Surfin Safari

We ended heading down to Southern Leyte to Padre Burgos. It was rather expensive there, so we all shared a bungalow by the beach. As soon as we got into Burgos, we donned our snorkels and mask and went for a swim. The water was quite choppy and wavy as it was very stormy (Leyte apparently is always wet), but we saw some nice stuff including a couple lion fish. The next day, Lucas was feeling a bit sick, but Sari and I went for two dives. I saw some pretty cool things I hadn't seen before. A couple different species of stonefish, two species of pipefish (in the seahorse family), some very colorful nudibranchs, and by far the biggest pufferfish I had ever seen. The 2nd dive(a wall dive) in particular had an incredible array of fish and corals. Quite beautiful. We found a sweet videoke bar with a great selection, so we went to it both nights there.

The next day we headed to Surigao. We caught the early bus from Burgos to Liloan, but we still missed the early ferry, so we spent the day at liloan, which was surprisingly nice. It was a small fishing and port town. The kids were incredibly nice and interested in us, so we spent a lot of time hanging out with them, singing with them, playing marbles, and be adorned in flowers by them. We caught the afternoon ferry to Surigao around 3. The open aired ferry was nice b/c it allowed for the breeze and good views. We got into Surigao late and a guy, JoJo, that we had met on the ferry took us to his aunt's house and then helped us find a place to stay.

Both Surigao and Siargao are in Mindanao, the southern most province in the PI. If you've heard of it, it's because it's a mostly muslim area and a hotbed for terrorism and fighting as the muslims want to break free from the mostly Christian philippines. Most of mindanao is quite dangers to travel in, or so they say, b/c there have been bombings and tourist kidnappings, but the area we are in of Mindanao in the far northeast is just as safe as the rest of the philippines, is mostly Christian, and just not a problem. It's quite quiet here now as it's the low season, meaning the waves aren't as big, which is nice to have the island more or less to ourselves as travelers. But during the big wave season, lots of westerners, especially Australians, rent bungalows for months at a time to surf cloud 9.

Bright and early the next day we took the ferry to Siargao. It was an intense trips as the waves were huge and came crashing over the boat and all we had were tarps over us. The ocean on this journey was also the craziest I had ever seen it. The most unusual currents, and incredibly strong. Some areas looked like rivers in the ocean, and others inexplainably calm. Other areas had huge funnels. Other areas the water seemed to flow up. I would definitely not have wanted to be swimming around there or in a small craft.

We got to Siargao early that day and we found a nice place to stay near general luna town in Cloud 9. As it's not major surfing season right now, we got incredible deals. I have a beachfront, two storey bungalow with attached bathroom and a huge deck for 7 bucks a night. We explored the island a bit (it has tons and tons of palm trees, so of course I collected several coconuts for eating!) then rented some surfboards. Cloud 9 is very famous as one of the top 5 surf waves in the world on par with pipeline in Hawaii, though right now it isn't the huge wave season which starts in August, which is ok by me b/c it was the first time I had ever surfed. We went to a beginners break (quicksilver), and an hour into it I was doing pretty good with catching a wave and standing up on the longboard.

The town of General Luna is quite nice. It has gorgeous blue water and white beaches right in town and all the roads are of sand.

Yesterday we rented a motorcycle to go explore the island, and it turned out to be quite the adventure. We got up early, but it took a bit before someone could bring their motorcycle. On the way into GL, the clutch broke, so it had to be fixed by the guy we rented it from. When that was done we all boarded onto the motorbike (called here habal-habal, which literally means pigs fornicating in tagalog language, b/c they fit anywhere from 3-7 people on them), which lucas driving, sari in the middle, and me on the back. We were trying to get to pilar, but we took a wrong turn and ended up on an incredibly rough road. At one point the bike stalled so we had to start it up. Maybe our wait was a little bad and Lucas started it a bit quick and the road was just so bad, but we did a wheely and crashed. We were just starting so we weren't going very fast, so Sari and I escaped unscathed, but the hot muffler landed on Lucas' thigh and he got quite a nasty burn. We got another driver to take Lucas to the hospital, and I had to learn on the spot how to drive a manual bike to get to the hospital in Dapa to meet him. I had ridden motorbikes before in Thailand, but they were all automatic. After several stalls I figured it out and was able to meet up with Lucas and Sari in Dapa at the hospital. Typical 3rd world country hospital, which is always quite humorous. His burn was bad, but not terrible so they just suggested some antibiotics, burn cream, and bandaging.

Lucas being Lucas and ever the adventurer decided we should continue exploring, just on roads not quite so bad. We eventually found the true dirt road to pilar and took that. It was rough but not too bad. It passed over the island through some amazing country...jungle, palm forests, little villages, rice fields at the base of mountains, giant mangrove swamps. We eventually reached pilar, the beach, and the natural swimming pools there. We didn't swim as Lucas' leg was burned, but we collected shells and ate mangos instead. On the way back we stopped at this german ex-pat'a place for mango shakes (a beer for Lucas), and watched hundreds of flying foxes (giant fruit bats) glide over. The german guy was quite the character. He had been all over and had a house here in the PI and one inf florida. He was a professional treasure hunter and had found some different things worth millions of dollars. One of his best finds was 400 gold coins from the roman times in the black forest of Bavaria.

This morning we took it easy with Lucas' leg. I surfed for a couple hours and climbed some palm trees to get fresh coconuts. The other day I had bought some cornflakes and 100% cow milk, so I enjoyed a couple bowls of cereal. I hadn't had cereal since I left home and hardly any milk either! Now that I'm learning to surf, I guess it's time to keep with the beach boys theme and find my little surfer girl...haha

Tomorrow we are headed to Bohol, but we are not sure how long it will take to get there.