My last day here in Palawan. I can’t believe it’s already been 3 months. It’s not quite as sad to say goodbye to Puerto. It feels like just another big city with traffic and chaos. I miss Port Barton, and this is what Palawan will always be to me. Since I came into the city I feel like everything I plan to do goes wrong. Things such as the art cafe I wanted to check out is closed, the last meal I wanted to have at the vegetarian restaurant we frequented is out of ingredients, I look forward to another mango shake only to realize that I forgot to ask for no sugar (Filipinos love to add plenty of sugar), etc. Little things, but they are getting to me. It is either my sign that it’s time to go, or a lesson that keeps coming up telling me I just need to let go and stop planning/expecting things. I’m guessing it’s probably a bit of both.
Went on a city tour today and realized why I tend to stay away from the mainstream organized tours. Everyone is going to the same place, and if you get people on your tour that have trouble sticking to the time frame (which was the case today), you spend a lot of time waiting around. I regretted not just getting a trike to take me around, but figured it might be nice to have some company to explore the city. Unfortunately the places we went to I had either already been to, I didn’t really have an interest in going to in the first place, or once we got there I realized it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to spend that much time in. To be honest, for me Puerto Princesa isn’t really a city that is that interesting to visit. It is the place you land on your way to other places. Oh well, I guess I had to find this out somehow.
Off to Manila tomorrow morning and am looking forward to seeing my cousins again. If Puerto is chaos, Manila is crazy. But, my focus isn’t really on the city. It’s on spending time with my family. So . . . . here I come Valderrama clan : )
First stop on the tour was some church. There was also something about a memorial site around here where some American soldiers were burned during WWII by the Japanese, but no one wanted to stop to get out because it was raining.
Next stop was this place. I was just told it was a crocodile farm, so initially I wasn’t really interested, but this turned out to be the place I could have spent more time.
Unfortunately, we had to start out in a tour and this is what it looked like. We were herded together from one site . . . .
. . . . . to another. Couldn’t tell you what was said on the tour as I was at the back.
This was about how I felt during this portion of the tour.
The highlight was Mac-Mac. Mac2 was a giant and not something I’d want to run into in the river!
After the crocodiles we could wander freely and it was a lot more open. It also started to rain and I seemed to be one of the few people who had brought an umbrella with me. So, off to see some animals without a whole horde of people.
This is going to sound strange, but the highlight of the park for me was this tree. I just thought it looked really cool. Then, it started to really pour and I just hung out under it by myself and it was really nice. Made me forget how annoyed I had been just moments ago and how amazing and beautiful nature is.
Next stop Mitra’s ranch which I think is just basically a rich family’s house that has a good view of Honda Bay (a place many people go for water type activity)
This would have been fun, but we just came to see the view : (
I had heard about this place and was looking forward to it, but it was a bit of a let down. I’m actually not really sure what it was. There was a bakery (thus the name), . . . . .
. . . . a playground, and . . . .
. . . . . some Shrek characters. Huh?
Last stop was to see people doing some weaving work.
They make it look so easy. I didn’t find it easy!!
Bring on the culture shock! See you in a few days baby!