Anddddddddddd I'm Back

As you woke to your morning coffee last Saturday Carrie and I were strolling down the white sandy beach, full moon illuminating this crisp night in Puerta Galera. With our ever present swimsuits on underneath our clothing we decided to slip into the water for a little night swimming. As Michael Stipe of REM so eloquently states, “night swimming, deserves a quiet night”. And I don’t think it ever gets any quieter than a Sunday night in this relatively quaint beach community 2 hours (bus and boat) outside of Manila. I kid you not when I say the water was maybe a few degrees warmer than the pool at the Shangri-La hotel back in Manila. Maybe even more impressive to me was that it was nearly as clear. With the full moon I could easily make out the color of Carrie’s red swimsuit from ten feet away. Making it all the more breathtaking, an isolated thunder storm hovered patiently over a distant island. Horizontal and vertical lightning strikes so long they stretched the height and width of my vision.

Still glossy eyed from a few moonlit kisses we trudged from the ocean. Funny thing though, I no longer had any pants. While disappointing it was not so sad until I realized the pants also held my brand new camera as well as the only hotel key. Not something you want to encounter at 1 in the morning. While nice, this hotel was no Shangri-La, you couldn’t just approach the front desk for a new copy. In fact there was nothing remotely close to a front desk. The open air restaurant served as front desk, housekeeping, concierge, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyone had long been asleep. As I stood in sandy hotel courtyard facing the beach pondering my course of action, it began to rain. Hopefully the rain destroyed the camera now in the clenched fists of the Filipino thief. That was my first thought at least. Next thought was that it’s time to start knocking on doors. I had no idea where anyone of authority slept in these cabanas. So I knocked on the nearest door I could find. A young man answered. He had no idea as to Fred the managers whereabouts but was a long term guest with his phone #, so he graciously offered to text message him. During the text his lover, a young man of equal age, emerged from the bathroom once he realized it was an American and he was safe.

After an hour and a half I located the door of another long term guest in dredlocks. I figured that this would be my solution, and it was. He knew where the employee on hand would be sleeping and yelled to him from an open window. So at least we got back into the room from the rain. Gone are a collection of pictures that rank among the best I’ve yet to take. Gone, the picture of Laila and the rest of her transsexual bartenders performing with much pride their dance routine just for Carrie and I. Gone, the picture of the local 7-year old boy who climbed onto the side of the boat in his swimsuit and snorkel mask, staring at me as I stared at him through my camera lense. Gone, the pictures of Coco Beach, Sabaang, and White Beach taken from the boat surrounded by dark blue water, with a backdrop of lush green mountains. Now they only exist in the memories of myself, Carrie and the memory card headed to the black market.

It was this incident that has delayed my blogging. As previously mentioned these pics were the best yet, and I had even in my head elegantly scripted the first 2 paragraphs of the blog. The disappointment at being unable to share the adventure with you all sent me into hiding. I’m back and I now have an airtight grip on the new camera.

On Carrie’s second to last day we headed down to the University of Philippines to walk around. I had been there previously to play Ultimate Frisbee but didn’t get much of a view of the expansive campus. We walked around for several hours through this jungle campus and still didn’t come close to covering the entire grounds. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
On Carrie’s final day we finally got up the motivation for the San Miguel challenge. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the beer selection here in the Philippines. There is quite an array so prepare yourself, San Miguel Light, San Miguel Ice, San Miguel Pale, San Miguel Dry and San Miguel Red Horse. {Catching my breath}. Portland’s one hundred micro-brews pales in comparison to this massive beer list. So we bought four varieties which you can see lined up on the bar in my room. Beer was poured into each of four glasses, the contestant then tastes each of the beers, stating which variety they think it is. Contestants were allowed to try each type more than once. Sadly I must come clean that Carrie took me down in this competition. She correctly guessed two of the four and myself one of four. Our overall poor performance can be attributed to one of two things, either our poor beer tasting or minimal difference between the beers. Considering I could without hesitation taste and name all six of the McMennamins brewery beers back home I have my opinion. But I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

With my poor track record pertaining
to cameras Carrie and I decided it best we not take it out for her last night on the town. We had no crazy plans as her flight left in the morning.
But again given my track record and dwindling bank account we left it at home. It’s going to be strange not having a traveling and eating partner for the duration of my trip. On the bright side with nobody to talk to I’ll inevitably take out that frustration on my keyboard in the form of blogging. My new camera is bigger and badder than the rest. The Cannon Powershot A630, 8.0 Mega-Pixels (aka good). It also has a viewer screen that pops out and can turn around. So even without Carrie to take pictures of me while I travel I will be able to adeptly take them of myself. I leave you with a variety of pictures from the hotel pool and my room at Carrie’s request.