As promised, right back at you. The O'Connors are still adjusting to being 1/2 a world away, so the 6 of us were up-and-at-'em at 4:30am to prepare for the 1 hour ride to the Manila Airport for our 9am flight to Tagbilaran. Rogelio arrvied promptly at 6am and we were on our way. Good thing we were nice and early...even checking into a simple domestic flight here takes some time and patience. As previously mentioned, we arrived about 4 hours ago to Amorita Resort. Check out their website: www.amoritaresort.com. We had a delicious lunch, got to our rooms and in order to deal with the 98* ambient temp, me and the kids all went to the beachside infinity pool for a much needed cool-down. I know now that I must start taking pictures of the ... read more

We arrived in Manila without incident on Saturday Dec 11. After the 16 hour flight and change in time zones, we were all pretty tired but made our way to the local McDonalds for a welcome snack for chicken nuggets and fries for the kids. As we were settling in, Jack went to the 'palenque'--an open air market with fresh meats, produce and wares--with Maria and her cousin. Though he has been to this place before on our last trip, he didn't particurlarly like the way the fish, chicken and other products were displayed. Also, there seem to be alot more panhandling. Unlike at home, panhandlers are a bit more aggressive and will come up to you and tap your shoulder to get your attention. He came back home with many questions about the situation at ... read more