R&R&R&R

OK, thanks for that report from the field Maggie. I'm feeling less pouty and exhausted so I'll take it from here.

We spent a few days in Aninuan, which sort of felt like a few too many. While exceptionally beautiful and calm, it induced too much lethargy for my taste. It was sort of a continuous drawl of eating, reading, and laying in the sun. The only real punctuation seemed to be a hike to the native Mangyan villages in the mountains where we had some nice vistas of the mountains running down to the ocean, and a swim in the pool below a small waterfall.

Up in the mountain villages, there are no roads, and the only way to get around is by small footpaths. I can't help but wonder what would happen in case of an emergency up here, with no vehicles able to access the remote abodes.

In places as removed as this I think of the message runners in ancient Greece, who would run urgent news from town to town on foot, the fastest way to spread the word. Yet today, from many of these huts the chime of a cellphone can be heard. I can hear the ancients wailing. Who needs Facebook when you've got feet? Facebook is for the lazy! How about a running a marathon every time you wanted to "like" someones status?

In the rising tide of modernity, it seems like little has escaped submersion.

However, as we continued upwards, we came to a place that seemed different. No motorbikes could reach up here. Homes were built entirely from gathered materials, thatched roof and bamboo walled abodes.We hiked amongst the sparse homes in the mountains, now and then we'd see one of the Mangyan people. Shoeless, machete-wielding and with weathered faces, they looked at us with a distance in their eyes. It seemed to me we walked in from another world, one they did not care to see. Who were these lowlanders, and for what reason did they walk up into our place of solitude?

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From Aninuan, we took a ferry back to Batangas port which is back on Luzon. After killing some time, (and a chewy purple Ube pastry) we got scooped up by Pips and AB. Here, weeks later than planned, we had finally linked up as the P.A.R.T.Y. group.

After a few days of R&R we headed to Pips' family beach home for some....R&R.

We spent the next 4 days at the house in Matabungkay, including our Thanksgiving. Filling our days with snorkeling, our afternoons cooking, and our evenings building bonfires and playing Hearts (the most frustrating card game imaginable to play as a beginner), we settled into a quiet and simple existence on the shores of the South China Sea.

Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a fish we bought in the market which we stuffed with ginger, garlic, and Kalamansi (small limes native to the Philippines), then roasted over the coals of the bonfire. It was nice to twist the traditions of the holiday a bit, while preserving the most important: the sharing of a meal with friends.

One afternoon, while Pips and AB were busy elsewhere, I taught Maggie a bit about animation as we drew a little sequence in the sand. Once I compile the images into a video I'll try to upload it. As per usual with images/video, stay tuned.

Other things to note: we went night snorkeling and were surrounded by bioluminescent organisms, leaving starlike streaks of light in the water as we moved through it (think Avatar), and while snorkeling one day we saw a rather large sea snake swimming along the bottom, then stretching straight up to surface for a quick breather before descending.