My day started out at 8:00am again today as it has done so the last couple of days. Joel arrived about 8:30 just as I was finishing my shower and asked me if I was ready to go. Still dripping I said no give me a few minutes. After finishing drying off and getting dressed I grabbed some fruit that I had bought the previous day and headed out to meet Joel. Our plan was to grab some food in town for lunch and then head for the boat I would be renting in Inopacan. The Isles that we are going to visit today are the Quatro Isias. As the name implies they are four Islands the names of which are Himoquilan, Daquio, Apit, and Mahaba. Though my map doesn’t show the names of the individual islands and I don’t know which are which, the locals seem to know which names belong to which island, but I have yet to catch on to what they are. The boat we were going to be taking was supposed to have a capacity of 20 people so I was hopping that Joel would be able to roundup some people that had the day off to go with us. Joel had intended to have some friends and family come along, but the friends didn’t want to go, and the children in his family get sea sick. I had invited Jacky and her friends, but Jacky had said that she would be busy and so she couldn’t go. In the end it ended up being just me and Joel. When we arrived where I would be renting the boat the owner said that she needed some money upfront for the gas, so no problem I gave her 500 pesos, as the total fare was going to be 1500 pesos. The owner then sent her son, who was going to be our driver to get gas. The gentleman left with three jugs, which looked like 1 gallon bleach jugs. When he returned he put about two and a half jugs of gas in the boat gas tank and took the other half somewhere else, all in all I would say they did alright without the next 1000 pesos because at 33 pesos per liter I could tell that they had bought less than 500 worth of gas, not to mention that they still had some left from the three one gallon jugs. Shortly there after we left the shore headed to the southernmost island. Before leaving shore the boat owner had told us that many tourist went scuba diving at these islands, primarily the southern most one. Once we got out to the island I could see why, there was all kinds of coral and fish, and the underwater terrain varied greatly from spot to spot, there were some large areas that were perhaps no more than 20 feet deep with livid coral, and others where the coral formed deep ravines, or formed sharp cliffs, and yet other places where the bottom dropped off gradually like a gently sloping hill. After circling the first Island we headed toward the second southernmost island, and also cycled it as well. It was getting toward noon at this point so Joel asked the driver and his assistant if we cold eat at the next island. They said no problem so we went to the third Island which is by far the smallest island. If I were to make a guess I world say that the Island is 3 maybe 4 acres altogether. We sat on the boat and ate lunch. After finishing our lunch we began our walk around the island. As I mentioned earlier this island is very small, and because it is so small, I thought that no one would live on it. I was most certainly wrong, there are in fact people living there, and according to the lady Joel was translating for, there are 10 families on the island. If there are ten families, then they all live in very close quarters as I only saw about 5 huts that functioned as houses. Most of the inhabitants of the island were out fishing in there boats or busy off island with some other task. There was an old broken sign which read something in Taglaog (the Filipino language), and Joel translated it for me to read that tourist were to pay 5 pesos for swimming to the care taker of the island. Well neither of us were swimming but all things considered I figured 5 pesos wasn’t to much and it certainly wouldn’t hurt these people to have it. Joel suggested that perhaps I should give them a little more because they really have so very little. I was not opposed to the idea so I gave the care taker twice the amount on the sign, which still only equaled 20 pesos, or about 40 cents. I walked around there little village and took pictures for a little while and, Joel talked to the caretaker, and another elderly lady. A young boy belonging to the care taker rowed his boat ashore. Joel stood talking for a little while longer, and after a minute or two said to me, they boy says he would like to sell his fish to you for 30 pesos. Now 30 pesos has got to be the fairest price I have ever been offered for anything, as the boy wanted to sell me his entire catch of about 10 fish for what amounts to 60 cents. Now to be honest I like paying people for there work, but I don’t really like giving money away. I told Joel to explain to them that I am sorry, but I have nowhere to put the fish, and that I have no home here and so have no way to cook them, being as even they need a place to cook and cooking utensils this made sense to them. After Joel had explained to them, he told me that the boy sells the fish to pay for school supplies. He spends all day Saturday, and Sunday fishing to pay for his school and school supplies throughout the week. At that point I did want to go ahead and give him his thirty pesos just so he had his money for the week, but a the same time I don’t want him to start to think that he could just beg money from tourist like so many other people do, I much prefer his more honest method of selling fish. Truthfully if I had had something I could do with the fish I would probably have bought them, but I didn’t even have a plastic bag to carry them with. This island being the smallest of the four is also the lowest in elevation being no more than a few feet above sea level at the tallest point. Joel had asked the elderly lady if they had been through any typhoons on the island, and what they did if one came. The lady said that they had been through typhoons and that the big islands break up the waves before the reach the small island and so the waves only reach the top of the beach and do not flood the island. I hope this always remains true as there would be no place for them to go, even on the Island of Diego Garcia where our elevation is the same situation we at least have 3 story buildings and could go to the second or third floor. On this island there is only bamboo and wood huts that aren’t quite a story tall. If a storm were to already be in progress there would be no way for them to leave the island because the waves would sink there boats, not to mention that there boats are powered by rowing not engines and any of the other islands including the mainland is to far to row in bad weather. Add to this that even if someone could try to rescues them, the water is too shallow for the proper type of boat and it would either be crushed by the coral or rocks and never make it to shore. There is no electricity or generators on this island and so no TVs or radios or any other form of communication that takes less time than rowing to the next island, so these people could easily be caught by a storm. They have survived them before, and for there sake I hope they continue to survive them. The island furthest from the mainland has several people on it, more of a proper town with a school that the children from the four islands attend. There is also a true road though it is dirt and power lines and a generator that provides electricity for four hours at night starting at about 6:00PM. After circling this last island we started back and one of the men on the boat asked if they could stop at the second island we had visited because his father lived there and he would like to talk to him. I had no problem with this and so we stopped and he talked to his father, and me and Joel got out of the boat and relaxed in the shade of a few trees for a while. When we were all ready to go we boarded the boat and headed back to the mainland. Upon returning I paid the rest of the fair, and me and Joel headed back to the MLG resort. After dropping me off we parted ways for the rest of the day, I to the shower and he to home and whatever else he had to do. Upon inspection of myself I discovered that the parts of my skin that had been exposed were now more or less a bright almost cherry red. Oh this is going to be fun I think as I head for the shower, this is going to feel real good, kind of like stepping into a tub of boiling water feels good. I hadn’t given much thought to wearing pants or a long sleeve shirt because the boat was covered by a rubberized tarpaulin. I should have known better as I really have experienced this before. The tarpaulin works well to keep you cool and you don’t really feel the sun beating on you, much like a cloudy day, but it doesn’t block the UV rays so well, as they seem to go straight through it and burn you despite the shade they offer. After showering I spent the rest of the day relaxing and waiting for Jacky to come over, as she had said that she would come at 7:00. When at 7:35 she had not shown up I figured that she was not coming, turned the TV on and was prepared to sit and watch the TV in Taglaog and try and figure out what they were talking about. Very shortly there after my phone range and I answered it. Much to my delight and surprise it was Jacky saying that she was sorry for being late but that she was here at the front desk. She met me halfway between my room and the front desk, and we walked to the pool area to sit in the light and talk. This still being sort of our introduction to each other Jacky brought her cousin, LynLyn as sort of a chaperone. LynLyn seems to be a very fun loving open person, not shy at all and isn’t afraid to ask questions, but she is also not rude. For most of the night I didn’t even see her though I knew she was always around. I don’t mind the heat here so much, but Jacky seemed to be a little uncomfortable and was patting her face with a handkerchief to keep herself dry, I think it may have had to do as much as with her being nervous as anything. But I decided to ask her if she would like to go to the main reception area/ front desk/restaurant/karaoke bar as it is air-conditioned and the only person in there was Jenifer, who is a close friend of Jacky’s. She answered yes and so we went in. we spent most of our time tonight in the reception area talking, and Jacky translating phrases for me, and other small talk. Our conversation was accompanied by the sound of Jenifer’s singing, and though while it is obvious that she is not a professional singer, it was pleasant enough to listen to. She would stop every once in a while and ask us if we wanted to sing. I encouraged Jacky to because she had told me that she liked to sing, and I wanted to hear her, but I declined the offer myself. We eventually moved back outside to the pool area again but this time it was the four of us together and we continued to have a pleasant conversation. LynLyn for one was interested in why I would want to stay in a place like MLG resort instead of something like a 5 star hotel, and why I was here in the Philippines, and what I though of the Filipina people and in particular Filipina women. I answered as truthfully as I could. I was staying at MLG because I liked it, and I wasn’t staying at 5 star hotels because I could not afford it. I explained that I understand that a lot single foreign men that come to the Philippines are looking for a wife, but that was not why I was here. I also told her that I was not against the idea, but that was not the reason I had come. I had come because right now in my life a have a good job, but know that it is not going to last more than another year and half. So while I can afford to take a vacation and see the Philippines I will, because I may never get the chance again. In response to her question about Filipina women I of course answered that I think they are beautiful. But this is not an exaggeration at all, of course beauty fades with age in all people so to say that all Filipinas are beautiful would not be accurate either. But truthfully I find the Philippine women to be very attractive. I also think that there are more attractive women in the Philippines than there are in the states. This probably has something to do with the fact that there are extremely few overweight or obese women and most are in good physical condition. Aside from that I am partial to brown or tanned skin and petite women so I guess that I am predispositioned to having a liking to Filipino women. Anyways 10:00pm rolled around and Jacky said that she needed to be going, and she didn’t know if she would see me again. We said our good nights and I gave Jacky a one armed hug (I was holding some items in my other arm), which she was a little confused and surprised by and didn’t exactly know how to react, but the hug wasn’t reciprocated. At that point I figured that I had blown any chance of seeing her again I had. So I said good night and watched her and LynLyn ride away. She had given me her email address and physical mail address earlier in the evening so I though that I would send her an email as soon as I get to a location with internet access and apologize. I went to talk to Jenifer and tell her to tell Jacky that I apologize and that I didn’t mean to offend her, but Jenifer had already disappeared, and so I went back to my room and ended my evening.

Bonka boats