Visayas

Today we returned to Bacolod from Hinoba-an, a small village in the south of Negros Occidental. We arrived at a cousin's beachfront house on two days ago just outside the village with Maitri's extended family for a sort of reunion. The drive was very beautiful through the circumferential island road and Hinobaan itself is situated in an area where the limestone hills meet the sea. The beaches are very rocky, having an almost volcanic appearance, and are inhabited by strange sea creatures I had never seen before, such as: starfish that move as fast as crabs, slithery creatures that appear to be scouring the sea floor for food, and long stringy starfish like things that look like worms at the tips.

Our journey from Boracay started the day after the last entry. We proceeded south along the western coat of Panay through San Jose Antique, then across the island to Iloilo City where we stayed overnight with Maitri's niece Tanya and her son Mikko. The next day we hung out at her place, then lunched at the mall and saw a movie at the local cinema, next to Tanya's work place. Finally, we all took the ferry to Bacolod to join Maitri's sister Becky and her family. We stayed two nights here. Saturday afternoon we visited the downtown market area, changed money, and went to the Sian Tian temple for a Buddhist lunch. But the highlight of our stay was the Maskara festival, an orgy of drumming, beer and alcohol drinking, meat BBQs, and overly loud music.

On Satuday night we decided Shanti, Kamala and I would return to Manila, then head north for the Mountain Province. We purchased tickets. Meanwhile, Maitri will go to Mindanao where she used to work in a lumber camp, and where we met. She is joining colleagues, including her sister Ligaya, for a work reunion.

Sunday morning, on the way to Hinobaan, Becky asked me if I had heard about the typhoon bearing down on north Luzon -- exactly where we were planning to go after leaving here. So the last couple days I have been scanning news reports of super typhoon Megi which just left the country after wreaking havoc in the area we plan to visit. We had heavy rainfall both at the beach yesterday and on the way back today.

One fun project we did at the reunion was to create a Verdun Soberano family tree complete with photos of all the participants who were staying with us. We discovered some family secrets, such as that Maitri's brother Shant appears to have a son no one had ever heard about. We are still awaiting details of this.

Tomorrow evening we will be leaving for Manila. We will be staying at Friendly's, a backpacker haven in Ermita, Manila at least one day, maybe more due to the bad weather in the north.