Second Half of First Week & First Trip!

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The second half of my first work week went by pretty fast. As I left off, I was really sick on Tuesday. So on Wednesday I made an appointment with a clinic attached to my apartment to see if I can get some medicine prescribed to me. I made the appointment for later in the day. However, Wednesday was also the day that the stitches in my arm were supposed to come out. My dermatologist had sent me with a suture removal kit so I opened that up and tried to remove them myself. Since it was on my arm, I could only use one hand so it was extremely difficult. I ended up getting one stitch out (but nearly cut it so short that it was going to be stuck in my arm and I would have to dig it out). So after almost getting one stitch stuck in me, I decided to wait and see if the clinic would take the stitches out for me. Luckily, they did! The doctor also prescribed me three different medicines. One for my sinuses, one for my cough, and the other for my eyes. The doctor explained that I have Sore Eyes. That is what they call it. I think it is similar to our Pink Eye. However, he said it is really common here because of the weather. People get it all the time when they first get here or locals get it when the weather changes to super hot. I thought that was very interesting. Happily the medicine started working so I could feel better for my first trip!

My first weekend trip was to Puerto Galera. We packed our bags the day before so that we could leave straight from work at 6 AM. There were nine of us that went. The five expats, me, Lee, Josh, Jarrad, and our new 72 year-old expat Carey. Carey just got in this week so he is the newest to the group. And then we went with some of the locals that we work with, Abi and her boyfriend MC, Ina, and Tean. Our driver drove us in the van about three hours from work to the boat and we took an hour boat ride to Puerto Galera. The nickname is Puerto Gaylera because there are a lot of lady-boys on the island. We got to our rooms that we rented and they were not what were advertised. There was no toilet, just a bowl where you had to pour cups of water in it to flush. And there was a fake shower. We ended up staying there the first night, but switching to a nicer place the next night that was right next door. The woman was not happy but turns out she doesn't even have a permit to rent so she couldn't really say much to us leaving. I think we each paid 500 pesos for both nights which equals about $20.

The first night we went out on the boardwalk and had dinner and drinks. We ended up drinking at the place right on the beach with music and dancing. All of the waitstaff were lady-boys dressed all scandalously. It was very entertaining. We stayed out until 2ish that night and woke up the next day at 7:30 to go swim at White Sand beach. Everyone thought the water was chilly but it was amazing! It was like August water in Narragansett. After swimming we walked a long way to a different, more secluded beach. White Sand is the most touristy part of Puerto Galera and you have people trying to sell you stuff all the time. We walked for about an hour, climbed a lot of rocks, and finally got to a quiet beach. After enjoying the beach for awhile, it started raining. So we found a hotel that let us hang out on their covered deck. They have awesome mango margaritas in Puerto Galera so we ordered a bunch of those. You know I love my jalapeno mango margz so they ended up making us chili mango margz. Not as great, but still pretty good. We hung out, listened to music, and played some pool.

At around 4 PM we loaded into a small pickup truck with five of us in the bed and went back to White Sand beach. We wanted to do a water activity and there was one called the disco ball. It looked super intense so we figured we should try it. Boy was that a bad idea. It was so crazy. I was on the side which turns out to be the hardest spot. My legs were just flying around the whole time and all I was going was holding on by my arms. Carey, the 72 year old, did it with us and I was scared he was going to have a heart attach. He was bright red and grunting the whole time. Luckily, he was on the back of it so he could keep his legs planted which made it easier. After doing some laps we told him that we were done so he whipped around to knock us off. I was on top of Carey at that point, which was really awkward, so I ended up letting go right at the end. After, we were all so sore and I still am sore. I have bruises and scrapes, and cuts everywhere. But it was an experience, one that I probably wouldn't do again.

The rest of the trip was pretty low key. It was a great, relaxing first weekend away in the Philippines with a great group of people. I look forward to the next six months of travel and adventures!

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Comments

[Diane (Madre)]

Keep those adventures coming
Laughed so hard then googled water disco ball. Couldn't find any pics so just have to use my imagination. How does it compare to taking a ride on the mud slide?