March 7 and 8, 2016
Monday March 7
Monday turned out to be an uneventful day. I researched a walking tour for today or tomorrow. I decided to get a massage (350P for one hour ($7.25). I called at noon but they couldn’t get to the hotel until 4:00….I said fine….took a nap. At 4 I got a call that they would be delayed until 5….no problem. She showed up at 5:40.
She couldn’t be older than 20, or taller than 4’10” or weigh more than 75 pounds. But, she knew leverage and my upper back had more hot spots than I could have imagined. She worked the area for a long time…..from pain so bad I was afraid I’d pull a muscle somewhere else, to pleasurable annoyance. I had just read a post about a man who got his first massage in the Philippines. He stated that he “couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss her or punch her in the face”. That pretty much sums up the first part of the experience.
I took a taxi to Ayala Mall for dinner, then right back. The day was mostly uneventful but the kinks I didn’t know I had are now released.
Tuesday March 8
I did it. I left my hotel for 5 hours (2 of them were in a movie theater, but progress has been made).
I took a taxi to Fort San Pedro to start my walking tour. It was hot but not unbearable. It was nice to see native people wiping their brows of sweat. The heat isn’t killing me now. The fact that I was sedentary for 3 months before coming here is š
Fort San Pedro is a triangular fort built in 1565, with two sides facing the sea and one side facing land.
Once inside I made it up to the top level only to be interviewed by four criminology students for their project. No, I didn’t make up crimes for them…they just wanted to know if I knew of their country’s hero, Dr. Jose P Rizal (nope). They then explained what he had done, filmed it, then asked me to be in photos with them. In response, I got the following picture of these great kids.
At each corner of the fort was a round topped room with holes for rifle fire, much less defined than the pill boxes in Half Life 2. Now you get to see what I look like after an hour in the sun and heat, standing in front of one of the “towers”.
Finally, on my way out I thought I was in a natural history museum with a stuffed coyote in the exhibit. Nope, just a dog who knows what to do (sleep) and when to do it (when it is very hot).
I gave up on the walking tour as 1) I was beat; and 2) I really wasn’t interested in the locations except for Magellan’s Cross (the spot that Magellan planted a cross to signify the conversion of the country’s inhabitants to Catholicism).
I went to the mall, walked around inside and out for an hour for acclimation, then saw a movie, “London Has Fallen”. Essentially Fallout 4 when you are killing people with the Rocket Launcher and Minigun. Nobody clapped at the end when America was saved….guess no Trump supporters in the Philippines.
I missed some fantastic photo ops traveling in the taxi. But, I’m too scared, frightened, whatever, to walk the streets alone. There are no white people walking the streets and the streets are crowded. Perhaps later when I grow up.
I think I’ve had enough of Cebu City so I’ll be researching how to get to Moalboal by taxi (instead of 3 hours by non-airconditioned bus) and to stay at swanky resorts near the beach ($35 – $50 per night)…cheaper than Motel 6 in Eureka.
Now, some tv, some diet soda, and bed.