there to see if he would perform witchcraft or voodoo. So I went to my old standby..."Masakeet ang tiyan" (my stomach hurts). He lifted up my shirt and touched my stomach, then rubbed something oily on it that smelled like coconut but had stuff floating in it. He boiled some red leaves, then put them all over my stomach and told me that there was an evil spirit inside. Well, duh. I could've told him that. 13 months of diarrhea, what else could it be? After Siquihor, we took another boat to Dumaguete, on the island of Negros. We had to go there to try to change our flight back to manil
a, as it was holy week, and no boats were running on good friday to get back to bohol. We hopped a very WET boat out to Apo island, which has a marine reserve around the island so is renowned for its snorkeling and diving. After some more scrabble there (we spent about half our time doing this), we headed back to Dumaguete to fly back up to manila. We met up with some of my PC friends there and took Kim out for some videoke, as it is a crime to leave this country without singing at least one song. She was a good sport, and then as the warm beer and wine continued to flow, someone decided it was time for Reyna and I to try balut, as its also a crime to live in this country for over a year and not have eaten it. Balut is hard boiled duck egg with a 15-day fetus inside. Its a popular stre
et food here that all Filipinos eat and enjoy, but the sight of it has always been too much for me. But the mood was right and the buzz was good, so we downed it like good girls, just in time to see Kim off to the airport. What a week. I am back at site now, suffering from a pretty severe case of post-vacation blues. Here are some more of our favorite pictures (as always, just click on the pictures to enlarge): 
