Sunday, March 21

I am getting tired of saying, “another great day”.  When do they end?  Today after the usual delays in getting started (We are adapting to the schedule fiascos) we traveled to Nasagbu, Batagnas.  The schedule said this was our mid-tour isolation period.  The guide book says there are great beaches and resorts in Nasagbu.  We arrived and drove through a half broken gate, and onto a dirt road and parked in a field.  We then walked about 300 meters to a pavilion on the beach.  This is a private open air pavilion overlooking a small shallow bay.  In the pavilion are scattered around a number of beds.  There are also some enclosed area in the event you do not want to sleep outside.  I didn’t see any advantage to the enclosed rooms as there were no screens and after the walls there was no ceiling until the roof over the entire place.  After about 30 minutes or more of agitating over the prospect of sleeping outside with no mosquito netting anywhere, I came to the conclusion that as a guest of Rotarians we would not be put in a position where we would be harmed. I had plenty of bug spray and our hosts had even more. So we settled in for another good time.  Some went for a swim in the bay where the water was very clear and your toes could still be seen even when in shoulder deep water.  Two masseuses were brought to this, in essence a camp, and I decided to get a massage to help relax.  And it did the trick.  Tim and Ben were able to try Balut, a Filipino delicacy which is a partially developed duck egg that has been cooked a little.  They said it was like a chewier hard boiled egg.  I'll take their word for it. Afterwards, we were able to sample some Filipino Rum.  We had 15 year Tanduay Rum and it was very smooth.  Somehow two bottles disappeared.  The price of this was only 350 Philippine Pesos, about $7.75.  A fire was arranged to be built on the beach and we stood around singing songs for a while.  The moon was in the first quarter and I got to see the “Smiling Moon” for the first time in my life. (Near the equator the moon is rotated 90 degrees from what we are used to seeing and looks like a big smile in the sky.)  It is now 11:30 PM and haven’t seen or felt a mosquito yet.