Independence
The past five days have passed in a whirl wind of travel & sitting on hard objects bouncing along various mountain roads. I left site on Thursday & will (hopefully) be returning today (there’s a slide somewhere along the road though). Wow, lots can happen in 5 days, this particular trip seemed to mostly revolve around books & people.
Started out in Santiago City to get a look at what will be my main source of supplies, banking & a market. The drive down was amazing as we wandered through the Cordillera mountains and wound down onto the Isabella plains. I’ll have to head in at least once a month if only to pick up my living allowance which makes the 4-5 hour bus ride a little less appealing, but it could definitely be worse. I mean, its hard to complain too much when you can stretch out and virtually nap on the top of the bus as it trundles along through the mountains. Best climb down when it hits the flatter areas though cause it really starts to zip.
Santiago is a fairly good sized city, though I’m not sure of the population yet. I’m sure I only explored a small fraction of it during the 24 hours I spent there. It has a huge maze of a market in the center of town and plenty of good sized shops along its two main streets, a supermarket with import goods and who knows what else. I spent the evening wandering around the various stores, checking email, and indulging in a little video gaming at a nearby internet café. Originally I had planned to kick into Solano and spend the night on familiar turf, but an impulse decision landed me a nights stay at the King George Hotel. Wonderful name, not a bad place to stay but I now realize a touch overpriced at 500 pesos for a non air-con room. Still it is a wonderful feeling to be only in charge of yourself and have the freedom of time & money to let your impulses take you where ever they may.
Still, there’s only so much you can see in such a short time, especially when you spend three hours of your Friday morning trying to get cash out of the bank. Apparently I have “forgotten” my pin number to my card, or at least its not what I thought it was. I’ll have to check again when I get home, but instead of using the slick little ATM out side I had the pleasure of trying to get funds from inside the bank. A simple task? Not really. I guess my account is still officially in Manila so they had to fax over a request for the money to be transferred up for a 200 peso fee. Unfortunately they “lost my signature card” and were having trouble confirming my identity. This is the second time I’ve had trouble with my signature while I’ve been here. I guess I’m just used to all the US checks & balances & the fact that nobody is that concerned with how you sign your name. Something to work on I guess. My patience and the habit of bringing a book everywhere I go paid off in the end though. Lucky for me too, otherwise I would have been down to 300 pesos for the trip with about half going to the 130 peso bus fare home.
One reason for the sudden decision to stay the night was that Colin & Rachel Forman happened to be coming into town on Friday! If worst came to worst they had already offered to lend me some cash if I got stuck. Friends are a wonderful thing to have, especially when you’re half way around the world and they don’t like how your signature looks. Thankfully instead of begging them for spare change they got to show me a little bit of Santiago City that they had found and while Rachel did some research for her work (BETA, while Colin is WATSAN) Colin and I explored the market some, bought another collared T-Shirt (a great dark navy workman’s blue) and then we just crashed for a few hours in a restaurant catching up on life and each-other’s sites.
From there it was a quick hop and skip through Solano over to Bayombong to catch the jeepney we had chartered to haul the 20 or so of us PCVs up the hill to Kiwi’s site in Ambagio, Nueva Vizcaya. Quick being relative to the first jaunt to SC as it still took around an hour and a half to make it to Solano. The timing worked out surprisingly well though, as by the time I managed to find the stop it was about 10 after 4pm, our stated departure time! Being one of the last two people there, off we went almost on time. Sometimes its nice to be mostly Americans.
The group consisted of around 20 PCVs and then Ben, our CE coordinator from training, John T, one of batch 263s language instructors and a random Australian who has been volunteering in a library in Kianan for the past two months. We spent both Friday and Saturday night there, sleeping on the floor in the Rural Health Unit (RHU) (I’ll be glad when my sleeping pad & tent arrives, thanks again for sending it Mom & Dad!). I was quite thankful for my new shirt by this point in time as I had left home with only a spare pair of underwear and the clothes on my back. I needed some more clothes so I figured I could cut down on baggage space and would be forced to actually shop for them while I was out. One clean shirt! During the day we went on a wonderful hike down to the river and went for a brief “swim” though it was quite shallow. One the projects Ambagio has been working on with Kiwi’s help has been to help develop some local eco-tourism. They face the same problem as Mayoyao though in that the road up there is quite the trek at around 3 hours across rough terrain. They do have some wonderful hikes though and that rustic back-country feel. The evening involved lots of swapping stories over beer and a little bit of native dancing and don’t forget the American food! Some good old fashion chili, hamburgers (probably actually pork) and no rice in sight! Its amazing how fast the time can do in such good company.
Much to my surprise my trip was far from over though. I ended up hopping along towards home via Amber’s site in Legawe. Our first stop was a small outdoor gear shop tucked away in Solano where I thankfully found a pair of pants I actually liked! Black synthetic material with, of course, cargo pockets. After I cut off all the little extra red tabs and things they turned out quite well and they were clean. By this time, that was a very wonderful thing. Still did not turn up a decent day pack though. I need something in-between my small backpack I’m traveling with now and the hiking pack I brought all my worldly belongings over here in. I guess I’ll have to turn up one of those on a trip to Manila. Either way, its great to travel as a PCV because we have the luxury of actually being in country for awhile and can set up relationships with people as I did with the store owner. Her husband used to be very active in the local mountaineering group and she said she would drop me a line when he gets back into town in the fall. We’ll see how that turns out! Just keep casting out the lines and who knows what can become of them.
Next we stopped off in Bagabag at another small grocery store which carries imports and I shamelessly purchased cereal, powdered skim milk & GIF peanut butter. I like the food here and love the cultural integration, but sometimes I just want a bowl of cereal in the morning. After rolling through Lamut with a brief feeling of guilt for not stopping we arrived in Legawe where we met up again with the two Vs from the Visayas who were on their way to Banaue for some site seeing as well as Sheryl staying at ISCAF & Bec, the random Australian. My original plan had been to crash the night in Legawe at Amber’s for some free housing and to catch the morning bus up but instead we somehow decided, along with the Aussie to spend the night in Banaue and explore the town a little more. It was a great evening of wandering in and out of a bunch of small wood carving shops. My attempts to use Ilokono paid off too! I was looking for a pipe, but all they had were ones carved like a head. Something about smoking out the top of someone’s head just doesn’t sit well with me, so I asked the lady behind the counter if they had any that were not heads in my baby Ilokono. Another guy in the shop, Joey, took my number after we chatted a bit about PC & such and said he would see if he could get one carved out of Nara, a more rare, harder wood. Hopefully he will come though on that one. It would be nice to have a pipe again, especially as the evenings get cooler. We stayed the night at the People’s Lodge, a great small hotel owned by a “cousin” from Lamut who charged us 150 a head! The hotels here are great. Small family owned establishments that are built on the hill so they actually go down instead of up. Its still really touristy and I don’t like the feel of people going out of their way to try and divest me of money but a good place none the less. By now the traveling couple thought we were stalking them, but we all still ate dinner together and played Euchre through the night.
The morning sent everyone on their way and left me to sit and wait for the bus to Mayoyao which would be passing through sometime from “9-noon.” The time was not wasted though as I rolled through more of my Tom Wolfe book and had more random encounters with people. I ended up meeting a few of the tour guides who troll the hotels looking for work and learning a bit about how its organized. I’ll have to swing by their main building some other time and get the full story from there. It appears as if there are around 40 guides who split up the days, for instance the two I met in town worked two days a week and drove a trikes besides. The one I met on the bus however mentioned that he was one of only 12 that were officially certified which I guess involves taking some classes. I don’t exactly how all that comes together, but it will be interesting to find out more how they are handling their tourism.
Finally the bus has arrived so off I go for another bouncing bus trip with all my new found loot and friends. As much as I love traveling it will be very nice to do some laundry and sleep in a real bed again!
Started out in Santiago City to get a look at what will be my main source of supplies, banking & a market. The drive down was amazing as we wandered through the Cordillera mountains and wound down onto the Isabella plains. I’ll have to head in at least once a month if only to pick up my living allowance which makes the 4-5 hour bus ride a little less appealing, but it could definitely be worse. I mean, its hard to complain too much when you can stretch out and virtually nap on the top of the bus as it trundles along through the mountains. Best climb down when it hits the flatter areas though cause it really starts to zip.
Santiago is a fairly good sized city, though I’m not sure of the population yet. I’m sure I only explored a small fraction of it during the 24 hours I spent there. It has a huge maze of a market in the center of town and plenty of good sized shops along its two main streets, a supermarket with import goods and who knows what else. I spent the evening wandering around the various stores, checking email, and indulging in a little video gaming at a nearby internet café. Originally I had planned to kick into Solano and spend the night on familiar turf, but an impulse decision landed me a nights stay at the King George Hotel. Wonderful name, not a bad place to stay but I now realize a touch overpriced at 500 pesos for a non air-con room. Still it is a wonderful feeling to be only in charge of yourself and have the freedom of time & money to let your impulses take you where ever they may.
Still, there’s only so much you can see in such a short time, especially when you spend three hours of your Friday morning trying to get cash out of the bank. Apparently I have “forgotten” my pin number to my card, or at least its not what I thought it was. I’ll have to check again when I get home, but instead of using the slick little ATM out side I had the pleasure of trying to get funds from inside the bank. A simple task? Not really. I guess my account is still officially in Manila so they had to fax over a request for the money to be transferred up for a 200 peso fee. Unfortunately they “lost my signature card” and were having trouble confirming my identity. This is the second time I’ve had trouble with my signature while I’ve been here. I guess I’m just used to all the US checks & balances & the fact that nobody is that concerned with how you sign your name. Something to work on I guess. My patience and the habit of bringing a book everywhere I go paid off in the end though. Lucky for me too, otherwise I would have been down to 300 pesos for the trip with about half going to the 130 peso bus fare home.
One reason for the sudden decision to stay the night was that Colin & Rachel Forman happened to be coming into town on Friday! If worst came to worst they had already offered to lend me some cash if I got stuck. Friends are a wonderful thing to have, especially when you’re half way around the world and they don’t like how your signature looks. Thankfully instead of begging them for spare change they got to show me a little bit of Santiago City that they had found and while Rachel did some research for her work (BETA, while Colin is WATSAN) Colin and I explored the market some, bought another collared T-Shirt (a great dark navy workman’s blue) and then we just crashed for a few hours in a restaurant catching up on life and each-other’s sites.
From there it was a quick hop and skip through Solano over to Bayombong to catch the jeepney we had chartered to haul the 20 or so of us PCVs up the hill to Kiwi’s site in Ambagio, Nueva Vizcaya. Quick being relative to the first jaunt to SC as it still took around an hour and a half to make it to Solano. The timing worked out surprisingly well though, as by the time I managed to find the stop it was about 10 after 4pm, our stated departure time! Being one of the last two people there, off we went almost on time. Sometimes its nice to be mostly Americans.
The group consisted of around 20 PCVs and then Ben, our CE coordinator from training, John T, one of batch 263s language instructors and a random Australian who has been volunteering in a library in Kianan for the past two months. We spent both Friday and Saturday night there, sleeping on the floor in the Rural Health Unit (RHU) (I’ll be glad when my sleeping pad & tent arrives, thanks again for sending it Mom & Dad!). I was quite thankful for my new shirt by this point in time as I had left home with only a spare pair of underwear and the clothes on my back. I needed some more clothes so I figured I could cut down on baggage space and would be forced to actually shop for them while I was out. One clean shirt! During the day we went on a wonderful hike down to the river and went for a brief “swim” though it was quite shallow. One the projects Ambagio has been working on with Kiwi’s help has been to help develop some local eco-tourism. They face the same problem as Mayoyao though in that the road up there is quite the trek at around 3 hours across rough terrain. They do have some wonderful hikes though and that rustic back-country feel. The evening involved lots of swapping stories over beer and a little bit of native dancing and don’t forget the American food! Some good old fashion chili, hamburgers (probably actually pork) and no rice in sight! Its amazing how fast the time can do in such good company.
Much to my surprise my trip was far from over though. I ended up hopping along towards home via Amber’s site in Legawe. Our first stop was a small outdoor gear shop tucked away in Solano where I thankfully found a pair of pants I actually liked! Black synthetic material with, of course, cargo pockets. After I cut off all the little extra red tabs and things they turned out quite well and they were clean. By this time, that was a very wonderful thing. Still did not turn up a decent day pack though. I need something in-between my small backpack I’m traveling with now and the hiking pack I brought all my worldly belongings over here in. I guess I’ll have to turn up one of those on a trip to Manila. Either way, its great to travel as a PCV because we have the luxury of actually being in country for awhile and can set up relationships with people as I did with the store owner. Her husband used to be very active in the local mountaineering group and she said she would drop me a line when he gets back into town in the fall. We’ll see how that turns out! Just keep casting out the lines and who knows what can become of them.
Next we stopped off in Bagabag at another small grocery store which carries imports and I shamelessly purchased cereal, powdered skim milk & GIF peanut butter. I like the food here and love the cultural integration, but sometimes I just want a bowl of cereal in the morning. After rolling through Lamut with a brief feeling of guilt for not stopping we arrived in Legawe where we met up again with the two Vs from the Visayas who were on their way to Banaue for some site seeing as well as Sheryl staying at ISCAF & Bec, the random Australian. My original plan had been to crash the night in Legawe at Amber’s for some free housing and to catch the morning bus up but instead we somehow decided, along with the Aussie to spend the night in Banaue and explore the town a little more. It was a great evening of wandering in and out of a bunch of small wood carving shops. My attempts to use Ilokono paid off too! I was looking for a pipe, but all they had were ones carved like a head. Something about smoking out the top of someone’s head just doesn’t sit well with me, so I asked the lady behind the counter if they had any that were not heads in my baby Ilokono. Another guy in the shop, Joey, took my number after we chatted a bit about PC & such and said he would see if he could get one carved out of Nara, a more rare, harder wood. Hopefully he will come though on that one. It would be nice to have a pipe again, especially as the evenings get cooler. We stayed the night at the People’s Lodge, a great small hotel owned by a “cousin” from Lamut who charged us 150 a head! The hotels here are great. Small family owned establishments that are built on the hill so they actually go down instead of up. Its still really touristy and I don’t like the feel of people going out of their way to try and divest me of money but a good place none the less. By now the traveling couple thought we were stalking them, but we all still ate dinner together and played Euchre through the night.
The morning sent everyone on their way and left me to sit and wait for the bus to Mayoyao which would be passing through sometime from “9-noon.” The time was not wasted though as I rolled through more of my Tom Wolfe book and had more random encounters with people. I ended up meeting a few of the tour guides who troll the hotels looking for work and learning a bit about how its organized. I’ll have to swing by their main building some other time and get the full story from there. It appears as if there are around 40 guides who split up the days, for instance the two I met in town worked two days a week and drove a trikes besides. The one I met on the bus however mentioned that he was one of only 12 that were officially certified which I guess involves taking some classes. I don’t exactly how all that comes together, but it will be interesting to find out more how they are handling their tourism.
Finally the bus has arrived so off I go for another bouncing bus trip with all my new found loot and friends. As much as I love traveling it will be very nice to do some laundry and sleep in a real bed again!
posted by george at 9:00 PM
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