We ran out of gas. It was a lot heavier on the way back. I gave the driver a little tip for helping me lift the bottle. I’d say we had a blast, but I’m very thankful that we didn’t!
What’s in a day?
21 September 2013 by 2 Comments
I usually get up between 7 or 8am, have a glass of fruit juice, have some breakfast (usually some small local rolls), heat up some water for a bucket bath, get dressed, fill up a flask with tea (there’s no kettle or fridge at the office) and get ready for work. Somewhere in between there’s usually a fight against the crappy internet signal to try and check Facebook, Twitter, and tennis scores, with varying degrees of success and/or swearing!
It takes less than five minutes to walk to the office, down a dirt road (when it’s dry, down a mud road when it’s wet), up another one, and then I’m more or less there. [Read more…]
The fires of hell
14 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
If someone offers you coconut oil with chili extract as a mosquito repellent, just say NO.
Not because it doesn’t work (it does!) but because it burns like the fires of hell. It burns even after you think you’ve washed it all off (twice).
The Volcano Diaries (Part 1)
3 August 2013 by 1 Comment
My First Glimpses of Bulusan and Mayon
Mt Bulusan (right) and Mt Mayon (far right) in the late afternoon light
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a minor obsession with volcanoes. I guess it all started with the eruption of Mt St. Helens in 1980, which regularly made the evening news.
Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge National Park
28 July 2013 by 2 Comments
A few hours up river from the small town of Basey, on Samar, are the Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge Natural Park. I recently took a trip there with some friends. It’s a lovely day trip and a great way to see something of the rural Philippines and get a glimpse of what the forests that once covered much of the country would once had looked like. [Read more…]
A new friend
12 July 2013 by Leave a Comment
A praying mantis adopted me while waiting for a minivan, and couldn’t be persuaded to leave! S/he kept climbing up my arm and into my hair, to the horror of everyone else around me, who thought I should kill it. Cue a long conversation about me being a conservationist and how praying mantids are “aggressive feminists”. Eventually I relocated her to a bush across the road.
over the hills 