The Philippines are made up of about 7,100 islands. If you visited one per week it would take you about 135 years. Guess I won't get to see them all.
Well. This trip I got to visit two of the islands - Palawan and Luzon. Our first stop was Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan. The city is struggling to develop and grow into a real tourist destination spot. About two hours outside the city is a UNESCO world heritage site called the Underground River. It's basically a river that runs under a long stretch of caves full of sleeping bats and stalactite formations. A number of our passengers went on a tour to visit it, but I was not among them. Maybe next time. Those that went said they enjoyed it but it was a long hot day.
I chose instead to take a city highlights tour. One of the interesting draws for me, besides the obligatory cathedral (which are always pretty) was the Iwahig Prison Farm. Although there are two sections that are medium security, a big section is minimum security and the prisoners work in various agricultural jobs on the large farm. There are no fences.
Our visit there included a short dance performance by some of the inmates and they even included three of the guards in one of the dances. We also got to see some craft products made by the prisoners as a way to make some money for themselves.
Across from the church was a small memorial park called Plaza Cuartel dedicated to 144 American POWs massacred by the Japanese during WW2. There's a lovely dedication and sculpture in the center of the plaza for the soldiers.
That pretty much ended the day in Puerto Princesa. Note - there's a picture of one of my friends on the ship - Kathi. She was taking the same tour as me but was on a different bus. We were having a goof through the windows at each other!
We enjoyed a sea day in between the Philippine ports. Next call is a 2-day stay in Manila.
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