Day 36

This morning we packed our things for today’s trip. Before we left, however, we called Sita, a family member who works in a beauty shop doing manicures, pedicures, and massage to work her wonders on our old, aging, tired bodies. Ole had his first in his life manicure and pedicure and ear cleaning as well as a whole body massage that lasted two hours. Maitri had a manicure and body massage lasting one hour. After this pampering we lunched with the Laneses and then left for our ferry.

The ferry for Palawan Island is via Iloilo City in Panay Island and the CuyoIlslands half way to Palawan. It is a 38-hour boat trip! Our first voyage from Bacolod to Iloilo left 10 minutes late and lasted much longer than we anticipated and we arrived just in the nick of time to catch the ferry to Puerto Princessa City. A further delay of 10 minutes and we would have missed the boat! We stopped en route at the 7th Day Adventist Food Court bar and stocked up on veggie food including 2 mock meat dishes with rice, soymilk, and siopao. There were only air con seats on the long ferry ride, costing P1047 for the 38 hour ride. Unfortunately, the air con was on the blink and it was much hotter inside the aircon area than outside on the deck with its nice breeze. We had to complain repeatedly to get anything done about it but no one was able to fix the air con. At least we got the crew to open all the small windows which provided a slight breeze and pretty much equalized the temperature with the rest of the ship. The reason it can get so hot is that the exhaust pipe for the huge ship motor runs right thru the middle of the ship and it gets very hot!

We met an attorney and businessman from San Jose City, Antique, Panay who was traveling to Cuyo to see his family. He is apparently an ardent environmentalist in his home area and is working to preserve the so far virgin forests of Panay. He mentioned his group had recently discovered a new species of Raflesia flower there. Raflesia is the largest flower in the world, measuring up to one meter across, although the Philippines variety is only half that size.