Catching up

Do you really want to hear about what happened today? How I cleared hundreds of e-mails, ordered more supplements, washed and hung up four of the hand-dyed sarongs I bought? How Chris got his car window fixed? No? Ok, then, how about what happened last Saturday?

The night before our trip I took a shower and went to bed because we had to get up at 4am. I took two 5-htp capsules (does that make 10 htp?). I couldn't sleep. My sleep CD was packed. All too soon the alarm went off - at 3:30! Chris got up to take a shower and I got up to check e-mail one last time and to e-mail the manager of the thrift shop that I would not be in this following week. There wasn't time for breakfast so I ate some nuts and swallowed some supplements that I put out the night before. I had to wet down my hair because it was standing up like a rooster tail. Then we bundled up and dragged our luggage to the car. Chris drove us to the Capitol Hotel and left us there with the luggage while he parked the car on post. It took longer than he expected because his driver's side window wouldn't go up. He walked to the hotel and bought us bus tickets to the airport. We boarded the 4:40 bus and rode it around the city. Only one more person got on before it headed to the airport. There we checked into the Philippines Airline desk at 6. After going through security, we boarded a shuttle to another terminal. We tried to change money, but they wouldn't change dollars. We quickly found our gate and sat down to wait. AT 7:50 we got in line to get on the plane. It was not nearly full. It was a 4-hour flight to Manilla. During that time I did Sudoku puzzles and watched the in-flight movie. When we got off the plane, the weather was warm. I saw tropical trees, and grass. The air smelled so good. I didn't realize summer was only 4 hours away!
We went through immigration with no problems. Then at the baggage claim area we took turns watching for our suitcase while the others went to the bathroom. Chris was able to change dollars for pesos there. On the way through customs three little old Korean ladies got stopped and searched, but they let us breeze through. Then we had to find the terminal for our connecting flight. Everyone we asked agreed that there was a shuttle, but gave us differing info on where to find it. We waited for nearly an hour for an informal shuttle to appear. The driver loaded our suitcase in back with the others. We sat on bench seats and were taken on a trip through the city to the domestic terminal. It was quaint with a slight third world flavor. We went to a travel agency called SEAIR and they printed out a colored copy of our e-tickets and registered us on the computer. We walked into the airport and showed our passports and went through security. Then we had to pay 200 pesos each as a terminal fee. Roughly $5. Chris found the check-in window for SEAIR. They did not have a computer so they gave us handwritten boarding passes. We went into a large waiting room for the next several hours. We left Michele sitting with our stuff and scouted for healthy food. We got barbecued chicken, rice, and a huge meat dumpling, and 8 dimsum-like rolls for about $10. The three of us shared. Then Chris and I walked around the room for something to do. We got interrupted once when he was called to the counter to change his seat assignment to balance the plane. As we finished our walk, we passed the prayer room (empty), a statue of Mary, a children's playroom and an infant feeding room. All empty even though the room was at least half full. Finally we were called to board a pregnant pidgeon. This small twin prop plane had three columns of seats, one on the left and two on the right. I fell asleep while waiting on the tarmac for permission to take off. We were 20 minutes late on take-oof, but it was only a 40 minute flight: just enough time for the stewardess to pass out snacks and bottled water to the passengers. Then we landed on a runway along the coast of Caticlan. This airport was even smaller. The terminal was a square of concrete covered by a canvas tarp. While waiting for our luggage to be unloaded, we met a man named Joseph who agreed to get us and our luggage to the hotel for a price. He loaded our suitcase into a van and drove us around several corners to a pier. He got us boat tickets to an outrigger. We had to cross a moving plank to board the boat. When the boat was full of passengers, it motored out to the island of Boracay. This time we had concrete stairs to climb. We walked along the pier to the island. Joseph found us a truck with open sides to carry us to our hotel on the hill. Welcome to Boracay. We passed many ramshackle bungalows where people cooked over wood fires. The smell of wood smoke reminded me of camping. We also passed through urban areas where small shops were nestled together, selling fresh fruits and veggies, beachware, snacks, etc. Our hotel was on a large hill. It was easily the largest hotel we had passed. It was all so beautiful - all sorts of tropical plants filled the landscape.
I was happy to get off the back of the truck because of the gas fumes. Joseph left and we checked in. A man carried our luggage to room H205. It was on the second floor of one of 15 or so three-story buildings. We got situated, locked our valuables in the safe, and proceeded to the hotel restaurant for supper. One wall was open to the outside deck, but we were seated inside. Chris ordered mahi-mahi, Michele got a pork dish, and I ordered something that claimed to be local vegetables in garlic sauce. When my dish came, I couldn't identify the veggies, but one that looked like a ribbed green squash had a very sharp taste, and I only ate a few pieces of that one. I also ordered a mango appetizer, but they said the mangoes weren't ripe. After supper we went back to the room. Michele wanted to go to the outdoor pool. It looked inviting but the water wasn't warm. So she and Chris went. But they came back almost immediately because the air was cool, too. So we stayed inside and watched Animal Planet. (Hurray for TV in English) I fell asleep watching, and then the others went to bed also.