Ahh.. Lemme say it again.. Ahhh.... My internal thoughts need to vocalize for sake of a headache which hasn't yet lost the inevitable war against the invading forces of Ibuprophen... You will die headache.. Give it up!
It's a dehydration headache.. Wink! Before I get to why, I'll dip into something more culturally magnificent.
I woke yesterday morning at the crack of dawn, the road was telling me that it was time to leave Puerto Galera so I listened. At morning coffee I chose Baracay.. How to get there was another thing. The guide book really doesn't mention the particulars on how one might travel from puerto galera to baracay but if you look at the map, there are roads and ferries and it didn't look THAT far away. So, At 800 I hopped on board my first jeepne. You can see a picture of what the jeepnee looks like in the photos I uploaded the other day. Three jeepnees later in different towns through mountainous jungle along ocean cliffside, one minivan ride, 14 hours without seeing another tourist and two boat rides later I arrived in what I found to be "pretty good" time. It was an awesome day spent with locals happy to have me as company. Here's some of what I scribbled in my daily journal about the jeepnee ride. (Advil is starting to work.. ahhh take that head!) *Opening journal now to find that my normally poor penmanship is quite worse when I write riding on bumpy roads*
5-30 10 am
I ride in a crowded capsule down half paved, swirling jungle roads bordering hairy shades of greenery. If there weren't so many children riding ontop of this half bus, half jeep, all stainless driven bullet, I bet you could see it from space right now in the hot, bright tropical afternoon sun. We speed as fast as we can to the next town rounding mountainous curves in whatever lane feels appropriate to the driver to avoid the many muddy pits and potholes. I stare at ankles, knees and hips against constantly retreating jungle looking to the back exit of our ride. The rest is enclosed with natural air conditioning. I sit in the middle of it all on my backpack because there are no seats left for passengers inside. My cohabitants stare at me and smile. It's not often that they see a "joe" like myself in these parts riding with them. Today, half of the passenger space is filled (near the front) with crates of empty beer bottles. I catch a wiff but only if I try. The humid ocean air meets the smell of jungle and cools my face with a breeze most of the time. Meanwhile, A proud mother comforts her amused infantontop of a yellow sponge bob pillow beside a weathered, leather faced old man who catches my reciprical stare and smiles big to show me his six or so teeth pointing in different directions. We continue our climb up this jungle mountain cliffside. A motorized trycicle with a passenger load of large and weary pink pigs wizzes past in oncomming traffic. I watch them make their descent as long as I can but they dissapear around the bend of the ocean bay and violently encroaching jungle. Our vehicle slows for a moment around a corner to about fifteen miles an hour and three smiling well positioned children hop on to hitch a ride. I am a scribbling spectacle- when I look up to my neighbors they smile.. but I give up finally just like the pavement.
So, On my last ferry ride, I met charlie who offered me to stay at his grandfathers hotel. I atfirst didn't want to because everybody has a place for you to stay but given the time of night and the fact that I wanted to go out and see the beach night life, I gave in. Baracay is THE island party life in the Philipines. Charlies uncle was with him too and it turns out the he had just run for mayor of the town. With that in mind, I figured that these were good people and accepted. The hotel is a building tucked in a few alleyways from the beach. My room is more like an apartment. When I arrived, I met the entire smiling family- half of them atleast which included two aunts, several unkles, charlies father and his friends and some of what seemed to be twenty children running around and playing.
Out on the beach- It's difficult to walk five minutes without meeting someone fun to talk to. I was hungry and stopped at a grilling station where to my surprise they were grilling kababs of various types.. If you are the mac and cheese type, stop reading!! Get this, The kababs were of various intestines, gizzards and feet. I tried the chicken and pork intestines( I like the pork better) and later came back for some gizzards.
(i'm running out of internet time and don't want to be late for the sunday cock fights so I'm going to make the rest of this quick) Later in the nigh, I met some really cool people who introduced me to a few more "exotic" dishes. Sisig (my favorite so far) which was goat face, intestines, skin and ears, finely diced and served in some sort of .. no shit.. Brain sauce with garlic, onions and who knows what else and Finally, "Balut" chicken eggs boiled which are about to hatch. Yes, you can taste the beak and feathers but it was pretty good. Tomorrow or later today I'm going to upload some pictures directly to this blog.
Last- I feel like a tall rock star because I met three less than 5 ft tall girls who danced the night away with me in pure fun. It was a wild booty train philipino brian sandwich. Seriously, It was all in good fun, nothing physical- not that I have to explain myself but what a riot! Rock star status!
I love this country!
Pictures probably later.. I'm going to my first cock fight.
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