Saturday, March 13 from Cliff

After a late start we drove 2 hours south of Manila to a Filipino tourist destination, Villa Escudero.   On arrival, one of our host, Rolle, gave us Lanzones and Mangosten fruit for us to have.  The Mangosten was very sweet.

Villa Esudoro is now a coconut plantaion, but the park area had a number of attractions.  There was a Water Buffalo cart ride.  We ate our lunch of Filipino food at tables that were set up at the bottom of a spillway of a dam.  The tables were set in the stream and so our feet were in about 6 to 8 inches of water while we were at the tables.  This worked in the sense that you didn’t feel the heat and were quite comfortable.  We rafted on a bamboo raft and the saw and amazing show which demonstrated a variety of dance and music from various regions of the Philippines and times in their history.  Then we went to the museum on the property.  There was an amazing collection of Filipino religious artifacts and floats for Holy week observances.  There was a large collection of dried and stuffed animals and insects native to the area.  There were some painting, furniture and textiles as well.

After the Villa, we went to a pottery artists shop and workshop.  He made some very nice pieces of pottery of high quality.

Upon my return to Manila, I met up with my hosts, Conrad and Joji, at a restaurant called Sentro.   They serve Filipino food which was very good.  There Rotary friends were their as well.  I met Ray Madrid and his wife.  Lu, the president of their club, and her husband Edward.  There were three others at the table and unfortunately, I cannot remember their names.  We had a good time and stayed until almost 10:30 just talking and having fun.

For some reason I am unable to post any pictures right now and so I will do it later if I can