It Was the first day of our excursion; our goal was to see a couple of monuments from WWII and to make it up to Tacloban. Among the monuments was hill 120 and Hill 522. Hill 120 has a nice monument, though in a state of perhaps some disrepair. It is the site where after landing the first American flag was raised. The flag pole that they used was a coconut or palm tree with the branches striped off. Hill 522 is located in the town of Palo. There really isn’t much to suggest that Hill 522 is much of anything. The 1 kilometer long trail to the top starts at an out of the way back street with nothing to really indicate where or what it is. The one sign that is there is so warn and beaten that there is nothing on it but the white base coat of paint and rust. Joel had to ask some of the locals where it was. Ok its 11:58 and we just lost power, yeah for laptop batteries, hope the power comes back before my batty dies. Once we found the beginning of the trail we were not sure it was it because it leads a short way up to a shrine, but once above the shrine you can see that the trail continues up the hill. Now being as out of shape as I am this very steep hill proved to wind me rather good. Once we reached the top of the hill, there was a large concrete cross with no writing on it to indicate why it was there or who put it there. On the cross there was a ledge for placing candles and it was blackened and waxy indicating that it was used. While the hill itself wasn’t all that impressive it did give me the opportunity to get close to some of the nipa huts, as there are several lining the lower part of the path. As people here are accustomed to the occasional tourist they didn’t seem to mind too much. Later when we reached Tacloban we went to the General Macarthur memorial. It is more or less: as described in everything you read about it. Bronzed statues 1.5 times life size in a pool of water marching out of the waves. Surrounding the Monument itself is a nice park with manicured lawn and decorative plants that are cared for. As my dad had wanted me to find grandpas name on a list that is supposed to have the names of all those who participated in the landing, I looked around the park for anything that would have names on it, and came up empty handed. The only thing I could find was about the monument itself. We also visited the capital building of Leyte and rested for a while in an adjacent park. It was getting a bit late so we decided to hunt for a hotel. Once our hotel was located we headed out for something to eat, and then called it a night. Well Joel and the driver called it a night. I took a shower, watched TV for a while, became board and thought I would take a walk outside. Earlier in the day when we had first stopped at the hotel I had noticed that we were fairly close to the sea wall, so I picked that as a place to go for a walk. As I headed toward the sea wall I quickly noticed that perhaps this was not quite the board walk, but thought it would be interesting anyway. After wandering through a maze of over packed Jeepneys, sidecar motorcycles, and Put-put carts I finally reached the seawall, and took a right. Now this whole time I am hearing “hay Jo” or Jo this or Jo that, by the way all white folk have the name Jo deriving back from the days of “GI Jo”. I’m ignoring it as best as I can because I simply do not want to have to talk to all of the people yelling Jo at me, and I really don’t think they have anything I want to buy, but I’m quite sure that they want to sell. So I continue on, so far I have only gone about a half of block but I am clear of all the Jeepneys, sidecar motorcycles, and put-put’s, but now I enter something I didn’t want to enter. Beggarsvill, or so I have named it because everyone is begging. Now I like to be generous when I can afford it, but there is all of a sudden ten people trying to beg from me. Now I don’t know what it is, but something isn’t write with this picture, all these beggars are children for one, which of course makes you want to give them money, but if you give one money the rest will hound you until your dead, get in a vehicle that travels faster than they can run, or manage to make it back to you hotel lobby door. Now of the ten or so that are begging off me, I can see that if I were to continue walking in the same direction I would have just scratched the surface of beggarsvill because there are more lying in wait in the shadows and in the light, just waiting for me to get close enough for it to make there effort worth there while to try to hit me up. The ten or so that were begging from me where just the closet ones. I decided that when I got to the end of the block, I would take a right away from the seawall, perhaps this wasn’t the place for a walk. As I walked away from the seawall it took perhaps another half block, and then crossing a road to shake the more stubborn beggars. I truly wish I knew which ones were begging for genuine need, and which ones were begging for profit. As I came to the end of the block, I took a right that would lead me back to the street with my hotel on it. As I was walking along this street on the sidewalk a young lady waived at me from across the street. I glanced in her direction and continued walking and paid her no mind. This didn’t deter her at all, she scampered across the street and walked up beside me and introduced herself as rose and tried to engage me in conversation. Not being one to be rude, I was polite, but gave no indication that I wanted anything more, and when she asked what hotel I was staying in I said the one over there and waived in a general direction. She still hade no desire to give up so easily so she continued to talk to me, ask me questions, and walk with me. I must admit that I was just a bit embarrassed and didn’t know how to tell her that really all I had wanted was to walk along the sea wall before going to bed. When I reached where my hotel was and she offered to come up to my room I declined the invitation and she didn’t follow me across the street into the hotel. I then went up to my room, and went to bed.

Drying Fish in the sun for the market.

The local grocery store as well as the local Wal-Mart

Public transportation, also called Jeepneys

Too many taxies and not enough passengers

starting up the trail on Hill 522

cross at top of Hill 522

City of Palo

Macarthur Landing Memorial

Leyte Provincial Capitol