July 23  3 pm Wednesday

Randal is off giving a boat tour to some New Zealanders so I get the computer for a bit!  So to continue with the Puerta Galera adventure…..

After Tamaraw Falls we went on to Ponderosa Golf Club with a stop first to pick up our new dinghy anchor.  Randal had supplied the materials for the shop to use and they made a wonderful little anchor.The labor cost $8.

The welding shop on the road out PG that went on to Calapan.

Carol with the anchor.  It looks vaguely like something to ward off vampires! 

Then on to the Ponderosa Golf Club.  Carol is a golfer and had been told about its beautiful setting on a mountainside. 

“Ponderosa Golf Club Puerto Galera has been cut out of the mountain, nearly 2,000 feet above sea level.

It overlooks the stunning  Puerto Galera and in the distance you can see Batangas on the island of Luzon.”       It’s a nine hole par 3 course.

  This is the view from the top of the mountain.  One of those little boats is Doramac.

It was a lovely setting.  Not sure if this was a private home or part of the course.  We could see a wonderful empty room with a tile floor, and lots of windows as the top floor.

  What a great room!  You could paint, do yoga, read, stare into space!

  Not far from where Carol is standing is the T.  The hole is down the mountain!  Some tough course.

  The owner was American and a fan of the show. (I think.)

Our next stop, and last of day 2 was White Beach.

July 23, 2008  3:10 pm Wednesday

Randal and I had been to White Beach but Carol hadn’t so off we went after our visit to Ponderosa.  Plus we’d had a tip that the best Halo Halos were to be had at White Beach and where to find them.  That alone would have been enough for Carol and me.   And I have lots of photos of Carol eating her halo halo and there are lots of me eating mine.  None of them were the least bit flattering since one had to really open wide to get that stuff in.  So no photos of us chowing down the halo halo. But, unfortunately I didn’t take many other photos. 

Our first stop at White Beach was for a halo halo.  Randal had a beer.

A little of this and that…                                                                        Lots of crushed ice………………….                                                 Milk poured on top and then Ube spread to finish.

After I had literally scraped my glass clean it was time to go for a walk along the beach.

  Randal walked the plank.  I took off my shoes and walked through the water.

   We watched several men move a banca out of the water.

  Then we watched the sun set. The end of our second day of adventure

I need to mention that I have mixed my photos and Carol’s together.  Obviously if I’m in the photo, Carol was taking it and visa versa.  Every now and then Randal took my camera, but not so often that I need to share photo credit with him. 

Our last adventure was a visit to the Moorings Hotel near the PG Yacht Club for brunch the last day of Carol’s visit.

Carol didn’t stay on DoraMac with us, too rolling for her since we were anchored out.  All of those bancas going by made lots of waves.  She stayed at the hotel just up the hill from the PG Yacht Club.  The Moorings was developing more facilities that would include space for conferences and more upscale demand.  Carol had asked if they would provide a tour and brunch for us Monday morning before she would leave.  They had agreed.  So after an early morning swim off the back of DoraMac, we all took the service boat back to The Moorings. 

  Our private table

Our view

Presidential suite

  Interesting art there too.  I think the owner was Chinese and American…or I’m making up facts again…

It really was a lovely spot surrounded by jungle.

Sadly, it was time for Carol to go back to Makati.  You can see Doramac off in the middle of the picture.  This is the banca she would take to get back to Batangas and her car.

Carol waving good-bye.

  It was a great visit! 

As you can tell all of our adventures with Carol have been wonderful.  Saying good-bye was very hard……….But someday……….

So ends our Puerto Galera adventure with Carol Carino.

July 16th Wednesday, 3 pm
Hi Everyone, 

   I hope to email this some time today or tomorrow morning.  Just depends when it actually gets finished.  Randal’s computer is still out of commission so we share, 75/25 because he does lots of boat work on the computer.  He is off doing boat chores at a super marine hardware store.  We have a very thorough boat cleaner here so I am supposedly supervising.  We chat, I type, we have a cold drink and chat, I email some more and check on the All-Star game, Go J.D. Drew!!  Sox, keep it up!

I’m back tracking to our Puerto Galera adventure with Carol.
Tamaraw Falls   (Tam’ a raw the raw at the end rhymes with cow)

The very first page of our Philippine Rough Guide is the title page.  The backside of that page is a full page photo of Tamaraw Falls.  “The mother of all cascades here is the mighty Tamara Falls, 30 minutes by jeepney outside Puerto Galera and not far off the road to Calapan.  Here cool mountain water plummets over a precipice and into a natural pool and a manmade swimming pool.” 
My 3 favorite things about Tamaraw Falls:  1.  Watching Carol climb everywhere all over the falls to take photos of Randal and me.  2. Tamaraw Falls is named for the small, native and endangered water buffalo. 

3. I finally had my photo taken on a water buffalo! 

  I never said they were real!  It was a lovely spot.  If we hadn’t had other fun things planned we would have gotten into the water ourselves.  There is a natural pool and a man made pool.  But after several photos we climbed back up to the road, got back into the car and continued onto our journey.  We had 2 more stops.  Ponderosa Golf Resort and White Beach!

Ru

July 14th: 7:30pm Kota Kinabalu

Hi Everyone,

  We stopped at Tara Island shortly after we had left Romblon.  It was one of my favorites.  It inspired me to paint!  I have to admit that most of our stops are running together in my mind.  They were all pretty similar to me so I am sure they are impossible for you to distinguish.  But the images are pretty so I am send on some photos.  I am send the emails I can do quickly.  The remainder of the Puerto Galera Adventure, Romblon, Illultuk Bay:Safari Park, Coron Town and Puerto Princessa were multi-day stops so it will take me longer to write about them.  In the meantime, more island photos.

  My interpretation of Tara Island.  There were kids playing, dogs playing, men in bancas, women and babies scavenging from the surf.    There was no wifi, cell phone service or the obnoxious blaring kareoke (which I still can’t spell.)  It was just charming.

  Surly the gods live behind those clouds!

  When you see how the clouds, lightning, stars, and sea appear in such vast space it’s easy to understand why all of the early myths explaining creation and nature were imagined. 

We are on Romblon Island and in Romblon town.  Romblon is known for its marble and we will go on a tour this morning to see some of the quarry/factories.  Romblon hasn’t become a tourist destination yet and it’s very nice and the biggest place we have been since Subic.  Weather has been lovely.  We were invaded by young children Sunday morning just as we were in China.  They stayed for cookies, mountain dew and to get flag bandanas.  Sweet cute polite kids.  In the afternoon boat friends Chris and Mylin drove us up to their lovely mountain home overlooking the bay and their sailboat.  On our first day out from Puerto Galera we saw wonderful magical dolphins, me for the first time.
  Got to go.  Not sure when I can email again.
Ru

Hi Everyone,

Looks like we will be leaving Puerto Galera early tomorrow morning and heading to Marinduque , Romblon, Santa Fe,Mangarin Bay and onwards. Not sure when I will email again. I will text our friend Carol and ask her to email my sister Harriet who can let you know we are moving along. We will also try out our sailmail if we can’t find any wifi and we really need to email. I am way behind on writing up our Puerto Galera adventure and hope to do some today.

I will send out an email when we can receive email again. We will check one more time this evening, but after that it might be a bit.

Randal checked the weather and it predicts calm seas with tiny waves for the area we will cruise. Last November when we were here with Nick and Zaida we had bumpy seas back and forth from Marinduque to Puerto Galera so had to layover in Marinduque and skip our trip to Romblon. There were little stingy things in the water in Marinduque so we couldn’t even swim. Now with our new wetsuits, that won’t be a problem though I think we won’t have time in Marinduque since it is just an overnight anchorage between here and Romblon for us. Romblon is known for its marble work so that should be interesting.

Ru

Hi Everyone,

  I am sending this myself from the Rock nRoll Cafe.  Tomorrow Randal and I go on a real dive and we’ll use our own equipment to test it out.  No tasks to practice, just follow the dive leader and look at fish. 

  Today was frst day of school here.  It was so cute.  Kids looked so full of promise.  Sad since there is not so much opportunity.  They had uniforms and funky backpacks.  The big ones held the hand of the little ones and everone looked happy!  It was the end of the school  day; so maybe that was why all the smiles.

   Will work on sending more photos of our adventures with Carol.

Go Sox!  Go Celtics!

Ru