Vacation Baguio

... probably an important street once. The train from Manila used to come here, and there are a few hotels in this now remote-feeling area. I went into one for directions - I was to simply continue along the road - that hotel was pretty nice. Outside of it, a tricycle driver waited for a fat fare. He wanted 4x the going rate to take me to the restaurant, 500 meters away. He wouldn't budge in his unreasonable price, so I figure he didn't care. Another hotel, the "Albay Hotel ...

We went to Baguio Cathedral today and took some pictures. It hasn't changed all that much in 11 years aside of an additional cover to the walkway going up to the Cathedral from Session Road (the main road) extending around the Cathedral.

Since landing on this beautiful island, we have spent a week north of Manila on this island of Luzon. From Rosales, to Baguio, to Dagupan, to the 100 islands. We have tasted many new "tastes", and seen many new sights. Jim Girton and Ariel have introduced us to many of the friends and also convention grounds. Due to time, we will keep the write up small and try to upload more pictures.

... with preventing illegal logging on their property. Even with their land title it is difficult to control such a wide piece of property (45 hectares). One way that ENCA is working to stop the continued illegal logging on their land is educating the local community about the importance of reforestation and protecting their shared watershed, conducting the tree planting's is one step towards these ends. It is always so wonderful to be at the farm and even better to get my hands dirty ...

... three fellow PCV's), two volunteers from a local environmental NGO called the Cordillera Green Network, and one teacher from the high school we had a fantastic camp and I know the kids enjoyed themselves. We taught them the Leave No Trace Environmental Ethics, did interactive activates about proper trash segregation, conserving water use, forest preservation and a variety of leadership and team building activities. Despite the daily afternoon rains the spirits were ...

... huge rocks below. I have huge black and blue bruises on my legs today to prove it and can now say I almost fell to my death on a hanging bridge in the Philippines. (Don't worry Mom I will be more careful next time). You would think the adrenaline rush of this fall would be all I could handle but the adventures only continued. I sat down to take a breather after my fall and somehow Adam (another PCV) and I got separated from the group and went on our only ...

... I still had another dive to go and didn't want to be over tired. The next dive was really exciting because there was a strong current so we were swimming really hard and then letting ourselves get pulled depending on where we were, it was fun, but I also had a lot of ear balance problems and had a huge headache because my pressure was so off. The res of the afternoon i just chilled out a bit and tried to shake the headache. It wasn't long until dinner, and I ...

... takes precedent over the length of the event. Relationships are the important thing here not time! Our dancing of tinkling was not until 1:30 am and by then we were exhausted and ready for bed... It went well until some of my fellow PCT's stepped on the bamboo and tripped in front of the crowd, needless to say a bit of an embarrassment but they all appreciated us trying to participate and attempt a native dance. We facilitated our first community activity ...

... a boating lake in the middle of it. The city is located in the hills with Pine trees all around and is supposedly the summer residence of the Prime Minister. I then got a taxi to Tam-Awan Village (Vantage Point. It consists of about 8 huts from various tribes located in a small jungle and they think of it as a living museum. People were really friendly and I ended staying in the huts for the next few days. On my birthday the owner Chit invited a few friends over and ...

... hangout of pilgrims and penitents during Lent. Together with many devotees, I scaled the more than 200 steps leading up to Virgin Mary's shrine, lighted a candle and said my prayers.

I guess Mama Mary wasn't too happy with that small "sacrifice." For I lost a roll of film containing my best snaps of the grotto! Perhaps that's her way of telling me to double the effort, eh?