Travels with filipinos

Yesterday morning i to a moto to the stations of the cross on Mt. Vulcan, or the old volcano as they call it there. The stations were pretty cool. Spread out over 1.5km trail up the base of the volcano with actual size statues depicting the stations and ending with resurrected Jesus looking over the blue sea the island below. It's apparently an incredibly quite the spectacle there during holy week coming up.

After the 12th station there is a barely visible trail (one of the guys who was cleaning the statues for holy week showed me). It was completely overgrown by this neck high grass and I could tell it was used rarely, maybe just for the geologists to check their equipment up there from time to time. By the time I had come up and down I was bleeding all over my arms and legs from grass scratches. The first 3/4 of the way up wasn't too bad, very steep, and bush-whacking through the grass following a barely perceptible trail. But then I lost track of the trail as the mountain went straight up, but as this volcano was not covered in forest, you could see towards the top so I decided to keep going. From there it turned into a bit of rock climbing and scrambling though you couldn't really see the rocks as they were overgrown with grass and ferns. The first part of the final ascent wasn't too bad, but then it turned dicey. Very steep, climbing and scrambling mainly and everything was still covered in vegetation, and there was also shrubbery growing. It was especially difficult b/c you couldn't see the rocks underneath (or the holes between rocks), they were kind of crumbly, and there was definite exposed sections. At this point I was getting a bit nervous b/c at times it looked like I would not be able to find a way to keep going up if the cliff was too tall, but I always managed to find a way to scramble up. Eventually I finally reached the top to look into the crater. I have climbed many a trail-less mtn as only a few of the peaks in rocky have trails up them, but as they are always above tree-line and only covered in tundra or rocks, it's much, much easier to pick a suitable route even if it does involve climbing, (and when in doubt climb a snowfield, right Greg?). Here looking up you couldn't tell what would be cliff, rock, or shrubs. One of the more challenging climbs I had done. As I looked down from the top way to the bottom at the ocean, I was definitely nervous about getting down. It had been a bit sketchy going up and down is always much harder than going up when you're climbing. But I knew if I just went really slow and checked out all routes, I'd be ok. It ended up being much easier and quicker than I thought. The ferns, grass, and shrubs were amazing hand holds. I could be on a cliff and the ferns would be tangling around my legs, torso, everything, so I had to work to actually let gravity work to bring me down. It was kind of like those cartoons where you see the character falling down cliffs and being caught by roots or grass or whatever. If you started to slide a bit, all I had to do was grasp for some vegetation.

When I got back down I grabbed a couple mango shakes (very hot climbing the side of a volcano with no shade) for the jeepney ride from mambajao to benoni. From there I caught a ferry to mainland Mindanao. On the ferry I ran into the large filipino family (the one where half of them live in San Jose, CA now) that I had met at the sunken cemetary. I was on my way to go to Cagayan de Oro to catch an overnight ferry to cebu city. They were going to be going through Cagayan so they told me to jump on there bus. We stopped at a nice fresh seafood restaurant with great fish, and they were so nice and treated me to it. They also drove me all the way through Cagayan city right to the port. A very nice and caring family for sure, and a cute little kid Lucas who wants to learn to ski.

THe ferry was a huge one. I think the biggest boat I've been on in recent memory. Once on the ferry, I met a group of filipinos my age in the restaurant. They actually worked from Astrazeneca as pharmaceutical reps and were going to cebu for a training. (Astrazeneca was one of the bio tech companies I visited in San Fran when working for the Sap). After dinner we went up to the top of the ship. I enjoyed it very much up there. The stars and moon were out but there was constant lightning to watch out on the horizon, the breeze was great, and there was a gentle rocking of the boat. We sat up there just hanging out for a while and the guys (and girls) trying to hook me up with one of the girls (a favorite filipino past time I swear). In fact, when you first meet a filipino this is usually, almost to a T, how the conversation goes, almost like its scripted for everyone.

Hey friend, where are you going?
-just walking
What's your name?
-Travis
Chavez? Trabis (or something similar, they don't do v's)
What country?
-America (or sometimes I throw them a loop like Mauritania or Guyana or Eritrea or something)
How old?
-25
Where is your companion
-don't have one
Oh no all alone
-yep
You like the filipina? I will introduce you to some

sometimes I pretend to be married to avoid this complete awkwardness, but even then they usually still pester you about girls (you're so far away it doesn't matter).

Anyways, as things go, the night progressed into karaoke and beers must have been on the company b/c the boss guy kept bringing me one red horse after another. We stayed up really late, and when the ship arrived into port around 5:30 am I was still sound asleep. When I woke I was definitely the only one still sleeping in the bed area and most people were gone.

Now I'm on my way to Malapascua Island in n. cebu. I'm in Bogo now waiting for the bank to open from lunch so I can get some money as Malapascua has none.