What a whirlwind in San Pablo! Firstly, I think I had gotten…I’m not sure “used to” is exactly the phrase, but maybe…for seeing the poverty and shacks and tarps, and also just the “usual” transport of tricycles, and mini mart roadside shops and roadside eateries and bakeries, at least to the point that I needn’t take pictures of more of the same, cemented as it seems in my brain. Then we landed in San Pablo and it was like being assailed again. But different. Sort of. It is a busy city and there was so much more cement, concrete (I know I should be an expert on the difference, sorry mom, I’m not) and traffic: Jeepneys and CARs and TRUCKS and Different tricycles (these were actually more side cars that for some reason made me think of shiny tin cans and also hearses from New Orleans…again not fully sure where this ethos comes from but hard to shake). *i looked up new Orleans Hearses and am now even more confused by why I’m thinking these things? Shiny trumpets and corded marching band outfits?? Beats me.
So the whirlwind mostly and happily thanks to the extraordinary generous hosting of Uncle Boy and Auntie Myet. They fetched us from the airport in a van that drove us the 3 hours to his town (with a stop at a delicious restaurant that served traditional Filipino fare) where he delivered us to a delightful hotel styled in…baroque? Victorian? Styles…with marble and maroon velvet chairs, chess sets and grand pianos. The girls were delighted. And we were delighted with clean beds and good a/c.
Our first day in San Pablo we settled in to our new place and new city. I took a short run theough town that had only one person explicitly tell me I should get in out of the sun because it was too hot, but ALL the looks may have said that tacitly. Actually it may just have been: what are you doing here lady? A tall white person walking (let alone jogging) through this town was pretty rare so we had many inquisitive looks following us. Everywhere. My jog took me past an elementary school just as morning session was letting out and a cart vendor was pedaling fresh cotton candy he was spinning there in his cart! By salons where you could get a pedicure for a buck 50 and a massage for $4. By a hospital and a clinic, by the massive church that dominated the end of Main Street, by vulcanizing shops, laundromats, sewing shops with foot treadles, McDonald’s and jollibees, repair shops using huge metal and oil lathes and things I am unsure what they did but were so black and the shop so coated in black…I’m going to say soot…that it just screamed industrial revolution!
We hoofed it all over to find dinner and ended happily in a true hole in the wall. Had to suck it in to get back to a table.
Our first day “out” was an extravagant trip down to the beach town of Batangas. As Chad said: going to the beach for us is grabbing some towels and a backpack of snacks and sunscreen. For Uncle Boy we needed to rent a cabana with a room with A/C and a stovetop and access to a pool. 😆 but guess what? We totally did it Uncle Boy style and it was Great. The girls adored the pool and it really was nice to have somewhere in the shade to sit and eat and shower off. The beach was incredibly beautiful. Though it was more bath water temp than we have encountered up to this point.
We swam some and enjoyed the beautiful teal bancas, even enjoyed the roiling grey clouds and thunder that was not so far off.
The drive to batangas and back was about 2 hours each way, so it was a long day that had us up at 5:30am. The girls were champs as usual.
The Adobo Hobos 