Everyone loves a parade ......... of santos

The Philippines is a Catholic country and for whatever occasion they love to bring out their statues or santos. Yesterday was no exception. It was the feast of the Santo Niño and more than 100 santos joined the four-hour long parade in front of our condo, stretching from the Cultural Center of the Philippines to Luneta Park. Each santo seemed to have its own band, or at least group of drummer boys, alongside. At first the rhythmic beating of the drums was nice but after four hours ...?? Meanwhile Roxas Blvd was lined with people, many who brought along their own santos for the occasion.

....and when the saints come ..........

Certified Diver

The Philippines is blessed with hundreds, probably thousands, of excellent dive sites. I frequently heard my friends talking about these places and, while snorkeling is nice, it's just not the same as going down there to take a close-up look.

Luckily, several of my friends are either dive masters or dive instructors so I decided to sign up to find out for myself. The basic PADI course was for three nights in nearby Makati and the certification dive(s) were in Anilao, Batangas, roughly a three-hour drive from Manila. I passed the "practical" with flying colors but then had to go back to take the written test ... a real pain in the ...!

It was worth it. Anilao has somewhere around 45 diving sites .... really fantastic views of tropical fish, coral, and plant life. We visited only four different sites ...so there is plenty more to see there.

We stayed in a very nice resort with only four guest rooms different rooms .. and a pool. Incidentally, the sunsets in Anilao also were quite spectacular.

For those of you into diving, this is the spot. Everything is arranged for you. The boatmen carry the tanks and equipment to the boat, help you out of the water, carry your stuff back to the resort.. What a life.

Noel was to have joined me in the course but he opted out at the last minute. Hopefully, he will take it in the near future as diving is supposed to be done on the basis of a 'buddy' system and not solo.

Vegetable farming in Silang

The development where we will build our house is called "Ponderosa Leisure Farms" and Noel has taken them up on the idea. The house is not yet there but he is busy planting garden plants and veggies. We've harvested our first crop of "pechay," a leafy plant commonly used in soups and such dishes as "kari kari. We had more than we could use and had to give away part of the harvest -- guess we have to learn how much to plant ..and when .. so we can continually harvest.

We usually germinate the seeds at the condo in Manila, then transplant them to small pots and, when big enough, bring them to Silang for planting in the ground.

Once we get the hang of it, we'll have to start better record keeping -- when we planted the seeds, when we did the transplanting, when we were able to harvest, etc.