2 emmertjes water halen...

Voor het drinkwater. Ongeveer 1x per week. Meter of 200 hier vandaan. 12 Pesos per 6liter-fles, zeg maar 20 cent. Wederom ook weer goed voor mijn conditie. Het pad hiernaartoe is niet alles maar alla. Ondertussen is zoals al gezegd de waterleiding aangesloten en we hebben de kraan met tape zodanig kunnen repareren dat ie blijft zitten. Nou hoeft dat ook maar een paar uur per dag (of helemaal niet) want qua water- em stroomvoorziening kun je je hier in Gambia wanen. Echte Nawec-levering kwaliteit. Dus was ons verzocht om - mochten we 's avonds water hebben - om dan zelf die ton bij de deur weer te vullen. Het komt dus voor dat ik het ene uur die ton aan het vullen ben en het volgende uur weer aan het leeghalen omdat de waterlevering weer stokt. Of vice versa. Julieta moest even de foto's maken: "you are crazy". yes ;-)  De beheerder en zijn vrouw zaten net te lunchen met de bouwvakkers dus even uitgelegd waarom en dat we hier een oud kinderliedje hebben.
Maar ik heb in ieder geval liever dat het water stokt dan de electriciteit want dan kan de ventilator niet aan. Da's echt om het af te pikken. Dat duurde eergisteren de hele morgen.

Op de 1e foto kun je helemaal links in de kantlijn - naast het dak -  nog net een stukje zee zien. Kun je zien dat we hier dus al redelijk op hoogte zitten. Gisteren vergeten om vuilniszakken te halen dus ik wilde dat bij het vallen van de avond nog gauw even doen, hadden we toch een schitterende zonsondergang! Maar kon niet meer op tijd bij een goeie plek komen om foto's te maken. Dus voortaan even opletten wanneer er weer zoiets is. Ben ook al 's ochtends vroeg Mount Tapias op gegaan voor de zonsopkomst, maar ook net te laat. Was ook heel mooi, daar komen vast nog eens foto' s van.

Nee, da's niet onze kat, er lopen er hier tig rond. Maar eten wat je weggooit, wordt in een bak buitengezet, en die staat nou achter die deksel.  De beheerster komt die iedere paar dagen legen, maar daarom ligt die kat hier.

Hebben ze vast niet van Amsterdam afgekeken, ik denk eerder andersom.

I get questions about our exact location. So I have tracked it on google earth.  Go to google earth and search for Coron. Following are 4 pictures from overall to zoomed in.

So, should somebody want to visit us, you can find us now. You' re welcome.  Could be a little tricky to get here... :-)

entrance opposite Motolite.

Rum-coke

I never bought any coke (Coca Cola) in Holland, except when I needed to clean the toilet. It's working very well for that! But here the most common drink is rum-coke. OK, I try to join the way of life here. And because it is warm, you want to drink a lot and then rum-coke is not to bad. (depending on the mixture)
So for example, when we were at the beach in Gamut, the mixture was 50-50 because of the cold weather. It's amazing that you do not feel the cold after 2 glasses anymore. This should be on the medicine list. ( well, to be honest, I have a lot of trouble with my throat because of the fine dust and then rum works also perfectly well).
Where was I? Oh, yes, in Coron. On the island. Where everything what they do not grow themselves, has to be brought by boat from Manila. That's thus everything except fish! I didn't see a single farmer here. And something like 'logistics' hasn't reached the Philippines yet. The same as in India. Where for years, at the festival-days (for example Holi and Diwali), all atm's are empty because everyone needs money, but they still not understand at the banks that they need to fill up the atm's more frequently. So here in Coron, after december, where everybody drinks a lot of rum-coke, the coke has (nearly) run out now for already more than a week. (and nobody at Coca-Cola - stupid firm - is anticipating on that). In the tourist part of town there is NO single shop which has a bottle of coke anymore. Stubborn as I am, I then keep walking into the rural parts of the town, and I managed to find some 'forgotten' shops there with still some bottles of Pepsi. But in a few days we will be forced to go mix it with Miranda. (called 'ranja' in Dutch) But that's ranja with bubbles. Life is hard and then you die, a friend (Erik) of me used to say. ;-)

Mount Tapias

Coron ligt aan de voet van Mount Tapias. Die berg op de achtergrond.

Uiteraard kun je die berg beklimmen, er is een trap gemaakt met best forse treden. Dat zijn er echter wel meer dan 700, dus een goeie conditie-training. Vooral als je boven bent en de batterij van je camera blijkt net leeg te zijn. Dus 2 dagen later nog maar eens naar boven. Met de broer van Julieta.

De weg erheen is op zich al knap steil, dus dat doen we met de tricycle anders zijn we al moe voor we beginnen. Op de eerste 2 foto's is goed te zien dat het knap hard omhoog gaat, en aan de achtergrond zie je dat we al aardig hoog zitten. Nou, op naar die 700 treden. Met views op diverse hoogten. Om de zoveel treden zijn er rustbanken geplaatst en dat is ook wel nodig. Maar het uitzicht is dan ook de moeite. Ik denk dat ik om de paar dagen maar eens een keertje omhoog ga, heerlijk rustig daar.

En ja, daar staat een huis midden in het water. En nee, daar kun je niet naartoe lopen, das knap diep werd mij verteld.

Zo, we zijn al over de helft.

We zijn er bijna, nog een stuk of honderdzoveel...

Die zandplaat daar beneden. Links is de Public Market. En al die boten er omheen zijn voor de toeristische uitstapjes. Er zijn tig excursies, en het is hier een waar duikparadijs. Waar ze in Engeland om de 5 huizen een kroeg hebben, hebben ze hier om de 5 huizen een duikschool.

Terug ging uiteraard een stuk gemakkelijker. En dan nog even een totaalplaatje:

Oja, heel de dag geen waterdruk gehad. Dat werd vanavond aangezet. 3 seconden later plopt de kraan van de muur. Heb ik morgen weer wat te doen.

Vandaag kwamen ze het water aansluiten

Ze zouden in januari het water komen aansluiten. Dat bleek vandaag te zijn zonder voorafgaande waarschuwing. De kwaliteit van alles hier kan concurreren met de Gambiaanse kwaliteit. Ik had de baas al eens laten weten dat ik de kraan in de 'badkamer' zo van de muur kon pakken. Dat heeft ie toen gerepareerd met dezelfde kwaliteit. Dus vanmiddag om half 4 hoorde ik ineens geklater in de badkamer. Uiteraard was de kraan eruit gevlogen. Dus rap naar buiten om de baas het water weer af te laten sluiten. Boel gedoe. Nee dat konden ze niet repareren. Voorgestelde oplossing, de ton van buiten naar binnen, slang van een meter kopen en aansluiten ipv de kraan, en dan zelf achteraan buiten de hoofdkraan opendraaien als we de ton vol willen laten lopen. Nouuu, dacht het niet. Nog wat heen en weer gepraat, komt ie met een nieuwe kraan, zelfde diameter, dus dat schiet op, en een rol van dat band wat loodgieters altijd om de schroefdraad draaien. Afijn, die rol er half opgerold, had ik gelukkig net vandaag een tubetje lijm gekocht, dus hup, boel lijm erop, en de kraan weer in de slang geduwd. Klemde redelijk, maar die 'kan alles lijmen' lijm, daar had ik toch niet zo'n vertrouwen in. Dus het dorp weer in op zoek naar 3-secondenlijm. Die moet je dus eerst open prikken, en dat lukte niet zo geweldig dus ik duw wat harder...En toen spoot het eruit. 8 vingers onder de lijm en moest de tube er al afwringen. Ben een halfuur mijn vingers aan het schoonschrapen geweest aan de muur. Gelukkig ruwe muur hier. Afijn, de waterdruk is niet echt geweldig. Als er al water is, want dat is ook nogal eens niet het geval hoorden we, dus die ton bij de voordeur blijft. En de kraan blijft wonderwel zitten tot nog toe.

Filippijnen, 2019-2020

I met Julieta on facebook. I told her I would come in February and then for a long time. But when I was with my brother Wim in The Gambia in November, her mother died and her father got very sick. I tried to hurry and arrived on December 7 in Manila but her father died just 1 day before also. There was some confusion about where she would be. She had told me that she would bring her father to family, but while she was living in Coron, she told me only later that her family was somewhere on Mindanao. Not quite the safest place on earth. Travel advice from the government: don't go there. Also she had said she would not have any signal overthere. Yep, I noticed when I finally got there, no internet,  even no telephone connections with the world outside the village.

Manila

Not knowing where to go, or how long to stay, it is difficult to find rooms this month because near Christmas nearly every hotel will be full booked. So I moved from one hotel to another, waiting until I would here from Julieta.
Because of the difference in time - 8 hours with the Gambia - trying to get a direct communication with her when I was still there, was very difficult. I never knew when she would be online, because she needed to go somewhere to get connection. So I would wake up in the morning to see she had posted messages. And asking questions then could take up to 3 days before I got an answer. I managed to get the village name of her family: Gamut near Barobo. But impossible for me to get there without her.
I got only 1 message from her on my day of arrival that her father just had died and that she was very busy and sad, and worrying about the funeral. So, I was waiting and waiting and when finally a niece of her posted pictures of the funeral, I immediately booked a trip to Davao, the capital of Mindanao, supposing she would be there. Sending also messages to 3 people who posted comments in the hope they would deliver the message to Julieta that I was there. (no response)

Davao

As I posted on facebook, I was here only 2 hours and then an earthquake happened. The hotel was quite shaking. I got out of the room, saw some other foreigner, and he explained this happened more times here so nothing to worry about. The man was a building constructor from Australia, coming many times here, so he knew what he was talking about. He showed me the way to a nice bar/restaurant, where we sat for some hours. He was coming here every year long time, nothing unsafe according to him. The next day I started to look around, did some shopping. Everything is here cheaper than in Manila. Got massage for only 100 Pesos, in Manila 300. Rum 44 Pesos, in Manila 65, etc.. Everywhere here - called Garcia Heights - there are small 'eatery's'. I stopped at 1. Looking inside, seeing they had coffee sachets, I asked for coffee. The girl didn't mention anything about still being closed but made me coffee. 15 Pesos. Had a nice chat, so I returned the next day, meeting the owner. The girl was now working at the computershop, he told me. No, no coffee yet, they would open at 1 o'clock. But we kept talking, he shove the door some more up, we sat down, and 5 minutes later we drank coffee. ;-) Nice people here. Mindanao produces also its own coffee, he was very proud of that so I got to taste it. Quite good. Of course I returned in the evening to eat here.

And some pictures of the surroundings, and the sidestreets.

Then the next day I was finally lucky, Julieta came online at a moment I was online too, so I called her immediately to say that I was here. She arranged a car to come pick me up the next day. I sent a map how to get here. To difficult: "we pick you up at the mall". OK, so I was waiting at the mall and they went to the hotel... After 15 minutes of miscommunication we found eachother finally. We were both very happy to meet finally. After 6 hours they of course would like to have some food:

The way to Gamut turned out to be a ride of 6 hours by car. Many police-stops along the road. A way throught the mountains, as the song says: a long and winding road. Especially the last part. From Barobo to Gamut. A gravel road, in the dark, up, down, left, right, no 100m straight nor flat. And up and down regularly 25%! In the dark it seemed quite a long and endless road. We ended up in a village near the coast, really in the middle of nowhere. Also no traffic there and no street lights. All houses of - mostly unpainted - wood.

Gamut

motorbike with roof (needed here)

And because it is Christmas, several groups of children going around singing Christmas carols:

So, here I am. Just like back then in India I get a lot of attention. And of course by now everybody of the family knows that I am here. So I am invited everywhere for coffee aka rum-cola. The local habit is: you buy a bottle of rum and a bottle of cola and you put them on the table so everybody can join. Several times when I was walking back alone from her house to her aunt, I got invited by people to join them for a drink. Very nice people everywhere.

View from our frontdoor

And then: no traffic, only some motorbikes being the 'taxis' here, so only walking people in the streets and many people asking her who I am and after the explanation, the next question was often if there was going to come a baby. ;-)
We are sleeping in the house of an aunt, while another aunt has a shop in the 'centre' of the village. Shop as 2:3m. But its a nice house, just 1,5-2 meters uphill, thus a nice view from the porch. Nice place to sit.

Really quiet and very peaceful here. (and wet at the moment, typhoon season thus much rain). It's a small village, if you walk say 200m in every direction from the centre, that's about it. And as on Palawan: green, green, green, everywhere you look. Julieta has now with her sister a house on the edge of the village. Actually just outside it. "My house is very ugly, I am very poor". Who cares, I like to be here. They have coffee, the family is very friendly and nice surroundings:

And the view from the house

So, after 2 days of visiting family they wanted to go to the beach. with the same weather as back in El Nido at my boattrip. ;-) Food with us, and a lot of rum-cola, and to keep warm mixing it 50-50. It was warmer to stay in see then to get out of it. Forgot to take my camera so a nephew (14) took me back on the motorbike. I got of and went inside to take my camera and all my raincoats and 2 towels and when I got back outside, no motorbike. They forgot to tell him to wait. So he did the trip 3 times. ;-) I have marvellous pictures of Julieta in bikini but she does not want them to be published. ;-)

Yes, somewhat stupid to give her today my tablet, now all pictures are removed ;-)

I have no idea what's that thing on my head. :-)

 
   

Next day we went to 'swim' in the 'river' near Julieta's house. It was a little crowded at that time, I suppose the pictures say it all...:

December 22. Well, time to get back to Coron. But I will sure miss Gamut and the family. There is 1 brother which needs to go back to Manila and 1 sister with baby also going back to Coron. All going by airplane is impossible because the son of Julieta(5) is not registered. So next day we brought brother and sister with baby and Julieta's son to Barobo, to go back by boat. The 2 of us would go by airplane. I needed to come with them to Barobo because I could not get money in Gamut. and then a sister and a niece also wanted to come. And that all on 2 motorbikes. I knew that would go wrong but useless to start a discussion because they always do it like this. Thus same like in Thailand: nearly everybody has some marks on his/her leg caused by a motorbike-accident. Well, I did not have to wait to long. 200m out of the village and we ended up on the floor (raw gravel, you remember?). To our luck there was some kind of roadside, otherwise we would have ended up much lower and worse. Nobody hurt except me. Left wrist and leg bruised. That is going to take monthes again, grrr. So, niece back to home and 'only' Julieta, son and me as passengers on our bike.
Next day in the evening, we got the message of her sister that they were stranded in Manila. Because of the coming typhoon, there was no boat going to Coron before the 29th. The 2 of us went on dec 23 to Davao, I had paid the hotel until the 24th, so no problem finding a room. I had told the staff that I would be away some time, but that I would come back. And on Dec 24 we flew to Coron. Just in time! They started to cancel flights, and the pilot had big problems landing at Coron. Strong sidewind, the plane went from left to right and back and he touched the ground late. Had to brake very hard and when we stood still, he had only 50m left of the runway.

Coron

I had booked a hotelroom for 6 nights. In that timeframe we had to decide how and where to stay. After 2 nights she decided to go find an appartment and only 2 hours later had found one. Quite in the centre here, I think only 200m from the hotel. So for me everything is at walking distance. We went there, agreed about the price - 8000 Pesos/month - and immediately went shopping. We could already sleep there the same day. We got the typhoon, but not much trouble here, only a lot of rain. Then on 28 in the evening finally the family arrived. They wanted to go home, but no more car available. So they arranged another family member to bring them home on the motorbike. For a ride which is 1,5 hours by car... But ok, the journey is finally over. Celebrating NewYear today here. Happy NewYear everybody.

Salvacion and The Black Island.

At this point I had planned to publish the story next day after adding the pictures. We would go on January 2 to her sister in Salvacion. ( here they pronounce the 'v' as a 'b' so it's Salbation as also Dabao instead of Davao). But on the first in the afternoon her sister called that we should come today already for she wanted to go the next day to the 'Black Island'. See map (very difficult to find detailed maps of Coron).

So the story is a few days delayed but you get much more pictures.
Salvacion is very small. Only a few streets.

Her sister and husband own a boat. So we did shopping to make food for everybody and the next day we went to the Black Island. It is VERY VERY beautiful, I am happy they took me there. I have the idea that not all islands are on the map, but the boatride was very nice. My camera is not making good pictures of distance, so I cannot let you enjoy the views from the boat, to bad. Of course they forgot to tell me (as in El Nido) that I could not just step into the boat. I Have no pictures of it, but had to walk about 200 m through the water of a river to get onto the boat.

Getting the boat to sea

   

Julieta's son

arriving at the Black Island:

I have a video of the boatride but is just to big to put here.

Time for a few family pictures.

 There is also a cave on the island with pools.

first climbing the wall

and then from there, jumping into the pool. big fun.

Some fun at the family table.

   

and this one for the view.

Also found: 1 mermaid.

And some pictures from behind this rock:

And then it was time to go back.