The Philippines - Week 1

Cebu is famous for guitars

okay, okay ... I know. Way behind on blog posts. WAY WAY behind. I'm sorry!

I went to the Philippines Dec. 21st to Jan. 7th. It was my first time seeing Dan since May 5th ... I had to psych myself up the whole plane ride there and was so full of emotions I was on the verge of crying every few seconds.

For the past few months when driving home late at night from the gym I would imagine how our reunion was going to be ... and was sure I would be balling too much to even be able to look at Daniel clearly. But, after psyching myself and cursing the Philippines for taking so long to get my bag out of the airplane (and not bothering to check its "customs" either) I saw Dan in his customary white t-shirt and cried a little, but mostly hugged and kissed him. And so started our great vacation...

"Shoot to Kill" fish display

We started out with 3 days in Cebu re-acquainting ourselves with ... ourselves, checking out the sights on Mactan Island, eating some "Shoot to Kill" seafood, and trying to find a pizza (or was it mexican?) place in the middle of the city (we ended up not finding it ... but getting great pizza anyway!)Front of Dan's house

We headed to Dan's province area, Borbon, via a minibus that was packed full of people, food, luggage, and god knows what else ... and we had a massive amount of baggage. A bit uncomfortable for 2 hours but finally we stepped off into a quaint street where people were excited to meet me and I was excited to meet them and see Dan's lifestyle firsthand.

A Mini-bus. Painted crazy colors and designs and usually given a cool name.

Dan took me into his workplace to meet all of his co-workers. I finally got to see what he meant all those months when he would say things like "my office is the only one that is air conditioned" and "people just hang out in the big square outside my office". Filipinos are extremely sweet and of course Dan and I were showered with compliments, etc, and everyone asking our plans.

Dan's workplace - Borbon Municipal Hall

Daniel wanted to experience a real Filipino Christmas ... We still are a little confused on what this is. But, we did go to midnight mass at the local church. All I can say is that I was sweating my life away in that church. It was hot. They dont do a present exchange like we do in the states. Maybe its because everyone doesnt get presents, or they dont want to disappoint the present-giver so they open all their presents on whatever day they feel like and mostly in private.Borbon's Mary Garden

Midnight Mass

Our next stop was the touristy island of Bohol. We spent five amazing days in Bohol and saw the Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers, a cave, and hung out at Alona Beach.

We did a scuba dive together, I got massaged, we ate dinner with Dan's Peace Corps friends, and we oooooh-ed and aaahhhh-ed at the little Tarsiers that were only two feet from us. The Chocolate Hills are an amazing geological formation of 1,200 cone-shaped hills of roughly the same size. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen and we had lots of fun taking pictures and enjoying the view.

Tarsiers are the smallest primate in the world. They aren't monkeys, fyi. They are noctornal, on the endagered species list, and eat insects. If our eyes were the same proportions as theirs, ours would have to be 150 times bigger than their size now. Crazy! PROTIP- Don't touch a Tarsier. They don't like it and will snarle at you.

I almost forgot to tell you about Prony ... that would have been awful! Prony was the highlight of my trip!

Getting excited to see Prony!

Prony is the largest python in captivity kept at this persons house in Albequrque, Bohol. The house has now turned into a zoo/tourist attraction. I had read abou t Prony on the flight magazine on the way over and our lovely driver (a cousin of Dan's host mom) offered to take us to see Prony, the magical wonder. Prony is massive. We were invited into the cage. We accepted. Daniel gave Prony a big kiss, while I opted for the pet. We are told that Prony eats one pig a month ... he is very specific, though. The pig can't have any spots and has to be clean. Then Prony wraps himself around the pig, crushes him to death, and gulps. I am glad it wasn't feeding day when I went. The last thing I have to say about this experience is that outside Prony's cage was a bayot. A bayot is a man that is gay. But, in the Philippines, he is not just gay, he is more like a cross dresser. It is the norm here and they start this stereotype at a young age. So the woman you see in this picture was the funniest bayot ever, singing and laughing and dancing and just loving Prony and the tourists.

Next post --- more info and more pictures!!