Dreams come true . . . in Santa Fe
June 13th, 2009
I don't even know where to begin. I believe this is my fourth day ehre adn it's the type of place that just draws you in. The people here are unbelievably friendly and welcoming. We've had a couple of people try to scam us a bit but overall it's great. The community we're in is the type where everyone knows your name. The evening we arrived after avoiding the somewaht out of our price range tourist restaurants e sat down at a Filippino restaurant and as well as discovering our favourite place to eat we me an old Swedish man named Mr. Ulf who has given us some rather helpful hints.
But alas, I'm so far behind just more highlights and notable moments. - One - driving by on a motorbike having kid's yell out "Hello! Give Me Money!" great big grin on their faces.
On our second day we rented motorbike's, an endeavour I was more than excited for. I think I got the hang of it rather quickly - one of the local boys was our guide and he showed me and Christian how to ride and rode with me for the majority of the trip (though mostly on the back).
On open roads, fields, palm and trees, shacks and village life surrounding me - the breeze making me feel alive. And I felt fine with it - perfectly in control, that is until I got to the central city adn had to maneouver around other bikes, passenger bicycles, cars, people, roaming children and even the ocassional cow! WIth some guidance from Eljay (our guide) I mae it through alive though.
Now, mentioning Eljay - that leads to some other highly interesting moemnts. He's 15 years old and has a background to make you cry (we just learned this last night). We met him our first night on the Island, at ARJAYMAY's, the local restaurant I mentioned run by Chester and May and of course frequented by the previously mentioned Mr. Ulf, - looking to be in his 70s, very kind, full of life, advice and a lot of alcohol - and who treated some of the young Filippino boys liek a lap dog - gotta love that colonialist attitude!
The first night we met Eljay he had his eye on me - and what an intense eye it was! I'm telling you, the boys on this island know how to give "the look". It's so intense it made me feel uncomfortable just seeing it.
But, we were told he'd be a good guide and we had a great day with him. Then that night Serene and I became the centre of amusement for a bunch of the young tricycle boys. They got such a kick out of talking to us adn touching my hair. It was a hilariously great time - haha, minus one extremely drunk guy who tried to explain the same thing over and over again for about 45 minutes, asked me to marry him, later asked Serene, and followed us aroudn for a LONG time, often asking if we wanted Ganja. The young boys were good protection though. At one point on a bench when he aws trying to get closer to me a glare from Eljay sent him to the opposite end.
In what we hoped would be a final escape from him we took off an later ended up going for a Night Swim. . . We were nervous of jellyfish but were assured they wouldn't be out at night and as we'd been awnting to swim for about 4 days at that point and hadn't gotten the chance we went for it.
And it was wonderful.
The water was as warm as a bath and so salty the buoncy was incredible. The sky was pitch black with a spattering of stars adn a mix of clouds slowly trailing over the moon.
The perfect moment, however, was ruined and ruined in a way that affected the rest of my time on the island (and is still affecting me over two weeks later). While rough housing, I was pulled into a jellyfish. As it was night I had nothing to treat it with and as I never have bad reactions back home I declined Reen's offer to pee on it.
When we got inside and I could see it it looked horrible and fears of death and amputation coursed through my mind. The next day it swelled to about the size of a B cup breast under my arm with nasty raised purple welts. Oh - and the pain from that first night prevented me from sleeping ALL night - lovely.
The next day the townspeople were shocked and awed - some of the young girls called it my 'wing' and the boys joked about it beign a muscle. I had many remedy suggestions from teh typical vinegar to sugar, to salt, hot water, amonia, calomine lotion and coconut milk. The doctor at the pharmacy said it was teh worst reaction she'd ever seen and thought it would take weeks and weeks to heal.
We (unaffectionately) named it Ricky - and Ricky put a damper on the rest of my time there but as subsequent writings will show - good times were still had!! :)
I don't even know where to begin. I believe this is my fourth day ehre adn it's the type of place that just draws you in. The people here are unbelievably friendly and welcoming. We've had a couple of people try to scam us a bit but overall it's great. The community we're in is the type where everyone knows your name. The evening we arrived after avoiding the somewaht out of our price range tourist restaurants e sat down at a Filippino restaurant and as well as discovering our favourite place to eat we me an old Swedish man named Mr. Ulf who has given us some rather helpful hints.
But alas, I'm so far behind just more highlights and notable moments. - One - driving by on a motorbike having kid's yell out "Hello! Give Me Money!" great big grin on their faces.
On our second day we rented motorbike's, an endeavour I was more than excited for. I think I got the hang of it rather quickly - one of the local boys was our guide and he showed me and Christian how to ride and rode with me for the majority of the trip (though mostly on the back).
On open roads, fields, palm and trees, shacks and village life surrounding me - the breeze making me feel alive. And I felt fine with it - perfectly in control, that is until I got to the central city adn had to maneouver around other bikes, passenger bicycles, cars, people, roaming children and even the ocassional cow! WIth some guidance from Eljay (our guide) I mae it through alive though.
Now, mentioning Eljay - that leads to some other highly interesting moemnts. He's 15 years old and has a background to make you cry (we just learned this last night). We met him our first night on the Island, at ARJAYMAY's, the local restaurant I mentioned run by Chester and May and of course frequented by the previously mentioned Mr. Ulf, - looking to be in his 70s, very kind, full of life, advice and a lot of alcohol - and who treated some of the young Filippino boys liek a lap dog - gotta love that colonialist attitude!
The first night we met Eljay he had his eye on me - and what an intense eye it was! I'm telling you, the boys on this island know how to give "the look". It's so intense it made me feel uncomfortable just seeing it.
But, we were told he'd be a good guide and we had a great day with him. Then that night Serene and I became the centre of amusement for a bunch of the young tricycle boys. They got such a kick out of talking to us adn touching my hair. It was a hilariously great time - haha, minus one extremely drunk guy who tried to explain the same thing over and over again for about 45 minutes, asked me to marry him, later asked Serene, and followed us aroudn for a LONG time, often asking if we wanted Ganja. The young boys were good protection though. At one point on a bench when he aws trying to get closer to me a glare from Eljay sent him to the opposite end.
In what we hoped would be a final escape from him we took off an later ended up going for a Night Swim. . . We were nervous of jellyfish but were assured they wouldn't be out at night and as we'd been awnting to swim for about 4 days at that point and hadn't gotten the chance we went for it.
And it was wonderful.
The water was as warm as a bath and so salty the buoncy was incredible. The sky was pitch black with a spattering of stars adn a mix of clouds slowly trailing over the moon.
The perfect moment, however, was ruined and ruined in a way that affected the rest of my time on the island (and is still affecting me over two weeks later). While rough housing, I was pulled into a jellyfish. As it was night I had nothing to treat it with and as I never have bad reactions back home I declined Reen's offer to pee on it.
When we got inside and I could see it it looked horrible and fears of death and amputation coursed through my mind. The next day it swelled to about the size of a B cup breast under my arm with nasty raised purple welts. Oh - and the pain from that first night prevented me from sleeping ALL night - lovely.
The next day the townspeople were shocked and awed - some of the young girls called it my 'wing' and the boys joked about it beign a muscle. I had many remedy suggestions from teh typical vinegar to sugar, to salt, hot water, amonia, calomine lotion and coconut milk. The doctor at the pharmacy said it was teh worst reaction she'd ever seen and thought it would take weeks and weeks to heal.
We (unaffectionately) named it Ricky - and Ricky put a damper on the rest of my time there but as subsequent writings will show - good times were still had!! :)
posted by Charles at 12:22 AM
1 Comments:
oh no Char!!! That sting sounds awful!! Be careful dooder.
I haven't been to your blog in forever, I guess I should go to the beginning and work my way back! Hope you're having a great time!!!!
~Brittany
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