Dec 23rd
We headed off to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress a UNESCO world heritage site.
Our guide told us that this was the rock fortress - I am not so sure!

Headed off - not exactly travel to- as our guide did not either know exactly where is was so we ended spending a lot of time taking false leads to the site in question. When asked how long it was going to take or other pertinent questions the answer was " Let me think about that" invariable with no firm answer after his time of contemplation. Funny but annoying. After finally getting the correct road to the site we were stunned to find it was going to cost $150 US for us to see a bunch of old rocks! I have to say I have done a lot of traveling and I was shocked to hear of these prices. Even Norman who has traveled the world was stunned and amazed. This is when we finally cornered our tour guide and had him tell us the prices of all the sites on the itinerary. Well it turns out that most things in Sri Lanka cost about $100 to $200 for a group of 5 people! Again not to bore you but, I have traveled a lot in the Philippines etc. and never have I been asked to stump us so much for a tourist site. Heck most things in the UAE and Oman are free to visit or at very low prices. Well we had to do a major re-think on the trip based on this new information. I have to say that tour guide did show us some of the Sigiriya Rock Fortress for free and I have to say I would have been quite upset if I had paid $150 to see it.

The tour guide did take us on a free visit to a herb and spice garden and factory. It was an OK tour but the best part was we were given "free" messages with the herbal remedies that the spice garden makes. After which we were take to the sales room. I guess the fumes of the massage oils had done their magic because our free tour ended up costing us $80 in products!

Spice Garde work space

OK sorry about all the bitching but once we had established some ground rules the trip took a dramatic turn for the good and has been very nice since then and mostly free or inexpensive.
The hotel we stayed at in Sigiriya was nice and had a fantastic view of the rice field adjacent from it. The kids and I hit the pool after our day of travel and I have to say it was a very nice pool. Again the view from the pool was very stunning beyond the rice fields you see the forest and the mountains raising out of them. At night the kids were visited by the two bunnies that live on the hotel grounds.


The next morning the restaurant was visited by the giant squirrel of Sri Lanka which turned out to be quite tame. I had the chance to give it some bread and then the animal climbed up my arm and on to my shoulder. Not happy with just the bread the squirrel decided to give me a look over licking my face to get any left over crumbs. At one point the squirrel was trying to clean my teeth of leftovers!

Our favorite sign in the enitre ciountry! Thanks to the Hotel Sanda Diya - Sigiriya!

The customer is always wrong!

I do not know if this is just an issue with the UAE or is endemic of the Arab and Indian customer service experience. As the people I deal with are not Emirati, I believe that this is endemic of the Arab and Indian regions. My alternative explanation of this is that they must think that I am touched in the head and are treating me appropriately. Every time I talk to someone about an issue that needs resolving they treat me like a village idiot! I would say that this is just me but they treat my lovely wife the same way, and every foreigner I have talked to in the UAE has said they are treated this way as well. Sadly, it usually turns into a shouting matter for many westerners. I am not beyond that on occasions but usually I just go right for the supervisor and that USUALLY helps – as we see in the story below not always…

I bought a Nissan Xterra and in the sales brochure there is a page dedicated to the various ways that you can use the cargo area including the Utili-Track™ | Nissan .  As none of the tie down points mentioned in the sales brochure were installed in my truck I decided to ask about it at the dealer!!!  Now you have to understand that each department can be miles away in the UAE. The service department it is out of town in the industrial district, while parts are across town in the same district and sales are in town at the fancy show room in the mall.

I first asked about the parts at the service department while I was dropping my truck off. They had no idea what I was talking about. I mentioned that it was in the sales brochure, and they gave me a quizzical look and said I was surely mistakes as the only items they had for sale were listed on the card.

Then I went to the sales department and picked up a copy of the sales brochure and asked where might I find these items (as I could not find them at the service department) , they assured me that they would be available at the parts department.

At the parts department they flatly denied such a part existed before they even looked on the computer! HA HA ! IBUT I was prepared. I quickly pointed to the page in sales brochure that showed the items in question! “Utili-track® Cargo Channel System with 4 adjustable cleats and 4 Ceiling hooks and 2 side hooks. “ They still look at me and say no! So I ask to speak to the supervisor. The assistant-parts manager tells me flat out that these parts do not exist- again without looking on the computer. Then I asked to speak to his boss the parts department sales manager again tells me these parts do not exist without even looking on the computer!



Then the parts manager asks me why I am being so aggressive! I, for the umpteenth time point to the sales brochure and ask “Is this the sales brochure for the Nissan Xterra?”They agree it indeed is. Next, “Is this the sales brochure that was given to me by your company?” They look at it and again agree! So then the sales manager tries to give me an English language lesson! “It says possibilities; it does not mean that we have it.”  I point out that “it says you ‘…will have endless possibilities’ predicating that you have the part!” Now we finally go to the computer to actually look for the part in question, which by the way should have been installed as a standard component as part of my package! (That will be my battle call on Sunday) After looking the parts manager points at a part and asks me if this is what I am looking for!



“Eh I do not work for Nissan but it does look like the part to me.”



 “Ok, take the parts salesman out to your car and show him where it fits into it”



I want to scream “DUDE! I do not work for Nissan you figure it out!” But instead the parts man and I walk out to my car and take a look. He is as bemused as me as to where this part might go!



David “If you cannot figure this out I need to Speak to the sales manager as I need to understand why this brochure was given to me!”



Parts Man “He is right in there”



David “Please show me where he is”



Parts Man “I cannot go in there”



David “You do work for Nissan and this is the Nissan sales manager! You can take me to his office!”



Reluctantly the parts man takes me near the office and slinks away! While sitting with the receptionist all I can do is mumble “Why did I spend $40,000 for a truck that I cannot use!” and “It is in the sales brochure; why are they asking me to find it!”



After 5 minutes the sales manager greets me and assures me he has spoken to the parts manager and all will be fine! And he will even give me the best discount on the parts!



Back to the parts department! And instead of having found the parts on their own we play a game of Blues Clues to find the part numbers for the items in question. After about 2 hours from walking in the door, I am assured they know the part numbers and 6 of the 10 parts needed will be in tomorrow.



I went to pick up the parts yesterday and two of them were correct. Again they ask me where they are supposed to go in my truck! We go out and look at my truck and none of us are sure. David “You do work for Nissan, right? You can figure this out, right?”



Manager “The service department will know how to install them.”



( I wait in fear for this conversation with the service department!)



But sadly the other 4 parts were VERY wrong! They were cheap plastic rings!



Sales manager “Are you sure these are not correct?”



Out with the sales brochure pointing to the picture with a rope around the hook in question “Would you put a rope around a thin plastic ring like this?”



Back to the computer and playing Blue’s Clues. Then it hits me, Utili-Track™, that menas these are registered trademark parts only made by Nissan. Still no luck finding said trademarked parts!



In the end the parts manager recommended that I try at some of the 4x4 shops. After searching through 5 shops, it turns out that even they do not have an after-market part for the truck.



I am going to ask in my 4x4 group today when we go out. Sadly that means that my gear will not be that well tied down when we go out! But the good news is that we drop off most of our gear before we do the real challenging 4x4ing. I just hope that I can ty down what we have well enough and that none of the gear goes flying before we get to the drop off point.

 

Sri Lanka – 1st day Sigiriya

Sigiriya

Dec 21st - Dec 22nd

After dropping off the dog and cat to an Australian family we hopped a taxi to the airport.

Athaga Samadhi Buddha

The vacation started to get pretty rough, but has made a dramatic turn around. Our flight was at 9:40 pm and that is not a bad time to fly if you are going for a long flight like back to the states but it really is a drag when you are only traveling for 4 hours. A strange thing is the time zone is 1 and 1/2 hours different from the UAE. I thought that was interesting to have a 1/2 hour time zone.

Athaga Samadhi Buddha

In all my travels I had never experienced that before. Well we ended up getting into the hotel at 6 am and we were set to travel at 9 am that morning. Yeah! We caught a few hours sleep on the flight a few more in the hotel but did most of our sleeping in the ride up to Sigiriya.

As you can see from above our first stop was at Athaga Samadhi Buddha

 We decided after a 5 hour drive to take a pass on most of the schedule for the day as we were staying two nights in Sigiriya. We did take in an Elephant ride and that is where we came face to face with the true cost of the trip!

 The elephant ride ended up costing us $100 for the 5 of us- this was the picture that we used for our Christmas greeting. The ride seemed a bit expensive to me but Norman assured me this was a standard price he paid in Nepal, Thailand, etc. When we got back from the trip we took some photos in front of the elephant and as we were leaving the mahout - elephant trainer- turned and demanded a tip from Norman. I that it was pretty rude to DEMAND a tip after paying $100 US for the ride but then I was stunned when I heard from Norman that the mahout REFUSED his tip of 100 Sri Lankan Rupees and DEMANDED more of a tip!

 I know 100 Sri Lankan Rupees is not much but after you coughed up $100 US for a 45 minute trip it seems fair. In the end Norman had to give the mahout a 1,000 Rupees (about $10 US and way more than I would ever tip such a surly person who was far from nice to us or the elephant in question). The part that stunned me the most was when I mentioned in dismay the tip amount to our tour guide and he casually said "That's no problem." When I mentioned it was a problem for me that the mahout was so mercenary (well not in those words) the tour guide responds "That is no problem." I guess he did not understand me when I said it was a problem!

Mark’s Eulogy

Of all the times that make up a life I think that the time Mark’s family and mine spent in cabins on a lake was the most telling of who mark Rumptz was as an individual.

It was a time a time of simple pleasure. We did not force the issue we just were brothers. There never was an awkward moment , we just did what was natural. We fished, ate, drank and sat around the fire. We talked but not unnecessarily so, we just were.

Mark was like that lake, stubborn and determined to preserver no matter what hardships he might come his way.

Mark was like that lake. It was a hidden lake , and though he did not let many in once in he held on tenaciously doing all he could to help, with out ever asking for a return. He was like a hidden cover that protects you from a storm.

Mark was like that lake natural. Not pompous , though he might have a right to be. Not overtly bookish, thought he certainly was well read. No with Mark he was natural and honest not needing to be anything but who and what he was .

Ironically we were to return to those cabins by that lake this summer. And though we may retune it will never be the same without Mark.

Long over due Update

I am in the last week of my 2 week semester break. I have been playing a lot of golf but have been taking care of the business as well. As you may or may not know we bought a 4th place in Warren MI. Well the condo above ours had not been winterized and the radiator burst which lead to the ceiling/ floor collapsing and completely destroying our condo causing $16,000 worth of damage. Dean Elliot our lawyer is trying to get some money from the responsible parties but he does not think it likely. Dean is a great help for our business. Also we had to evict another tenant so this business is slow going right now. It has a lot of potential it is just getting it up to that potential.

I do not know how it came to be that they had decided not to close my department. All I know for certain was that up until January 11th the department was supposed to close and then after that they decided that not only are they not going to close the department but that they were going to hire 30 to 40 new teachers!! Granted I have not gotten an official notice that my contract will be renewed but if I do not hear anything by the end of February then I am in for the long haul. I figure that I will have about another 10 years before they will actually close the department. You see my wife is part of the 1,500 native English speaking teachers that they have hired to teach in the public schools. So when these kids do reach the University level there should be no need for my department.

I am on the “men’s” campus now and what a change it is, not good. It is good in that there is a lot more camaraderie with my colleagues at work and they are always ready with a good joke and a big laugh. But the boys are very difficult to teach. I get frustrated when I spend hours preparing a lesson and having it fall flat as the boys could not be bothered to do the work. They just want to copy off their friends. And quizzes are a total joke. Next semester I am going to be good about following the rules and they can hate me.

We have had the shortest winter since we have gotten here. It is already up to 85 with mornings only getting down to 60. It is usually 55 in the mornings until early February with day time temps up to 75. BUT we did have a couple of days where it rained all day long!!! I have never seen it rain all day long here in Al Ain. They say have this $11 million US Dollar weather modification program going on and this caused the rain but who can be sure.

Ashley is having a bit of a hard time with the transient nature of the Ex-Pat life. She was in tears yesterday because one of her friends had said she was moving to Qatar (this turned out to be untrue). But I helped her get thought it as best as I could; pointing out that she has several friends who will not be moving and she is good friends with them as well. Besides that she is in an after school program 2 days a week they do a bit of school work but also do some fun things as well like yoga. She enjoys it and I think it is helping her gain confidence in her intellect. She has a bit of a low opinion of her intelligence; I think this is due to her brother being a bit too hard on her. Andrew acts like she should be able to do the things he does and can be quite harsh to her. So I am happy she is enjoying her after school program. Also she has started taking piano and is happy with it for the most part. We have just started her doing 15 minutes of piano practice each day. She is very good about this and it is already showing its worth.

Andrew is gone. He got the xbox 360 live and now he lives in his room with MY xbox! Seriously he spends at least an hour 9supposed to be at most) on xbox live every day. On the weekends he just stays on live all day long. But he is doing alright at school. I would like to see his grades improve and he has brought home some good tests grades so I hope next terms grades are better. We are going to send Andrew to live with my mom after he finishes school next year. I figure it will be good for him to acclimate to the USA before he goes there for undergraduate school (he wants to be a DR). Also he will be able to get in-state tuition.  I would like him to go to a community college for a year or two before he goes on to a state school.

Tita is in and out of love of her job. She had been really enjoying her work up until recently but things have changed and they are being a bit more demanding at work so she is not really happy with them. Granted she is a very hard working teacher who is constantly working on lessons. I admire her work ethic and her drive to be a good teacher. I know I try to do some of it but it is a bit too much for me, as my students are a lot more difficult to work with. Anyway the good news is she will have a nice long vacation in the summer and she is going to ask to be transferred to a school close to our hose next year. Right now Tita has to drive 45 minutes to get to work in the morning. It is a long drive and I think that adds to the stress of her job.  Well I talked one of the people in the main office about it and he said it should be no problem to have her transfer to a closer school.

Bohol Trip

Bohol Trip

First the bad news, Tita has gotten the news that she is supposed to return to the UAE for work on 19 August 2010!!! The good news is she has a job that pays almost as much as mine and that is great news as I will most likely follow in her footsteps next year when my job at the University expires.

Day 1
This change in departure dates prompted us to hope on the next boat to Bohol as we wanted to see it before we left. We hopped the fast boat (truly a fast boat not like the one over to Camotes) and landed in Tagbilaran the capitol city of Bohol at 2:30 pm on Friday. We decided to take a trike for the journey over to Panglao Island. Panglao is promoted as having the best white sand beaches in the area and is also well known for its wonderful diving spots. A trike is just a 125 motorcycle with a huge side car on it so it really does not travel that fast and it belches a lot of exhaust. Anyway we made it over to the Alona beach, which is supposed to be one of the best beaches and started looking for a hotel as we had not made reservations. 30 minutes later we found a nice place that was close to the beach at a reasonable rate. 

After settling in we headed down to the beach for a late lunch / early dinner. The beach itself was pretty overrun with resorts and restaurants creeping up to the beach front. We ordered dinner and waited, and waited and waited. It turns out that on Bohol they make your food as you order it. This is supposed to mean that each dish you order is freshly prepared, not like in the west where food is prepared and sits waiting for you. I personally could not tell the difference, but it did give me time to drink a few before the food arrived and it did give the kids a chance to play on the beach.

Day 2 Island Tour
We got a great tour guide to take us to all the sites on the islands and he even took us to some of the places that are not on the one day tour.

Blood Compact

This spot was a required stop on the tour but I would have given it a miss if I had a choice. It is the site of a monument to the friendship between the local chief and the 5th Spanish expedition to the Philippines on May 10, 1565. One thing I found interesting was how most of the Filipinos were hostile to the Spanish explorers of that time. Read more if you like at http://www.bohol-philippines.com/blood-compact-site.html

Baclayon Church and Museum

“The Baclayon Church is the second oldest stone church in the Philippines. Constructed in 1595 by the Jesuit priests, it is still intact and houses important relics and images reminiscent of the historic Roman Catholic religion in the country. Among those displayed in the church museum are: crystal chandelier, silver tabernacle, altar with carvings inlaid with gold, life-size statues and more.“ http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/baclayon.html

I really did not enjoy the museum that much as you could not take photos and the first part of the museum was filled with old stuff like typewriters, cameras, etc. that were not a part of church tradition. As far as the rest it was nice to see the old religious items but I am not a big museum goer and nether is the rest of the family. The church was nice and I even made the kids pray.

Prony Python Park

Now this part of our tour was on the off beaten path and was one of the cool things that we did. I liked it for several reasons first there were not tons of other tourists there. Second they let you go in the cage and hang out with the animals. I am sure PETA would say something about it but I had a blast and most of the animals seemed fine with us visiting. I have to say it was hard to imagine that 550 pound snake (250 KG) moving around but I am sure when it is hungry it strikes. The owners said that in the wild it would take 40 years for the snake to get this large but as they feed it a lot it got bigger fast. 

As you can see they had a monkey that enjoyed playing with us as well.

Philippine Tarsier

“The Philippine Tarsier is a tiny animal; it measures only about 85 to 160 millimetres (3.35 to 6.30 in) in height, making it one of the smallest primates.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Tarsier

These things are cute beyond words and they are plentiful in Bohol. On the third day Andrew got to feed one of them.

Manmade Forest

I guess this was a reforestation project of the local mayor or something about 20-30 years ago. He got the students in the area to replant the barren hills with mahogany trees. My question is will they harvest this wood?

Loboc River Cruise

We were all but forced to do this part of the cruise and in theory you take the large floating dining area boat up to the waterfalls. In reality the waterfalls are about 3 feet high. We did the “supreme” dining boat, the food was not that good but you had a lot of space so were not crowed like the other boats and the music was actually good.

Chocolate Hills

"The Chocolate Hills are cone-shaped hills made of grass-covered limestone. During the dry season the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of "chocolate kisses".  The Chocolate Hills are made by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater and their erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills#Description

The walk up to the observation deck was 214 steeps I thought I was going to lose Tita on the journey up!! The driver we had tried to get us out of paying for our visit to the observation deck as he thought it was a rip off. He drove up and we got out of the car and then he drove away before they could charge us entrance- for some reason they followed him instead of us. We almost got away with his plan but Andrew and I had gone to the bathroom so when he came back he had to wait and we got busted!!! No big deal.

We also found this huge roach err I mean beetle hanging on a trash can. After a few snaps some Chinese kids started playing with him aggressively. After they took off for a bit I picked him up and set him free, that was freaky having this huge beetle crawling on me.

Simply Butterflies

I have to say that educationally this was the best place I have been. They have a real well trained staff that is knowledgeable about butterflies and moths. They have an active breeding program and release some of the butterflies into the wild. They even sell live butterflies for release at weddings. All in all it was a wonderful educational experience.

We found out that most butterflies feed in the morning so they were pretty inactive when we went to see them in the afternoon. But the best butterfly enclosure we went was in Palawan Philippines in 2006 as the number of butterflies in the enclosure was the highest and we happened to visit in the morning so the butterflies were quite active.

Hanging Bridge

This was nice walk above the river. The bridge’s main suspension cables were steel nut the walkway was made out of bamboo. It was kind of creaky at several spots. And then we had a bus load of Korean Students show up. We got across the river before they got on and waited until most had gone back before we went back but we were on the bridge with a few of them and they were kind enough to take a picture of the whole family!

Hilltop Cottages

The walk up from the entrance to the cottages is 105 steps and let me tell you we made the journey a few too many times in the night that we stayed there. Why? Well the pool is at the bottom of the resort. And the kids love to swim so we made the journey several times.

Day 3
Bohol Horse Ridding

I had to take the whole family out for a horse ride.

The horses were very tame and the kids and Tita had a guide for their horses. As I had ridden before I was a lone just man and his trusty stead. OK jokes aside the horse knew what it was doing and needed only a few reminders of the path.

Bohol Loboc Eco-Adventure

“The zip line which is the second to Loboc Eco-Adventure Tour crosses a 520-meter distance, giving tourists a perfect bird's eye view of the river and its river banks. The Busay falls at the upper end of the famous Loboc River Cruise is captured with a full overview when one takes the zipline or the cable car. The cable car traverses a distance of 420 meters. Both activities assure tourists of the best scenery at a height of between 100 to 120 meters over the river.”

The kids and I took the zip line over and the cable care back all in all a great ride. But not as nerve racking as I thought it would be.

The boat home

Return to Camiguin

Before the Return

We found DON!!! It turns out that part of my father’s remains (he was cremated) have been in residence here in Talisay, Cebu (at my wife’s house) since God knows when. I am not sure if we left hi here in 2008 when we last came to town or in 2006 shortly after his passing. The good news was I was able to bring him on the trip and scatter some of his remains on Camiguin and in the ocean.

Return to Camiguin

For a larger image go to http://www.piepenbrock.nl/camiguin.html

Well in a sense my whole “adult” life revolves around Camiguin as it was the places that I severed as a  Peace Corps volunteer (1995-97) and because of this placement in a Cebuano speaking area as a Water and Sanitation volunteer a certain Cristita (Tita) Labis was assigned to be the teacher of my group. As you know this lead to Tita teaching my group Cebuano for 4 hours a day, which led to my falling in love with her and after some time her falling in love with me. Andrew spent the first year of his life on Camiguin and I began to become an adult on Camiguin. BEGAN hardly finished becoming an adult, hope I never will.

In the two years that we ended up living on Camiguin we bought a small plot of land. I do not know what possessed me to buy the land I just knew at the time it was “cheap” and I had some money I “borrowed” off my credit card. In the end we have a lot of about 10,764 square feet (1/4 an acre) of land a bit uphill from the main road. Granted there is no access road to our land so it is not really a sellable lot. In my mind at the time I was going to buy land so that I could connect my lot to a road. I still have this plan in my mind. BUT I am also hopeful that one of the other lots that are locked in next to me will do the same thing and I will be saved the grief of dealing with all that paperwork. Who knows in 20 years it might happen.

Sleeping on the trip over- Boat ride took 11 hours!!

Originally I had bought the land with the idea that I would sell it when Andrew went to college. In that respect we planted some trees on the lot mostly mahogany and they are doing fine in cat they have stated giving off seeds themselves and are starting a second generation of mahogany trees.

So our trip down to Camiguin was to check on the land we bought 14 years ago. We had visited Camiguin in 2004 and the farmer who lived uphill from us had planted on my land so I had to rip out all the plants. Because of this we had a local friend plant the mahogany trees on the lot. We went back again in 2006 just to pay taxes on the land. In 2006 we spent some time with my host family in Camiguin; we went up to the Ardent Hot Springs with the kids for a dip in the pool. 

It was an eye opening experience it was to go back to Camiguin this weekend. The rate of change had accelerated rapidly and now it is on the crux of being a large scale tourist destination. The great thing is that because of its size and population there will always remain a Camiguin that is a real place, not just a tourist attraction. The island will be able to support the tourist and still have a vibrant local culture.

The second day of our trip we broke down and decided to do an island tour. This would be the first island tour we had done since I rented a motorcycle and took Tita on an island tour for her 30th birthday. 

Paras Beach Resort

Back in my Peace Corps days this was THE resort to stay at on island. When President Ramos visited Camiguin, he held his press conference at Paras beach Resort. Now it is just one of many fine resorts that have pools and beach front property. Also of note was the second year of my Peace Corps I rented a house just up the street from this resort. Like I had said before I was amazed how many really nice resorts have been established on island since we last visited in 2006.  Needles to say the kids and I spent a lot of time in the pool. 

CROSS MARKER AND SUNKEN CEMETERY

“Located in Bonbon, Catarman a huge cross marker has been installed by the Provincial government to mark the community cemetery that sunk during the 1871 volcanic holocaust. Years ago, gravestones were visible during low tide. “

This is just a tourist trap originally you could actually see the graves poking out from the ocean floor even in a mid level tide. I had heard that the real sunken cemetery had been covered the debris of a flood / landslide that had hit the island in 2005. I am not sure if this is true but on our way back from the next site the tide was pretty low and we still could not see any graves. 

CATARMAN CHURCH RUINS (GUI-OB CHURCH)

The eruption of the now “old” volcano on the Catarman side of Camiguin in 1871 burned this church that was built in 1697. The church was never rebuilt but now there is a small church erected inside of the old church.  The old church has been maintained if not rebuilt and the site offers a good view of the architecture that saw prevalent on the island at the time. If you look hard enough you can see several Spanish style homes still in existence, but they are very old and many of them are in poor repair. 

 BURA SODA WATER SWIMMING POOL: Bura, Catarman, Camiguin

I was a little skeptical of visiting this site as it is boasted as “The one and only in the country where you can swim to a pool of soda water.”   It was hard to say that the water we were swimming in was “soda” water but the massive pool was feed by a spring did bubble a few times. The kids had a blast in the water but I was a bit sunburned from our time at the pool at Paras Resort so I swam a bit and then hung out pool side. The pool is massive I would say it is about 300 feet but 100 feet. The great thing about the pool is that it is situated a bit up in the mountains so you get great scenery of the volcanic ranges that make up Camiguin.

KATIBAWASAN FALLS

After swimming a bit in the Soda Water we headed into town (Mambajao) to have lunch at the old pier. In the past this site was a pier directly into town now because of the changing tides and shallowness of the pier it has been turned into a park.  After lunch we headed up to the best part of our day tour the Katibawsan Falls. The best thing about this site is that it is just outside of town on a well graded road for most of the trip so it is pretty easy to get most of the way there. The problem is the last mile to the site this part is very steep and until recently it was unpaved as well. 

“The 250-feet majestic beauty cascades to a rock pool surrounded by ground orchids, wild ferns, trees and boulders. Its ice-cold waters provide an ideal summer splash to locals and tourists alike. Rock picnic tables, seats and cookout facilities are available for use. “

Ostrich Farm

After our splash in the falls we were off to the Ostrich Farm. This was a bit of a drag as the trip was pretty far (on the map it looked closer) and the animals were in pretty bad shape. They had taken to pulling out their feathers. The good thing about the trip though it was long it showed us some of the places where the local inhabitants of the island lived. The journey took us through wide open rice fields that offer great views of the volcanoes that make up Camiguin. 

MACAO COLD SPRING

It turns out that visiting this site on a Sunday is not such a good idea as this site is really a place for the locals to relax. It is not that we could not have gone but I felt we would have been intruding and I also worry we would not have been that welcomed to partake in the cool water. I also think I mixed it up with another site that I used to frequent as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I remember the cold spring that I used to go to was close to town (I am sure it was in Magting) while this site is in Mahinog. The cold springs of Camiguin live up to their names, they are quite frigid! Also another nice thing about the cold springs (there are many) of Camiguin is that they have a lovely blue tint to them from the minerals that the collect passing thought the underground rives of Camiguin.   Finally as I have mentioned most of the cold springs have not been developed for tourist and usually this means you get to swim in a pool that is sounded by centuries old trees drinking the waters of the pool, with few if any people bothering to stop at the pool. As I have learned this is only true during the week while students are at school and parents are at work.  

 

These two pictures are in the same place only 14 years apart in time!!

 

In Conclusion

There are so many other things that you can do on Camiguin that there would be a whole book devoted to the island. You could spend weeks if not years discovering the many fascinating natural beauty of the island. The island has changed much since we were there last; a number of high end resorts have sprung up where only a few had existed before; and although I am glad for the local economy it makes my visits to the island more expensive. Just think that 4 years ago I could rent a hut (a real local type) on the beach for $9 a day. Now I doubt you could find a local hut, more likely a beach villa with cable TV and AC with an expansive bathroom. I know this is what the tourists want but I miss the days of the simpler life on Camiguin. But who knows I am a good shopper and I bet if I spent some time looking I could find a true local place to hang out for days on end. One of these days we will need to return to Camiguin for some time to deal with our land and then we will need to hunt down this “local living” of Camiguin’s past.

Finally there are many more sites that are easily accessible that we did not go to because of time. I recommend that you search one of the various website devoted to tourism in Camiguin before you make plans to visit also I recommend you spend at least a week there. There are many activities that do not require physical fitness but there are many high adventure activities that you can do on the island and some of these require you to be in top physical condition (e.g. climbing one of the 5 volcanoes, riding your mountain bike from one side up and over to the other side of the mountain, etc.)