CEBU

Ahhh...5 days ...4 nights...of SUN and SEA and FOOD!!!

Walking the streets of Cebu city is like walking the streets of Manila, except that, its a bit cleaner (yeah, even the slum area where our taxi driver drove us to avoid the traffic, doesn't look as bad as compared to their Manila counterpart!). Language isn't a problem at all because, while we can't understand their dialect, majority of them understand Tagalog :D.

We went to all the obvious tourist spots, I took pictures, we ate...took more pictures and ATE some more!!! My nephew and niece went scuba diving with their Dad (all first timers!), their instructors said the kids did better than the Dad...lol!...We went snorkeling in Galatungin (correct me if I am wrong) it's a fish sanctuary in the middle of the sea. Because of an ill fitting life jacket, I almost went under and drown (ok I panicked because I felt that I was being carried away by the current and the life jacketkeeps getting pushed upwards to my neck and head) I have to change life jacket 3x! before I found something that fits nicely enough , but still I enjoyed the swim. The water is CLEAN, I could open my eyes underwater and did not feel any stinging sensation at all!!!

We also ate at this floating restaurant, where the prices are a bit out of this world....Php 500 pesos per head + cost of drinks! and all we ate is this, (note: this a per person breakdown) a couple of sea shells (around 4 pcs. per person), 1 shrimp, 1 small crab, 1 exotic looking shell and 2 pieces medium sizes fishes to be shared by everyone and 1 cup rice. The food was good...the prices are NOT!

Another thing, when you go there expect to pay for everything, snorkeling in the fish sanctuary was Php 100/ person (we got a discount for the 2 seniors we had on board who did not swim so we only paid Php 500 pesos for 7 people), at the island where we ate at the floating restaurant we had to pay 1 peso each per person and Php 64.75 for docking fee for the boat. We were supposed to go to another island but the manong who was driving our boat told us that we need to go back soon because there was going to be a low tide, so we ditched the last island, where we were told that we need to pay Php 100 pesos per person as soon as our feet touch the sand on the beach (crazy!!!).

I will post pictures of our walking trip to the city on my next post!

The wrath of Ondoy

Spent the last 2 days helping a grand Aunt from my father's side clean her now inhabitable house. She was born and raised in that house. Now in her middle 60's, she finds herself without a place to call home for the first time in her life. She will be staying with me for the meantime, as she sorts out her life or until her siblings finds a suitable place for her to stay. They would probably buy another house, something smaller, easier to maintain and definitely in an area that is flood free during the typhoon season.

Another set of relatives, this time from my mother's side, also suffered the same fate. But unlike the Aunt I mentioned earlier, they don't have financially capable siblings to help them start over. Right now they are still trapped in Marikina and we don't know when we will get a chance to pay them a visit. The last we heard from her, vehicles are still not allowed in their area due to the flooding and they are taking out dead bodies first. Which makes me wonder, isn't it more important to get help to those that are still alive? After all, dead people won't know the difference right?!

There are many other stories I want to tell....sadly they all share a common denominator... a storm call ONDOY.