Our house here in Tan-awan, Oslob, Cebu, Philippines.. view from the back mountain-side.
Our house as seen from the front.
Our house as viewed from back behind it.
Arlyn standing in front of the mirror in our house.
Arlyn standing in front of CR (bathroom).
Laptops, fan, mirror, flower vase, Hawaiian Lei's, picture albums, and our wardrobe closet.
Our nice bed with a great ocean view.
View of the ocean as seen from in front of our house, Lee's house is yellow on the ocean.
Sumilon Resort Island as seen from in front of our house.
MOVIE: A view around the outside of the house I'm staying at. Even a couple kittens here...
MOVIE: A view of the inside of the house I'm living in here in the Philippines. Including the CR (Comfort Room, aka bathroom).
Many fishing boats out in the ocean today...
Fishing boats, Sumilon Island seen in the background...
The house I'm living in is on the left.
Arlyn...
Arlyn and me...
Airin + Arlyn + Raniel.
Arlyn + Raniel.
John Paul.
Arlyn, Raniel, John Paul, Reymark, and baby Kim Kim.
Raniel and John Paul.
Raniel and John Paul and Kim Kim.
MOVIE: John Paul
Airin + Arlyn + Raniel + baby Kim Kim.
Raziel.
Christy + Kim Kim eating Chocolate...
Kittens playing with a beetle...
Reymark and John Paul..
Arlyn + Arlyn's mom + John Paul, making Tortas..
The Tortas batter (flour, sugar, eggs, milk), the finished product, and the oven (using coconut husks for fuel).
The Totas making oven... Each Torta needs about 5 minutes to cook.
A pig watching the Tortas being made...
MOVIE: Torta making in action!
Tortas!
MOVIE: Tortas!
MOVIE: Sharpening the spatula...
Coconut husks burn hot!
These next pictures show our journey to someones house where we bought some coconuts, collected the inner fruit, and brought it back. I think we used maybe 15 coconuts alltogether to get enough coconut strings... We then make the Coconut Salad desert... Which is very good!
Us climbing up the trail...
Climbing up the mountain...
Some very nice views to be seen up the mountain...
Arlyn and family climbing the hill..
View of the road as seen from the mountain.
Lots of corn is grown here... all planting, caring for, and harvesting is done by hand of course.
Arlyn and I, in the background is a small house for the workers to rest in when working the cornfield..
Arlyn collecting stringed coconut meat... The tool has small circles on the end that the coconut is forced through, making spaghetti like noodles... You use young coconuts so they are soft.
The family that was watching me while we harvesting coconut.
Sumilon Island as seen from the mountain.
The ingredients to make this 'Coconut Salad'.
Coconut added to large bowl.
Coconut jellos bought from store (white, green, and red) added to Coconut. Next is cream, condensed milk, sugar, raisins, and cheese (!) cut up into little pieces.
The finished product, now it just needs to be refrigerated until cold. Lami! (Delicious)
These next pictures are showing underwater pictures I've taken here...
Pictures I took underwater in front of Lee's house...
A blue starfish like creature... they move very slowly.
This section shows our trip to Arlyn's uncles house (her mom's brother). It took us one hour and 45 minutes to hike there, way way way up the hill... We went there so they could visit them, I could meet them, and also so Arlyn's papa and his workers could get some Bamboo they need to fix their boat they use for scuba diving...
Arlyn as we begin our journey up the hill..
Sumilon Island in the distance.
A little video showing a few seconds of the climb...
Arlyn and her mom hiking through the thick jungle... cloudy day, but still dark in here... shown is the main waterline that feeds the neighboring Baranguy (mini district) next to Tan-Awan, where we are.
The old water source before the water was piped to peoples houses... This is maybe 45 minutes to an hour on our journey, people used to hike here to get fresh water...
Arlyn, dad and mom on the left, 2 workers on the right... snack time by the water gathering place.
Arlyn's mom's brothers house, 1 hour and 45 minute hike from Arlyn's house, way up the hill...
Workers starting lunch, which involves two chickens.
Chickens getting plucked.
Rice being cooked.
Arlyn and the workers.
Yummy!
OK, chickens have been chopped up... half an hour ago they were still eating bugs!
Chickens cooking on the fire.
Arlyn and a tree...
Raniel teaching the workers how to play.
Lunch!
Bamboo!
The workers are here to get a couple large pieces of Bamboo for the boat... they ended up with two long lengths maybe 30' long and as big as shown in this picture. Which they then carry back down by hand...
Raniel in Arlyn's Uncle's house, with lots of corn they have harvested. They have a manual stone mill (basically a rock where they grind the dried corn into smaller pieces so they can cook it like rice, it's a staple food here.
One of their pigs visiable out a window.
The inside of the house. The flooring is all bamboo pieces, there is space between every piece, sweeping is very easy, all the dust just falls below the house!
Lots of Corn!
This next section is photos from a walk I took, about 15 km (10 miles) on February 8th, through an area where a Typhoon was at the day before.
Some flooding at this construction site... typical road here in the Philippines.
Typical road... this area is near a school, speed limit about 25 miles per hour...
A house with a nice view of the other island of Negros...
Damage from the typhoon...
Where I'm standing as I take this is on the road...
A house with a nice little ocean viewing cottage...
Damage on the side of the road...
A house with very little thatched roof left...
Guardrail hanging in midair...
Picture of a tall palm tree of some sort that fell across the road, had to be cut out of the way..
The base end of the palm tree...
Typical Sari Sari store, flooding all around it...
These next few pictures are from our trip to Dumaguete. To get there, we take either a Jeepney or Bus for 20 Minutes to Lilo-an, then a Tricycle to the boat dock, get on the boat that leaves every hour, which takes about 25 minutes to cross to the island of Negros. Then we catch a Jeepney to Dumaguete, another 15 - 20 minutes. Dumaguete has a population of about 100,000 people I think.
The boat dock in Lilo-an as our boat left... we're on our way to Dumaguete.
Another boater out in the middle of nowhere...
Landed in Sibulan... now all that remains is a 15 minute ride in a Jeepney to get to Dumaguete!
Jeepney's and Tricycles waiting for the passengers to get off the boat.
Dinner at JR's Birthday.
Like a deer in the headlights...
JR's 22nd birthday... they grabbed the wrong candle... :)
Kimkim with her tounge out...
Halo Halo ice cream... forgot to take a picture before we started eating... purple is Ube (sweet potato) ice cream... lots of other misc ingredients from beans to jello...
Not Arlyn's store, but almost the same name...
There are lots of Elve's here!
My friend Lee's new house.
The top center coconut tree, midway up it's stalk you see white on a house... that's my house! As viewed from lee's house.
Arlyn and Mary Ann in Lee's truck. Head gasket blown, we had to tow it to Oslob about 20 miles away... was dark before we started towing it!
Different colored eyes.
Beach on Sumilon Island, divers cleaning coral working offshore from here. This is where these next underwater pictures are from.
Arlyn and JR.
The boat Arlyn's dad uses for his diving tours. This is the boat we were on for a few hours, although we were only a couple hundred meters from the beach.
The mayor is coming to the island later so they are building a little canopy to keep it cooler. It started to rain later so it was doubly useful!
Me with my new haircut, ready to swim! They like having me aboard, I help keep the canopy up!
Glass bottom boat, tourists from the resort going for a ride.
Lee and I.
I went for a walk, this is Boljoon.
Me in Boljoon.
This picture and the ones that follow are from March 8th, I went diving with these people (Left to Right is Ramone (Arlyn's dad), me, Junie, JR (Arlyn's brother), and Greg (manager of the Sumilon Island Resort).
