We'd had already spent a week at Santo
Domingo Orchards and had one week to go. Time seems to always go by
so fast when I'm WWOOFing. This second week was no exception.
After everyone returned from church we
were taken to a near by market in Ma-Ao. Two rode up front and the
other six of us were in the back. They even threw in a few
lawn-chairs...you know...safety first.
At night, I helped by putting some of
the pictures Meg and I had been taking over the days on a few phones,
as well as some music. Picture taking was plentiful around the farm
and with the locals. Getting people to pose for a picture was so
easy! I'd just pull out the camera and they'd pose. Although, if you
wanted to just take a picture of them working this would make it a
challenge because they'd stop to pose for you.
Around as well as in the main house, we
found our share of local animals and insect life:
I didn't get a picture of the local
spiders, and that could have been because they were huge and I liked
my distance :)
Meg mostly worked in her flower beds
(see below) but on Monday the M stands for Banana? We helped with the
harvest and it was pretty fun. There is some hard work put in to
chopping down the banana trunks, cleaning the bananas, then putting
all of the remains into composts, and finally making new compost
piles each time. Instead of one giant compost, they put several
smaller composts all over so it wouldn't take as much work to move
and spread the compost all over.
Flowerbeds:
M for Banana Harvest:
Making a compost pile:
On some of the days off, Mr. P would
take us around to see more of the island. We were able to meet his
wife, whom was very nice and very friendly. Mr. P, as I've enjoyed
calling him since blogging about him, took us to a near by restaurant
for lunch and around the area for some local sight seeing.
The bamboo cannons are pretty neat but
the story behind them more interesting and entertaining. I couldn't
find a detailed story on it
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines_(1946%E2%80%931965)
) but the general story I was told is this: The Philippine army had
the Spanish surrounded after many years of conflict but they were
still out powered, so they decided to bluff. They built a ton of
bamboo cannons and bamboo guns. They painted all of the fake arms
black to look real. Only the soldiers that went in close had real
weapons. The Spanish saw the over whelming number of cannons and
arms. Not knowing so many men were actually unarmed, decided they
didn't stand a chance and surrendered.
Some more photos of the area we had
lunch in:
An other day we were taken around more
of the island to see some of the mountain side. It was a lot cooler
in the mountains, which was an enjoyed break from the heat. On the
way there is a stretch of road that has some unique properties. We
didn't take a video of it, but we should have. Basically you stop
your car, and put it in neutral, and your vehicle will start moving
UP hill! It has to do with magnetism, and in fact there are places
like this all over the world. Here is a list of such sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gravity_hills
We made some stops and had some fun
looking around. Had lunch, saw a monkey :)
Picking up a few local fruits that I'd
never had before made for a very tasty afternoon snack:
A few photos from around the farm:
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| My University, Go Huskies! |
We had one last Video-oke night a few
days before we left and they went all out by making a large selection
of food for us. We had a great night and learned to really enjoy
Micheal Learns to Rock, which was a local favorite from Australia.
Eventually the day came that we found ourselves leaving yet another wonderful place. Our time at the orchard was a highlight in my travel experiences. I really wish I could have thanked both Mr. P and all of the wonderful people that worked for him more.
We were headed to Malapascua and
looking forward to a few days of vacation.
Tip For The Day: Take photos, and then
take some more. If you have too many “lame” ones you don't have
to show them off, but if you never took a photo you're left with a
fading memory that at best you can only try to convey the magic with
words...and some times art, assuming you can remember the grandeur in
detail.
