Waiting for Amie and Clayton

New Years Eve January 2014 was quite amazing.

There were fireworks, firecrackers and guns going off all at once in every direction. This actually continued all day. The bishop had warned us to stay home and keep our families safe. People are killed and there were over 1000 reported injures.  The guard on our parking lot said that they had a fire just below our window and were throwing firecrackers in it.

Very pretty to watch.

 

Amie and Clayton arrive--January 15, 2014
I went down to the Radisson Blu Hotel to meet them at 7:30 AM and we came back to the apartment.

Then to the office as they had wonderful Canada souvenirs for the staff. The OJTs  (on the job training students) had had been asking for chocolate on a regular basis.

The temple was closed for the regular January break and they were also making repairs after the earthquake damage. . Moroni is still facing the wrong direction. 

 

The jeepneys are a wonderful part of the Philippine public transportation.

Shopping at Ayala is not much different than shopping at the mall at home but we enjoyed looking around and then went to Café Georg for supper. When we got back Clayton realized that his cell phone was missing. He tried phoning hoping that maybe someone would pick up but no luck. There are a lot of good people in Cebu. Finally after they got back to the hotel he tried one more time and a lady answered. She found the phone in the taxi on her way to work at the Crimson resort on Mactan Island.
This was the start of our Olango adventure. It wasn't raining hard just the occasional shower to keep it a little cool and comfortable. Sister Keller and I met  Amie and Clayton at the Radisson Blu and the tour driver picked us up there and took us to the pier. This is Jun our tour guide.

 

This is how they got us out to the pump boat or ferry.  

First stop was the Wildlife sanctuary--5.3 km. 

This is the entrance to the Wildlife Sanctuary.

Then you walk out to this path to the viewing deck.

Mangrove trees

View through the telescope of a curlew. We did see quite a few birds.

Then back to the Talima Resort for a lovely lunch. Owned by a German fellow. The water was too rough for us to snorkel  or swim so we continued our tour around the island. I can never resist the beautiful Filipino children. They love to have you take their picture and then then look at it. The were playing in the sand with just some sticks f or boats and planes. It was about 25. km. around the island.

School girls on a  long pier--this was a holiday.

We got back to the pier about 3:00 PM. After a couple of hours we got the message that they weren't selling any more tickets and that probably the ferry would not be coming until morning.

So, we loaded the bikes on the trike and made our way back to the Talima resort, in the dark as they still had rooms. We were assured that there would be a boat early the next morning so an older fellow--probably the only one to be willing, picked us up at 6:00 AM in the dark. Because there were 5 of us and the driver for one trike and the terrain was very rough Amie and Clayton decided to run a good part of the way.

Well, we got back to the pier and no sign of a boat. There were many of the same people there that were waiting yesterday. We wondered what they did for the night.

 

There were several problems--Sinulog was on and the boats were involved in that, the tide was low  and the wind and waves were dangerous. Finally when the pump boats did start to arrive from the celebration at Mactan Ialand none of them would consider heading out into the rough water again. But, one captain said that he would take 8 of us for 6000 pesos. Two Englishmen and their Filipino wives needed to catch flights as well. The waves and the swells as we got into open water were quite huge but these men were obviously experienced mariners. Later one of the missionary couples that had been to Leyte told me that they had to sleep on the church floor because none of the ferries were running--tropical depression Agaton causes the  low pressure weather.

 

Approaching the dock at Mactan Island.

We made it even if we look a little worn. A shower and good supper help.

View of  Cebu from the hotel window.

 

 

 

Sinulog was an experience.  

A pagan celebration ushering in the catholic religion. Statues of Santos Nino are everywhere and huge dance competitions.

 

 

Rain's Fruit Stand. It is not very big and in among all the other stands so we almost missed it. There are many fruit , vegetable and second-hand clothing (ukay-ukay) along the street. 

 
Rain is showing us how to prepare a durian fruit. Some people say that it smells like dirty socks. I didn't think that it was that bad but you could still smell it the next  day in the office. It was kind of like eating pudding.

 

This is one of our guards--they change very frequently. He is friendly and is often seen reading out of an old bible or lifting weights. His weights are rusty cans full of cement on each end of a rod.

This is the fruit and vegetable stand just down our street. We were in the habit of shopping there most Saturday mornings until.... one day we went and they disappeared. The guard across the street said that they were reclaiming the property --a lot of new construction going on in Cebu.

It went down to 23 degrees Celsius in some areas so even the animals were dying of hypothermia.

 

This is the stairs to someone's front door. 

Jack fruit can grow very large. This man was just peddling along with his load

 down the busy street

Always interesting food--puto. This is sweetened rice wrapped in banana leaves, for breakfast. You can put more sugar on it or chocolate. Later it could be Krispy Kreme.

 

The public school classrooms may be plain, not very bright and lacking some equipment but the message on the wall is still great as are the people.