Geeky Yet Waterproof

On Monday morning, Uncle Rick, Christopher, and I left with our driver, Molito, to go on a little excursion to Pangasinan. Pangasinan is the province of the Philippines which Tito Vic (and before him, his father) used to govern.
The drive probably would have taken us about four hours, but we made several stops along the way; first, we stopped at Jollibee, the Filipino version of McDonald’s (only better).
Next, we stopped in Lingayen, which is the capital of Pangasinan, to see the governor’s palace — and the 12ft statue of my uncle in front of it.

That’s my Great Uncle!

After that, we went on to poke around Tita Teresing’s cottage in the woods (palm trees?). There we saw some really scenic countryside, straw huts, and even a guy taking a carabao for a walk.

Rick Photographs the Bananas

Since it was only a short drive from the cottage to the beach, we indulged. While walking on the beach, we saw in the distance a small group of people standing around a large shape. Thinking they were fishermen pulling in their nets, we went over to investigate. As we got closer, we saw that the shape was actually a pile of sand from a freshly dug hole in the ground. We would have gone directly to them to ask what they were doing, but we were intimidated by the low hats, the bandanas hiding their faces, and the fact that they had all stopped their work to stare at us. So, trying not to look too suspicious, we just kept walking by.
The problem was we had to be back at the car in five minutes, which was in the other direction. So after walking about 50 feet past them, we had no choice but to turn around. However, curiosity conquered us, so we asked them what they were doing. It turned out they were mining for gold — on the beach! They said they had to work all day, but I guess they must have been doing something right, because they showed us the results…

After we were done on the beach, we headed to our final destination of Tito Louie’s condo in Alaminos, where we would stay for one night. (By “Tito Louie’s” condo, I mean that he owns the whole thing. Being the mayor had its advantages.) The condo is right on the water, and there’s a raised viewing platform which you have to go up a spiral staircase to get to. We went to the top of the platform, and it just happened to be at the same level as the tops of the coconut trees. So as you can probably guess, we picked a coconut, bashed it on a rock, and drank the milk. Ahh… sarap ng buko.

Eamon and the Cocounut

Christopher and the Coconut

Rick and the Coconut

When we had gone back to our rooms it was only a few minutes before, to our surprise, someone knocked on our doors saying, “Dinner’s ready!”. We hadn’t ordered any dinner, but we walked across to the cafeteria room to see what it was. A merry servant was setting a huge dinner on the table for just the three of us. He then said, “Enjoy!” and left us alone to eat!
It way too much food for three people, but it was all delicious.

When we had finished eating, we said “salamat” to someone who might have been the cook, and then went back to our rooms to shower / wash off spilled coconut milk, sleep, and prepare for our next adventure: The Hundred Islands.