Donzol

We arrived in the Philippines at 4 in the morning on Wednesday. Right away, me, Matt, Adonai, and Koen met up with Raphael and Daniela, and we went to swim with whale sharks. It was unbelieveable. They're the biggest fish I have ever seen. We got on a boat, prepped with snorkels and fins, and right when the guy yells, "get ready," we get ready, then jump in one by one and swim as hard as we can to catch up with the whale sharks. We got a lot of photos, so I will post them later. Later that day we took a van to Legaspi to sight see - checked out a church that was swallowed by a volcano erruption in 1814, and the volcano itself. Pretty pretty. We ended the day with a firefly cruise up a river. I thought it wouldn't be that cool, and honestly it wasn't, but i have never seen THAT many fire flies (millions?!) in trees lighting them up in heart beats (like the light when your imac is sleeping).

Thursday morning our friends left, and Matt and I slept in and had a leizurely breakfast. We finally took a tricycle (it's like the Philippino tuk tuk) to the "center" of Donzol and waited for the van to fill up. We finally left and went to the bus station in Legaspi. It was pouring, and our phone didn't work, and no one seemed to have a phone. We walked to a gas station and finally reached a tour company to come pick us up for a beautiful hike up a SUPER active volcano. Last erruption 2006. Cool. Really cloudy and rainy, though, so no beautiful views, but the hike was nice. We got to ride a jeepney back to Donzol. I will post picture of that. It's like the bus that gonzo has at the begining of the muppet movie. SOOO colorful and fun.

This morning we woke up at 5, took two plans and arrived in the beautiful city of Coron around 4 pm. We figured out that the boat that we thought runs everyday doesn't - exactly - or at least it does, but it's only 20- people boat in a HUGE ocean, so we're staying here longer than expected, which is fine, because it might be the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

I write this from an island off of Coron, with a yummy lime juice/rum drink waiting for me after a superb dinner (and bunch of portuguese people for some reason). Will post pictures when we're back in Singapore - but this country is amazing.

A few things that I have noticed:
They LOVE 90s American pop music
Their language is super like Spanish
The people are so friendly and nice
It's actually not that easy to get where you want when you want (unlike my theory of SE Asia which is that you can always find someone to take you where you want to go - for a bit of money. here it's just a bit more money).
I have more things I have noticed - but they're in my New Yorker in the room, and I need to get back to my drink.