Kyla's Island

A lizard eating a moth. These guys were everywhere! Always fighting and making clicking sounds... cute.
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We just arrived in Naval, which is the "big" city nearest to where Kyla lives.  So far, it is wet.  We are looking forward to spending a few days in the same place.  So far we have been traveling around through North Luzon and have been moving to a new city (via 7 hour buses, mostly) every day or two.

The prediction is that this week will be half relaxing, but half even more stressful because of the social aspect.  Kyla has spent the last year and a half becoming a respectable member of this community, and now it is our job to not mess that up during the next week.  Things they may frown upon: 1) vegetarians, 2) unmarried couples, (I didn't realize how much my grandparents had in common with Filipinos!), 3) Americans who smell bad because our sweat glands are not used to this heat.

Ben & Kyla in mangroves
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Ok we don't know how to handle this blog site because entries are by location, not date.  So here are our thoughts on Biliran after we spent some time there:

It is beautiful.  It is a rarity because it is one of the few islands in the Visayas which has a volcano and rice terraces, but no beaches to speak of.  We were able to go on a mission for Kyla's work and meet some fishermen, and go on the mayor's boat to a neighboring beach/island for some snorkeling.  There was not much else we could do, because there was a fair amount of rain and overcast weather, but we made the most of it by hanging out with Kyla's friends, studying for the GRE, cooking and eating mango float, and cutting Jenny's hair (the 2nd cut of the trip).  We also enjoyed eating/drinking young coconut after a long hike, visiting waterfalls, texting constantly, and attending a cock fight.  Leaving was hard, and we miss Kyla already.  A note to Kyla: THANK YOU!!!  You made our first adventure overseas fun and easy.  Case in point, here's what happened the first day we didn't have your help...

Us in a boat
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We went to Clark/Angeles City.  We knew we had to go to Clark, because that's where our super-cheap flight to Singapore was out of, and it was just a short bus ride north of Manila.  So we decided to spend an evening there, knowing only that the airport was an old US Air Force base, recently converted.  It turned out to be a seedy city where we had to visit 4 hotels before we found one that would take us for a whole night, and not just 3 hours at a time (if you know what we mean).  Needless to say the nightlife was interesting, and we spent the evening locked up in our room watching cable TV.  The airport was questionable as well: the jeepney drops people off a 10 minute walk from the terminal, then they kept the doors closed (and all the passengers outside) until exactly 3 hours before the flight - one of only 2 flights for the afternoon.  Despite this we made it out of the country, and are getting closer to being able to laugh about situations like this.