The Philippines: Day 3 (Last Day)

Our last day in the Philippines, we spent driving around the city of Manila and seeing some of the historical sites. We also got to see a lot of the city.

One of our stops was Fort Santiago, a Spanish fort within the walled city of Intramuros, built in 1571 when the Philippines was under Spanish control.This door isn't an original, but is in the original style, with very translucent shells instead of glass in the windows.Look how awesome this huge chain on the anchor is. The links are graduated so they get smaller in size towards the end of the chain.

Within the fort there was a shrine to the Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This is a memorial to the Philippine National Hero, Jose Rizal. Jose Rizal was an important figure and martyr in the Philippine Revolution, when the Philippines liberated itself from Spain.

This is the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the largest cemetery in the Pacific for soldiers killed during WWII and holds 17,206 graves, of which 36,282 are unknown for soldiers who were missing in action. It is so sad to see this many graves in one place and to know that it is only a fraction of the lives lost. As we have been traveling, I have realized more and more how grateful I am to be an American and at what a high cost the freedoms I enjoy have been paid.

This chapel at the memorial had a beautiful mosaic that was probably at least 25 feet tall.A view of Manila from the cemetery.

This is at Saint Augustin's Cathedral. It was closed so we didn't get to go in, but I was happy just to be able to see these doors. The cathedral was built in 1607, and these are the original doors. They are hand carved from Narra (local variety of mahogany) and are over 400 years old. They were beautiful.

This is inside the Manila Cathedral. Catholics sure do know how to build beautiful churches. I could look at the stained glass windows forever.This mosaic was beautiful. I wished I had been able to get closer for photos, but there were some women praying there and I didn't want to be disrespectful. I already felt bad taking pictures inside a church.
This carved wood cross was exquisite. There was a tiny relic in the center, but I don't know what of. I do know this cathedral houses some relics of St. Therese, but I'm not sure where or what they are.

I love all the stained glass windows, but I wish they had cheat sheets of the stories so I knew better what the images were depicting.

This mosaic was especially gorgeous. The gold of the tiles was really luminescent and seemed to glow.

These were the carved wood outer doors. I'm such a dork, but all I could think about when I saw these was what great examples of relief sculpture they would be for my three dimensional design students!
We packed a lot into this last day and had a great time. Overall, out trip to the Philippines was wonderful.
I do want to tell you about a couple of random, but funny stories from our trip.
Our driver was very catholic (80% of Filipinos are). He asked us a few times if we had children. We said "no, not yet." He asked why not. We just told him that we would soon. Well, when he dropped us off at the airport for our flight back to Guam, his last words to us were, "Well, you don't know, maybe you made a baby in the Philippines!"
I of course burst out laughing because I thought it was so funny, but he was dead serious and didn't even crack a smile. It was Ssooooo funny.
Another funny thing that happened with our driver was when he asked where we were from. We told him Arizona. He was silent. We said, "The USA".
"Oh" he said, "Where in USA?"
We replied, "Arizona".
Silence.
He asked, "Is that an island?"
We said, "Um...no, its surrounded by land. Its a desert. We have very little water."
He seemed unable to fathom the idea. "Well what do you eat?"
We told him that we didn't eat much fish, because we had no nearby ocean. He could not even understand. Unimaginable to him was the idea of no fish.
He still had no clue about Arizona. Then he asked, "What is Arizona's Baseball team? I like Baseball."
We told him the diamondbacks.
Then all of a sudden he knew something about Arizona. It was so funny.
He asked us how far it was from New York. We told him about 3 or 4 days driving. He seemed like he thought it impossible and I'm not sure he believed us. The idea of being able to drive that far was crazy to him. He had a hard time imagining life not on an island.
I too had a hard time imagining life in a place like the philippines. What would it be like to live in a place where you really could live off the land? Coconuts, pineapple, mango trees, banana trees and a bunch of other fruits I don't even know abound. They grow wild. You could just pick fruit whenever you want. What would that be like???
We enjoyed the conversation.

I loved our trip to the Philippines and will not soon forget our experiences there. It is nice however, to be back on American soil. There really is, no place like home (even if I'm still on Guam and not back in AZ yet).

Stay tuned to see what we brought home!

The Philippines: Day 2

Our second day in the Philippines we decided to head out of the city and see some of the countryside. We booked a tour with avanchor tours to go to Taal Volcano, in the province of Batangas, near the town of Tagaytay.
Taal Volcano is actually the smallest volcano in the world, and is located inside a much larger and older volcano. Inside Taal Volcano is a lake, with an island in the middle. Taal Volcano is actually also an island on a lake. So, we went to an island on a lake, on an island on a lake, on an island in the ocean. Confused? So were we. These maps will help clarify. The map above shows southeast Asia on the left, and the Philippine Islands on the right.

This map (above) shows the Northern part of the Philippines (Luzon Island). You can see a large lake towards the middle of the map. That is Taal Lake.


This map (above) shows Taal Lake, with an island (Taal Volcano). The large lake is actually in the caldera of a much older and larger volcano. The island in the middle is Taal Volcano, which is the smallest volcano in the world, and one of the Philippines most active volcanoes. You can see a small lake in the center of the island, that is at the top of Taal Volcano. There is a tiny island in this lake. And there you have the island on the lake, on the island on the lake, on the island in the ocean. Crazy.

Our tour took us out of the densely populated city of Manila, into the province of Batangas. We took a scenic drive through hills, mountains, forests and grasslands, with slopes ranging from 10-20% gradient (steep). We went through Tagaytay city which was very pretty. In the province we saw many vendors on the side of the street, but we went through one area that had dozens of furniture shops on the side of the road. I really wanted to stop but I was too chicken to ask the driver. They make furniture from Acacia, Narra (a local variety of mahogany) and ebony.

These people were just making all kinds of furniture outside on the side of the road. It was cool. I really wish I had asked to stop.We also saw a lot of pineapple farms.
I had never seen a pineapple grow before...its kind of weird.This is overlooking Taal Lake (the large lake in the old caldera of the inactive old volcano). Its huge. They have a lot of Tilapia farms in this lake.See all the fish farms in the water?

This is the boat we took across Taal Lake to Taal Volcano.

This is a village at the bottom of Taal Volcano (one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines). Their main source of income comes from tourists visiting the volcano. They charge a fee to hike the trail, and they offer horse rides at the bottom.

We read that the hike was only about 1 mile, so we decided not to get the horses and just do the hike ourselves. Well, our guide walked about a million miles an hour. The horse owners also decided to follow us on the trail. Every few feet they would say, "Want to ride the horse? Only 500 pesos (about $10) up and back). It was annoying. I felt like they were taunting us. Not only were we walking about twice my normal speed, we were walking up a very steep incline (the side of a VOLCANO), which was really really HOT. There was smoke coming out of crevices in the rock in some places. My willpower didn't hold out for very long. Between the heat, the crazy fast pace, and the taunting from behind, I gave into the horse ride pretty quickly. And after seeing how steep it was at the top, I'm glad I did.

The villagers other source of income is that they produce charcoal and sell it in the town. We passed many horses carrying charcoal down the side of the volcano.

This is at the top looking down.

This is looking into the sulfurous lake at the top of the volcano. You could see smoke, steam, and bubbles coming up in the water. It smelled bad and was really really hot. They said the water is too hot to touch in most places.
This is Scott taking a rest at the top with our guide, Ed.


See the little tiny island in the lake?

Looking back down the trail.

This is back at the bottom. Look how tired my poor horse looked. Ive never seen a horse stick its tongue out like that. I felt like such a fat spoiled American after riding these horses. It was sad.

Crossing the lake to go back.Back on the other side of the lake they served us fresh tilapia from the lake with rice and mango juice to drink. It was delicious.Our second day in the Philippines was AWESOME!!!