The past few weeks have flown and it is difficult to recount all that happened as it is almost a blur. I guess it was 2 or 3 weeks ago that Bobby had a conference for Peace Corps while I stayed behind in Kabankalan. I stayed busy by checking in every day to the Tourism office and also to the City Planning but it wasn’t quite the same without Bobby. I spent a lot of time reading and spent time with John John still trying to teach him to read. Our house mom Mercy was busy making sure I was fed and every insisted that I was lonely because I was spending so much time in the room…but we always spend all of our time in the room! Filipinos are very gregarious and are never alone! They have a hard time understanding our preference for being alone and also for not needing to eat rice for each meal a day. I had my friend “Small” asking me what I was eating for lunch and breakfast and was absolutely scandalized when she discovered that rice was not on my menu! She told me that she was worried about my eating habits. I tried to explain to her that I am not Filipino, I am a Lithuanian-American… rice does not even exist in Lithuania!! Last I heard there was one Chinese restaurant in Vilnius but it didn’t do very well. I told her that in New York I would eat rice maybe 2 to 3 times a week. I think I nearly gave her a stroke!
So there is still no real outcome of all the political situation, who knows what will become of this. I arrived in Manila to find it to be it’s usually seething self, nothing out of the ordinary. None the less we were advised to leave as soon as possible and avoid Makati at all costs. So we went to Makati…well, they have the most movie theatres there!! I am still thrilled we went because I found the best bookshop there. It was a book shop of how I imagine the old mom and pops to be, the staff not only selected the merchandise to be sold but personally read every single book there! I love Barnes and Noble just for the sheer enormity of it’s locations and the diversity of the merchandise sold but there is really nothing better than being able to just shoot out a title of a book you love and have a similar one suggested! It was quite pricy, still cheaper than B&N AND it is actually IN the Philippines! That made my year and washed away any concerns of riots or protests.
Saturday night we took an overnight bus to Tuguegurao trying to get to Batanes, the islands furthest north. It was just a stopping point because nobody in Manila seemed to be sure whether or not there was any flight from there to Basco, Batanes. We got lucky and managed to get on a flight first thing the next morning.
Batanes itself was unlike anything else we have seen in the Philippines. The first thing we noticed when we disembarked that the air was fresh and smelt of ….nature!? It was such a shock, especially coming from Tuguegurao, a city which according to our lonely planet book has a population of 12,000 people and 14,000 trykes! According to Thor, the Peace Corps volunteer up there, there are a total of only 9 jeepneys and possibly even few trykes on the entire island of Batan!
Batanes is known for it’s green rolling hills, old limestone houses (drastically different from the Nipa huts of the Visayas), and fierce typhoons. The heat was sweltering nearly the entire time we were there except of course the day before our flight when the typhoon swept in. Perfect timing to cancel our flight and leading to me missing my expiration date of my visa. We got lucky that a little 6 seater plane was going to fly out the next day to Tuguegurao, the storm had cleared enough. This plane was the type where you could actually put the windows up or down if you want to! They actually let me sit in the pilot’s seat and take some photos. It was worth it for that alone!
We managed to extend my visa with little trouble and got on the next bus out of town that was supposed to be a night bus to Baguio. Now the bus was supposed to only take 9 hours and ended up being 12. Then we got on the first bus to Sagada, perfect timing as our bus from Tuguegurao didn’t arrive until 4:30 or so. This left just enough time to go to the “24 hour” pizza place that was telling us they were closed for cleaning when we got there. We managed to talk them into serving us by making them feel guilty for not really being 24 hours but 21 hours.
Sagada is always a treat, the weather is much cooler, vegetables flourish and the vistas are gorgeous. I was thrilled to get to spend my birthday there and to get a chance to have a wonderful meal at “the Log Cabin”, probably the best quality food in the Philippines. Sagada is also known for its weaving, there is one main vertical mill there where they also sell there merchandise. We designed a laptop bag and are having them make it for us, hopefully next time we go up they will have it ready and perhaps add it to their collection. We also made the long hike to try to go to the “Deaf Weavers”, they are known for having slightly more intricate weaving patterns and the owner is deaf. We were getting a little lost and each time we would stop to ask someone Bobby would say something that was more like “the Death Weavers”, this made me picture the Greek myth of the sisters would spin thread for each life and then cut the thread when you life was over. The people who he asked were thoroughly confused and would all reply “Jeff Weavers?? No I don’t know him”. Next time I guess I should do all the talking.
This past week has been crazy for all the celebrations for Charter Day, the anniversary of Kabankalan being named a City. We had the city’s first art workshop and art exhibition. Bobby and I have been judges for the body painting contest and also for the barangay booth competition. All 32 barangays are to build nipa huts using indigenous materials and fill it with their local crop or merchandise. Its been great having so many different things going on. In two weeks we will be back on the road, to make some stops in Pinay and then back to Manila and to Sagada. I suspect that we will be quite busy until I leave around Thanksgiving to go to the States.
