Donsol

We woke up quite late and got the flight to Legaspi City which is about 200km south of Manila. There is a volcano right next to Legaspi City which is the most perfect cone shaped volcano in the world. Unfortunately it erupted in 2006 and blew a hole in its side so it is not so perfect any more. We took a van to Donsol where we unpacked and played on the beach. We made some new friends / enemies on the beach and lots of kids came to watch us swim in the sea- it was like having an audience!

Next day we woke up early to go swimming with the butanding – the local name for a whale shark. They are the biggest living fish in the whole world and can grow up to 20m long! We headed out to sea and saw three whale sharks. When we went down I thought “no wonder they are called whale sharks because they are soooo big!”. Most of the time I saw lots of white dots but one of the whale sharks I followed for about ten minutes and it was only about one metre below me. The other whale sharks we didn’t get so lucky and they weren’t so close. At first I was pretty nervous that I might accidentally touch them or kick them, or that they might accidentally swallow me. It is amazing that they are so gentle.

When we got back we played on the beach again, jumping on and off boats until the evening. We went on a sunset cruise to see fireflies, which are called “alitaptap” here and went to bed quite late.

On Wednesday we played around on the beach but also some fishermen stopped by with some cool fish and some poisonous ones too. We were able to get a pufferfish and another fish for free. We built a small pool for them and put them in. We thought they would be all right there so we built a wall for them to keep them in and went to play on the boats nearby, but we came back to find our puffer fish was missing, but luckily the kids were very helpful and helped us find our other fish again. They also gave us a jelly fish to keep in our pool. Sadly when the rest of our family returned from butanding watching our puffer fish had not been found and our pool had dried out so our other fish was dead.

On Thursday we went island hopping in a big boat. We saw a pod of dolphins on the way and loads of flying fish. We went snorkelling at one island and had lunch at another one. We saw some amazing corals and our cousin Sevi picked up a starfish. Underwater there were Nemos, Dorys and lots of other fish. They were all so colourful and I can’t wait to go snorkelling again in Boracay.

When we returned to the boat we found out that some kids from the local village had started playing on our boat.

After lunch we went to see some waterfalls and a bat cave on the boat before heading back to Donsol. On the trip back the sea was very choppy.

Sagada, March 14

We left quite early to go to the Big Falls. This time to get there we had to walk down a valley of loads of rice terraces for about an hour. Obviously most of us (apart from my mum) have some mountain goat in us as we were able to race down the paths to Big Falls.

When we got there I thought in my head, “wow, that must be 80 times bigger than small falls!”. We took a quick dip in Big Falls but it was far too cold to stay in long. Manong Madrid though thought it was warm and rinsed himself in the waterfall to get wet and then washed his hair with shampoo which he had bought along the way!! He scrubbed it on his head and then jumped in to get a good rinse! What a great way to have a shower! There were some boys who had followed us and were good friends of Manong Madrid. One of them showed my Dad how to climb up the falls so he could jump off too. The boys scrubbed Manong Madrid’s back with a stone to make him clean and then gave him a massage. We had a great time but really didn’t look forward to the long trip back. Mr Bang gave us some goodies for the trip back to Manila.
The trip back was VERY long and bumpy. We stopped overnight in Baguio which is the main town in the mountains. On Saturday we got up early and drove back to Manila.

Sagada, March 13

Today we went straight to the tourist office to get ourselves two guides to go and explore Sagada. One was called Madrid the other Sam. We first took a hike to a cave with loads of coffins. They were made of wood and were actually quite small. They first put the dead person on a ‘death chair,’ then they paraded around him /her for five to six nights and eventually put the body in an embryo position and carry it to the coffin.

We learnt that there had been an earthquake in 1998 and all the coffins had fallen to the bottom of the cave and had to be recovered back to the top where we saw them. That is why there are lots of holes in them. We saw a skull peaking out of one!

After this we went to the “Big Cave” where we had to hike down about 500m below the surface. Manong Sam and Manong Madrid (Manong means “mister” in Tagalog) carried kerosene lanterns around the cave so we could see. Personally I think they were better than flashlights because you could see all around. There were some stones called limestone that were extremely slippery, and even more if they were wet. The cave was also quite smelly because bats had pooed on all the rocks and you had to keep putting your hands in it – yuk!!

Half way down we had to take our shoes off and go bare feet down into the darkness. A few minutes later we also had to take a rope down a steep piece of sandstone called “the Kings Curtains”. Here is a picture. After that we took a path leading to a small place where you had to duck really low to squeeze through and not bump your head. This was the exciting part because (1) we had to climb a rope going across an underground pool and my mum fell in (2) we waded through some deep water – it was up to my chest (3) Euan fell into another deep pool of water and had to swim to the edge!

After that we had to take a steep hike back up to the top of the cave and went for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the Small Falls and gosh they really were small – I reckon the tallest one was about 3m high. We jumped off a few cliffs into the pool and had lots of fun playing about in the water.

In the evening we went to Lake Datum to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy so we left early and went back to Rock Inn to toast some marshmallows over the fire. It was an amazingly fun day and I hope to do it again sometime when I am older.

Sagada, March 12

A few days ago, we went back to Tali for 2 days to hang around, swim and play golf. The golf course was big and extremely fun to play on. There were a lot of hazards so it was difficult as well. We also swam for the first time with our swim shirts. And we also played a game called “Goofy”.

Yesterday we set off for Banaue. It is a wonderful mountain town which holds the eighth wonder of the world: the rice terraces. The view is amazing at some peaks and some other people called Ifugaos still wear the traditional clothes. The drive to Banaue took EIGHT HOURS!!! The road was extremely bumpy and it was like a massage on your head. And for most of the trip we were sightseeing. But lucky for us there was lots to see. When we got there, we went straight to our hotel. Our hotel looked from the outside quite small, but when you went inside it was actually quite big.

Today we left Banaue at 10am for Sagada, another mountain town. Sagada has the hanging coffins and another underground river. The trip took four hours, and can you believe, we won’t be off the mountains till Friday! Our hotel is really nice and the view is spectacular. We got here and straight away we went for a walk around the town. There are a lot of small houses but not as much as Banaue. We went to the Tourist Office and there were some rules posted on the wall. There was one saying: ‘No kissing or any another sexual movements’ (or something like that). It was quite funny. We came back to the hotel later on and sat around a bonfire while drinking hot chocolate. It was a good day overall. But only after the long trip.

Canlubang Golf Club, March 3

We left early at 10:30am to play golf at Canlubang golf course. We played the front nine and we all played very well. After we played golf, we went to have lunch, and there, we saw around three cats. One of them had half of its tail cut off. Apparently, here in the Philippines, people don’t like cats. If they see a cat with a long tail, they think it’s bad luck and they cut it off. When we came home, we played around the house.

Calatagan, March 2

Today we were going to go back to Manila, but first we went swimming we played waterball and water polo again. Straight after we got quickly changed and then went quading. We took a shorter trail this time but it was still very fun. After that I drove my dad, my bro and myself down to the pool and had another good swim. Just before lunch we got a good ride on the dune buggy - it was short but fun. After lunch we set of on the three hour journey back to Rockwell. When we got back we hung around until bed where we went to bed at 10:00pm. It was an extremely fun day over all.

Calatagan, March 1st

We woke up early and at 11:00 we went swimming. It was a big pool and warm as well. We played water polo and basketball in the pool. We had a lunch at a Bahay Kubo, which is a house made out of bamboo. It is a traditional Filipino house. After lunch we went Quad biking. We went on a long trail and on the way we saw farm animals and Jeepneys that are like taxis. We saw them trading nearby some mango trees. The Filipino word for mango is “mangga” and they are really tasty here. You have to be careful though because “manggas” means “sleeves” and not more than one mango! The plural for mango is “mga mangga”! Later on, we watched “The Simpsons” and we went to bed much earlier than last night, as we were all very tired we went to bed at 9:30pm.