Trees, Mud, and Waterfalls

I saw millions of trees, walked through so much mud, and saw two beautiful waterfalls.  I've been dying to go hiking since I got here, and a kid from Institute kindly obliged to take me!  I didn't really know where we were going, but he told me he'd pick me up at 5:30 in the morning and to bring a lunch.  I knew I was in for a good day of hiking, I knew it'd be beautiful, but I wasn't really sure what I was going to see! 

First, let's talk about how challenging this hike was.  Mud.  

It had rained the night before, and there was so much mud.  This makes hiking much trickier, at least for this clutzy girl.  I won't even tell you how many times I slipped...haha.  The hike also had very, very steep stretches.  

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but really, so steep!  They were definitely easier to go up than down!  

Then there were these roots everywhere, because there are trees everywhere! 

Some of these roots were very helpful and gave me a good, solid place to step, others were slicker than snot!  I was never sure which roots were going to be friendly, or which roots would have me begging for mercy?!  

There were also some treacherous stretches of going over slippery rocks walking through the river. 

 

I was SO glad for my Chacos! 

Now, lets talk about how BEAUTIFUL this hike was!  Seriously, look at these views!  I was hiking through a jungle.  How cool is that?!  

Our final destination was this sulfur vent:  

I'm not going to lie, I was kind of bummed that we had just hiked all that way (it was about 8 miles round trip) to come to this sulfur vent?! Anyways, it was cool and I was just happy I got to see so much beauty along the way.  

The sulfur vent had caused everything in it's path to die, and I just thought the contrast of dead and alive was so pretty! 

Then on our way back out JeeVee was like, hey, let's just come over here to eat a snack.  I wasn't really hungry and just wanted to hike out, but I went anyways.  I was concentrating pretty hard on walking through the river when I looked up and saw this beautiful waterfall!  

I was in shock!  It was so pretty!  Then I looked to the right of me and there was another one!  

They are called Twin Falls.  So, we had a little snack, and enjoyed listening to the falling water.  

Here are some more pictures from along the way.  

 I thought it was so interesting that this tree had fur on it?!  I was quickly told that they were thorns and not to touch it!  Yikes!

This huge and beautiful garden was along the way and I just couldn't help but think of my mom and all my gardening aunts, sisters, and cousins and how much they'd have loved it!  

I even got in one of the pictures :)

The hike was hard.  The hike was beautiful.  I'm so glad I had the experience.  

We hiked really fast and were done around 1:00, so I asked JeeVee if he could take me to meet up with the Ryskamp's.  They were going to be going swimming at this place called Pulong Buto.  He kindly obliged, and we actually met up with them on the highway as they were stopped looking at some other sulfur rock things.  I hopped off there, thanked him, and took Yet-yet's spot as a driver.  We headed up to Pulong Buto where we spent the afternoon swimming, enjoying these waterfalls, and eating sweet corn :)

I love good, full days, and the last few have been just that way :) I'm just so blessed.  

Amlan Zoo

On Friday we decided to hop on the scooters and head up to the zoo in Amlan!  I wasn't expecting too much, but was pretty pleased with what we saw!  

 Turkeys

I loved seeing these birds using an old coconut for their nest!

There were so many of these cute, colorful little birds! My mom would have loved seeing them!

Then Maddie discovered that they would eat food out of your hand!  We were so shocked! 

Multiple birds would come and land on your hand at once and eat.  It was so fun! 

Everyone got into it!

Then we saw some warthogs or Pumba's, whichever you'd like to call them.  

They also had horses.  So exotic, I know!  haha

I also got to feed a camel.  In the Philippines.  

Ostriches.  

 Monkeys.

 Tigers!  

Eating chicken heads. 

 I've never been so close to a tiger in my life!  I was seriously like 3 feet from this one! 

And isn't that picture just beautiful?  I can't get enough of the coconut trees against this Philippine sky :)

We had a great time at the zoo!  Foreign zoos are definitely different, but they have their own unique charm.  We had a great time together.  My highlights were definitely the birds and the tigers!  It was just so cool being that close to the animals.  

The New Normal

I've been here about a month now, but it's crazy to me how quickly everything that was so new and shocking to me when I arrived has become so normal.  Today I decided to look through some pictures to try and find things that used to shock me.  That's right, I actually had to look for them?!  I think it's a good sign.  

Trips to the ocean literally take 3 minutes by scooter or 15 minutes walking. (This particular beach was actually about 30 minutes by scooter, but we live close, none the less!)

This is what construction looks like.  You couldn't pay me to climb up there and work! 

Roosters and chickens are constantly crowing.  I'm reminded of that every time I FaceTime anybody back home.  I've totally gotten used to them.  I guess it's kind of like living in Cokeville and never noticing the trains.  

Petty cabs don't look weird anymore. 

Cruising through the Philippines on a scooter with a passenger or two is now a regular occurrence! 

There are no stop signs, yet traffic moves pretty smoothly!  I figure about 50% of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles/scooters, 35% petty cabs, and 15% regular vehicles.  

Seeing a family of 5 on a motorcycle is not uncommon!

Anyone anywhere can cook and sell food, and it's some of the best! 

Exercising along the ocean is a daily thing.  

Trees near the ocean have this cool moss stuff growing on them.  

Grass is very rare.  There are mostly just dirt areas where I normally would expect grass to be.  

This makes the perfect "box" for step ups, box jumps, etc.  

Sharing a room with 4 other girls is actually not a bad deal! 

This is what cows look like here.  No wonder they don't prefer beef?!

Everyone smiles, waves, and says hi to me where ever I go!  It must have something to do with this exotic blonde hair?! 

 You smell fresh, warm bread everywhere! For 2 pesos (about 4 cents) you can buy yourself a delicious roll at a Bread Camp or some other bakery :)

The neighborhood volleyball courts come alive at 3:00 pm when all the petty cab drivers in the area meet to play.  The winning team gets 30 pesos.  

So, there ya have it!  Just a glimpse at my new normal :)

Tejero

Yesterday we went and had a fun day at a little resort up in Valencia City called Tejero.  It was really fun!  It was pretty nice, like the status of a nice, quiet resort you'd find in Cancun or somewhere, but there was fun music playing, kids, barbecues, and a zip line that gave it more of a Seven Peaks feel.  Needless to say, it was a super fun day!  How can it not be when those two luxuries of life are combined?! 

We packed up a lunch, all of us piled on motorcycles/scooters (Lillian rode behind me on Leo and Yet-yet's second scooter and we had so much fun!) and we headed up to Valencia City.  We got to Tejero around 1:00.  We changed, ate our lunch or PB&J sandwiches, fresh fruit, and boiled eggs, and hit the pool!  The Ryskamp's know how to have fun in the pool!  Constantly there were people being catapulted through the air, chicken tournaments, and trips down the water slide.  You had to be weary of lingering near the edge with Rix around--I got pushed in more than once! haha  We had such a fun time!

Maddie catapulting Rixy into a backflip!

Some of the girls on the slide.

The rest of the fam anticipating their decent :)

When most people had had enough of the swimming we decided to do the zip line.  It was just one cable, but was still very fun!  Reed was too little to go on it, so Leo sat out with him.  The rest of us strapped on our gear and headed up the mountain to the launching platform.  The view from the platform was so pretty!  We could see the ocean out to the left of us and a skyline of coconut trees straight ahead.  Each of us jumped off, some more hesitantly than others :) and enjoyed the trip down the cable.  I was the last to go.  Here's my ride.

It was such a great afternoon and we enjoyed a nice 30 minute ride back home to Dumaguete.  Thanks again Ryskamp's for the fun afternoon!   

Note to Self

Note to self:

  Your afternoon walk may be accompanied by an unpleasant aroma when it's garbage day in Dumaguete.