17. The Philippines: Part 2

Okay, so part 2…

We actually only spent 2 days on Puerto Galera. Our original plan had been to spend the entire week there, because we had heard it was less touristy than other more well known destinations.

This was the restaurant where we ate literally every meal we had while in Puerto Galera. Kind of ridiculous, really… It is also, I think, the location of practically every photo I have from this portion of our stay. Weird. The weather wasn’t great, and they had a roof and a view of the sea.

Here’s one of the many group shots from Peter’s. Left to right, it’s Kara, Suzanne, myself and Anita.


Here’s another group shot, this one including an awesome girl we met when we went out dancing in Sabang. She came out the next day and spent the day (and night, actually) with us. Had a great time with her, I’m really hoping we can find a way to keep in touch. Anyway, left to right we’ve got Suzanne, myself, Anita, Cherry, Kara.

Here’s a great picture of Cherry, doing something with a beer that I don’t understand. I realize I’m not a drinker, but this seems really counterintuitive to me. Apparently it had something to do with reducing the amount of head the beer had, but it really didn’t seem to work.

And here is me, Cherry and Anita at around 2 or 3 in the morning, after we’d stayed up just gabbing for hours.

And for good measure, here’s me and Cherry… on our hotel padio (a picture that wasn’t taken at Peter’s! amazing!)

Oh, I almost forgot, one other thing we managed to do while in Puerto Galera was have name bracelets made for our students… here’s our little sweat shop working away.

Like I said at the beginning, we didn’t spend much time in Puerto Galera. The problem was that the weather was against us. We went knowing it was monsoon season, but hoping for some sun anyway, but while we were there, we didn’t really get any. And because it’s not really a touristy place, there wasn’t much to do in the rain, so despite our original plan to stay away from tourist central, we headed over to Boracay. After debating various travel options, we settled on hiring a van to drive us to a port city (I forget the name) where we could catch a ferry to Boracay.

Left to right, outside of our own private van: me, Cherry, Anita, Suzanne.

And in the van: Cherry, Kara, Anita, me. Cherry didn’t come with us, obviously, although that would have been awesome. We dropped her off at a Jeepney station and said goodbye. It was quite sad.

The van ride turned out to be just perfect. We got to see a lot of the country side that we would have missed otherwise. It was hard to get pictures, because we were moving so fast much of the time, but I’ve got a few to share.


I missed taking pictures of a lot of spectacular views of cliffsides and mountains because I was too busy looking at them in awe. Really, a beautiful country!

Our driver actually did stop at one point to let us check out some waterfalls.
Anita, Suzanne, me, Kara

Oh, and there was this shot…Do any of you watch The Amazing Race? Do you remember the episode in the Philippines with the ‘broken ox’? (Colin shouting “My ox is broken!” Genius!) That was awesome! I had a quiet laugh when I saw this.

We passed by a bunch of schools. Most of them had this brilliant sign that said “This school is a zone of peace.” I loved that (but couldn’t capture it on film, frustratingly enough). Can any of you guess what sort of thoughts went through my head passing by all of those schools? 3 guesses, and the first two don’t count.


And here’s a bunch of school kids loaded on one of those tricycle things. It blew my mind how many people those things could carry.
Kara in the van

Suzanne and Anita asleep… the van ride took about 4 or 5 hours… can’t really remember offhand.

Anyway, I think I’ll end part 2 here, and begin Part 3 in Boracay. Hope you’re all doing well, and much love, as always!