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| The Philippines……Day one of four! |
After our three days in Taiwan, we set sail (or at least the captain set sail) for the Philippines. The Philippines are made up over over 7,000 islands and have a population of around 118 million. The capital city of Manila is the largest city with just under fifteen million residents.
We will be spending four days in the Philippines, visiting four different islands. I guess we’ll have to make another trip or two to check off the remaining islands.
Our first port of call was Curimao. It’s a relatively small municipality (pop. 12,215), but they gave us a big time welcome with drummers, dancers and souvenir necklaces as we stepped off the ship. We’ve since learned that we are one of the first ships arriving this cruise season, and sometimes the very first ship of the season. So we have been greeted enthusiastically at every port.
Curimao is the gateway port to Vigan City, which is about 80 minutes away by bus. At the last minute we booked a ship tour to Vigan City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It earned this designation because it’s the most intact example, in Asia, of a Spanish Colonial town (it was founded in the 1600’s by Spanish Conquistadors.).
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| Heading out on the tour bus. I wasn’t sure if I should be comforted or concerned by the “Oh Lord Bless Us!” sign. |
As it turned out it was kind of a “hurry up and wait” day. First , Curimao is a port where it is necessary to take a tender to reach the dock. The tenders were slow to get started and it was about a 20 minute ride once they finally got going.
Next, we learned that it was a National Holiday called “All Saints Day”. Which is similar to Mexico’s “Day of the Dead”. Families were gathered in cemetery’s along the roadside, many sharing meals, lighting candles and remembering those who had left this earth. I assume Vigan City was busier than normal because of the holiday, and the roads were packed both ways.
Our tour was called “Vigan City On Your Own”. We got a little information on the area on the bus, but it was mainly just transportation. We made a somewhat feeble attempt to tour a bit on a form of a tuk-tuk (motorcycle with a SMALL side car). The side car could have semi comfortably accommodated two 3-5 year olds, not two full sized adults. After the first stop we paid the driver for his time and spent the rest of the time roaming around the historic settlement on foot.
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Our grandkids, James and Emma are 7 and 3. It would have been somewhat crowded for them in that sidecar. It just wasn’t going to work for us!
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They were so happy to see us, they were dancing in the streets!
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| Wonderful old Spanish Architecture! |
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| The horse drawn carriages added to the ambiance. |
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| We had worked up an appetite roaming around. Our guide had shared with us that Empanadas are a traditional food for this region. Casa Jardin was doing a brisk business so we moseyed on in. |
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| The empanada was made to order and fried, not baked. |
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| It was huge and delicious! For the record we spilt it. |
After a fun few hours we made our way back to the bus. We arrived back at the dock only to find the tenders back to the ship were moving slowly.
This was really no big deal. It gave us time to reminisce on the day’s adventure. Besides, we really had no place we needed to be!
Beth took the two great sunset pictures from the tender. The first one is a cargo ship that was docked in the harbor. The second one is the Norwegian Jewel.
