Whale Sharks, Videoke, and Bakeries!

Took the ferry and busses for the long trip from Caramoan back to Naga and then Donsol, a small fishing village in S. Luzon. Got into Donsol afterdark after a fun jeepney ride (riding on the roof) from Legazpi that included viewing Mt. Mayon one of the most perfect cone volcanoes in the world. There were only a couple of places to stay in Donsol and we headed up at this really creepy homestay place (we called them the adam's family of the PI)...that included entirely too much (think a fog) of mosquito spray, a poorly fed chained monkey (who loved mangos we gave him), a weird family, a lock in, no running water at night, and chunky kid who was entirely too spoiled. In the morning we braved the rain and went on a butanding tour looking for whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea. We were out the whole day, but had no luck. That night Lucas and I played a i5on5 pick up gamel with some filipino guys. We dominated downlow, but they were into the cherry pick. The icecream we got after that game never tasted so good as I was definitely overheating. Lucas and I ended the night by watching the sun set and eating mangoes from the beach of Donsolaa

The next day we went out again looking for Whale sharks with the same crew (Simon and esther from schweiz and Patrick and Nat from Canada)...and this time we had great luck. We saw 4 different whale sharks and got to swim with all 4. One was quite huge...perhps 25 feet. They're quite beautiful...slow moving, spotted, and huge. We also saw some dolphins and a sea snake coiled up on top of the water.
After the whale shark adventure Lucas helped me film my application for a job in Australia I'm applying for. It was quite difficult, as I didn't have much time to practice the lines, it involved jumping onto bamboo bridge from a muddy swamp and there was a whole horde of local kids intently watching and following us...yelling, poking me as I was filming, etc. But after many takes, we finally got some good footage!

That night we met up with some locals and the swiss gals for some san miguels, red horses and videoke to celebrate the whale shark success.

The next day was very frustrating. We got a bus to sorsogon, where I was hoping to just upload the video app real quick, but the internet was slow and the website not working, so I spent the whole day there working on it. Lucas and Sari, bless their hearts, waited patiently in Sorsogon for me, eating and shopping a bit, but mostly trying to help me out. That night we met a nice man that took us and paid for our trike trip to the main road to catch an overnight bus to Taclobon on the island of leyte. Of course we sang some karaoake waiting for the bus. The ride involved a ferry from luzon to the island of samar and then a large bridge. We arrived in Tacloban around 6am. We walked around the town a bit, stopping at bakeries, before lucas and I took off for the island of Biliran. There we haggled with some local moto drivers before getting a ride to a waterfall. It was one of the most scenic rides I've been on yet, even though half of it was in the rain. It went through emerald rice terraces, set amongst palm trees, at the foot of rugged volcanoes, with quaiant villages all around. The watefall was quite impressive and flowing at full force with all the rain. Lucas and I of course swam around in it, and did some waterfall jumping. Unfortunately when we got back into town, as it was Sunday, the last van back to Tacloban (100kms away) had left. So we started to walk to hitchhike when a moto offered to take us to the next big town for a small price. It was a long an uncomfortable ride, but we eventually got to lemon and then to Tacloban to meet Sari for dinner.

Today we all headed for a day trip to the island of samar to Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park. It was a beautiful boat ride from the ocean up a river to the mountains. We had guide through a nice and large cave system and then walked to a monstrous bridge/tunnel where the river cut under a mountain. Lucas and I floated in the river back down to the boat making sure to take advantage of cliff diving spots along the way.

We are not quite sure where we are off to tomorrow...perhps mindanao, southern leyte, or biliran

It's been awesome traveling with the stringfields. They're fun, adventurous, and it's nice to have some company and people to share the travel with and toss the frisbee with. They're also on a very similar budget to me (we all rigorously keep a record of our spending). But they both enjoy icecream and fruit like myself...so we splurge on that! Mainland Asia had no bread, and what little they had was gross sweet bread. The PI has an overabundance of bakeries...they are tasty, and insanely cheap...so we stop by them regularly. I especially enjoy the cinnamon rolls and banana bread!