I made it to the PI’s!

2013-02-13_21-57-09_969

Well I have tried to post this a couple times already.  I am typing on my little pos Nokia.  I type out a nice post and hit “submit” and when the page refreshes there is no post – and everything I’ve written is gone.  So I gave up.  Now I am on my laptop and will just copy/paste this into a thread when I get to the internet cafe.

To sum up:

I made it!  Been here a week and loving it.

A little more detail:

I arrived on14FEB13 at 0545 in Iloilo.  My girlfriend is going to meet me, and bring a big car because I brought too much stuff.  Three suitcases and a carry-on!  I never travel this heavy but it is retirement, not a vacation so it is ok.   I don’t know the job title but you know the hustlers at every airport in the world, trying to get you a taxi or stay at certain hotels?  Well by 0700 this one lady was frantic with worry for me being stranded at the airport… “get a hotel and use the wifi to contact your girlfriend” she says. She is only watching out for my best interests, you know.  I keep telling her that it is not that late – I will not worry until lunch, I understand Filipino time, and have traveled alone too much to get worried easily.  And I already spotted a hotdog vendor in case I was there for lunch ha ha.  About 0745 they get there.  They brought a pickup truck. And with usual Filipino logic they filled it with family!  Nah… there was room for luggage, there were only 8 people.

Welcome to the Philippines!

I am out in the Province.  You know the routine, cement hut, tin roof, squat toilet, and a bucket for a shower.  It is not so bad really 🙂  Aircon and plumbing are over-rated.

I am going to ramble so don’t worry…. there is no real topic.

The 3 hour drive from Iloilo to Antique took about 5 hours.  We had to stop and meet her whole family (or so I thought!).  Then they want to stop at a mall….  I keep mumbling about 2 straight days of travel…. I’m tired…. but we keep going.   Finally get to the house and pass out.  The next day we took the bus to town, about an hour’ish ride to San Jose.  Nice little place.  I buy a phone.  Glad I did not buy one before going.  They all said the Android won’t work this far out in the boonies except on wifi – and there is none near the house.  I have to run on just loads and every store said not to try an Android…. poor me…. I miss my Android OS.  So here I am on a piece of S#!^ Nokia and a lousy connection.  Good thing the beach is nearby, who needs the internet!

Next day we hop on the motorcycles and go to the waterfall.  I of course pay everyone’s way into the park but the entire day didn’t cost ₱1,000.  It was a lot of fun!  We hiked 1.5K up a mountain to a series of waterfalls.  The water was freaking cold!!  The girls had some barbecue pork kabobs to cook (we don’t need refrigeration out here) and I bought chips and fruit juice at the store – conveniently located at the top of the mountain.  Swimming, climbing up the falls with a rope, hanging on to the back of a bike… on about 9 hours sleep in the last 4 days.

This is not in any kind of order, just things we’ve done this week.  We went to the wet market, walked to the beach, laid in bed all day listening to the rain on the tin roof, went to Brgy Tibia (?) for a festival and to use the free wifi in their town square.  I couldn’t get it to connect for some reason so we went to an internet cafe down the road.  I found a new hangout!  Good lunch and cheap wifi (₱50 for all day).   We go take a walk one night for exercise and everywhere we go we run into more family. And as I am trying to exercise with a walk all I hear is “eat! eat!”  The Filipino’s are a hospitable people I will grant you that.   We have had numerous family visitors come by to meet me.   One brought a gift of 2 ducks, so I provided the brandy for the nights drinking on the patio.   I have had rice at almost every meal and I am ok with that.  I did turn down some balut but tried everything else offered.  The bait fish they fry and eat are actually ok.  Especially considering I am  not a seafood fan.  If you do not know what balut is – Google it and get back with me ha ha.

Big problem coming soon.  I sent 11 boxes of goods ahead of me.  They should be here in about 6 weeks and I have nowhere to put any of it!   I am living out of my suitcases because I have nowhere to unpack my clothes even.  We need to find our own house anyway, I think.

We are going to Iloilo next week for my first visa extension and check out the city.  She has family there too.  I’m pretty happy in the barangay but Melane thinks I will get bored soon.  We will look around Iloilo while there and see what we think about it.

I have not been on a computer in a week and my shoulders are cramping up already… back to lounging around!  See you later

 

1 thought on “I made it to the PI’s!

Leave a Reply