Summer Place Baguio

... named sea port. "Puerto Galera".."Puerto Galera".." mate, get it right" "Puerto Galera". Dave, would say. He who also seemed amused at my mispronunciation, had began repeating over and over again to me, as if he were master of all things named by Spaniards.

Looking back, the most remarkable part of our sea journey was, not frolicking on the waves, but having to purchase 3 separate tickets from 3 windows inside the Ferry terminal ...

Baguio City remains a prime tourist destination area in North Luzon because of its cool climate, fresh, green and peaceful environment unlike other tourist destinations in the Philippines. This makes it a favorite destination especially for those who would like to relax and stay away from the excessive heat of the lowlands. Baguio is the midway to the wonders of Northern Luzon. The calm beaches of La Union; the fabled Hundred Islands of Pangasinan; the ancient ...

... k*hit m*g*stos..hehe) Sum*k*y ulit ng Oce*n Jet, tum*mb*y k*mi ni lovely s* t**s.. *ng g*nd* p*noorin ng *lon..*ng t*himik.. tingin tingin l*ng s* isl*nds ng Pilipin*s.. Ung mg* b*t*ng n*ninisid ng piso, totoo p*l* un.. N*nlilimos sil* s* mg* b*rko, l*nst*, t*pos p*g hin*gis*n mo ng piso s* tubig, sisisirin nil* un..mg* 5 y/o swimmer n*.. T*pos mg* 9*m n*s* CEBU n* k*mi ulit.. Pumunt* ng TAOIST Temple s* BEVERLY HILLS. N*gwish s* wishing well dun k*y Fisherm*n. T*n*w *ng ...

We went to Lourdes Grotto which is in memory of Our Lady of Lourdes. There are many steps to get to the grotto. On the top is a status of Our Lady of Lourdes. I've noticed that Mary is very muched loved in the Philippines as you will see several grottos in her honor throughout the Philippines.

... of my grandparents... I belong to them as much as they belong to me! In the past week since my last post, I've taken tons of pictures of barrio life, men on their bicycles leading their water buffalos to pasture, tricycles (I LOVE riding on the back of tricycles as I can take pretty interesting pics from this vantage point), rice fields, fish ponds, typical style homes of the region, people idling at the local store, etc. I've also met ...

... my closer friends in Peace Corps knew her very well, in fact the closet PCV distance wise to me from Julia's batch saw her the day before she went missing. Below I will be including some of the e-mails the country staff here has been sending us regarding the search that is underway to find Julia. I also want to dispel some the false accusation that the US press has made regarding the possible involvement of rebels and ...

... of my host family and little cousins and we enjoyed a nice simple dinner with my family that night. We spent the majority of the next day at my office preparing for Heidi's grant writing workshop that was held the following day (will get to that in a bit). It was a busy day spent in front of computers finalizing PowerPoint's and preparing the information packets for the participants. Once the clock struck 5pm, we were ready for a break from our preparations and headed ...

... aunts and my ate-in-law. I had a blast chatting with my niece and nephews. As usual after the chika-chika would picture-picture be far behind? The official photographer that I am, I took some souvenir shots and I had some of my own. After that we were driven back to town by Kuya Leo and Tita Norma accompanied us. Tita Lorna wanted to have a few more souvenir shots taken at scenic spots in Baguio City before we had lunch and head back for home. After going around the ...

... contaminated the water so much that the local Tilapia fish struggled for many years. It is only recently that the sorounding community and the fish are being reintroduced. Oh, the constant balance that needs to be found between our excessive need for energy and the need to protect, preserve and appreciate our natural treasures all around! Next week I have my first meeting with the Tourism Council in Ambongdolan and I am very excited to get the ball ...

Monday morning we woke up bright and early to check out of the Makate Palace. We all piled into a fance aircondiditoned jeepney and began a day full of touring greater Manila. We began by picking up this guy Sonny, who works with a university in Manila and is a graduate student/ assistant professor. We found that Manila has a ridiculous amount of traffic, way worse than anything I've experienced, this is probably because no one follows traffic laws of any sort, for example ...