Waterfalls and Witchcraft

“A fragrant breeze wandered up from the quiet sea, trailed along the beach, and drifted back to the sea again, wondering where to go next. On a mad impulse it went up to the beach again. It drifted back to sea.”

-Douglas Adams

One of the most frustrating parts- no, I take that back, the absolute most frustrating part- of my time here in the Philippines has been waiting. Waiting for the traffic to actually start moving. Waiting for Fulbright to approve my student loan deferral (the grace period only lasts so long, guys...). Waiting for the internet to start working again. Waiting for responses to emails that sometimes come weeks late, if at all (usually not at all). It's the last one especially that gets to me. It's only this week that I have a meeting with my NGO partner to determine when exactly I'll be leaving Manila to actually begin my field research, something I'd hoped I'd be doing about a month ago. I feel like I've been stuck in somewhat of a limbo for the last few weeks, without a clear idea of how to move forward, and instead just trying to fill my time with random, moderately useful things- Tagalog classes, random interviews, and academic conferences. 

That last thing has been especially rewarding, at least in terms of getting me to new places- a conference on disaster risk exposure a couple weeks ago helped get me a free trip to Lake Taal, and last weekend, I had to opportunity to attend a different conference in the city of Dumaguete, on the island of Negros in the southern Philippines. Besides my first time leaving the island of Luzon, it was also a city I'd been hoping to visit since I realized I was going to be in the country. Among other things, it was the only place in the country where I had the potential of having contacts, as the father of a friend of mine back in the States had actually grown up there. Not to mention the area itself looked beautiful. 

(Some people have told me I write too much in my blog posts. I'm not going to apologize for that, but for those people who like this mostly for the pretty pictures, you're in luck! This is going to be mostly a picture-heavy entry.)

Southern Manila from above.

One of the best parts of flying out of Manila is that I got to see many of parts of the country from above that I'd only read about or seen from below. It also reminded me how damn big the country is- islands that look tiny on a one-page map filling the entire plane window.

Cavite City

The High Rolling Mountains on the island of Mindoro 

The town of Oslob on the island of Cebu 

Dumaguete on arrival

I actually met my first person from Dumaguete before I even got there- it turned out that a friend of a friend, Arjan, was actually on the same flight out of Manila that I was. His wife, Ivy, picked us up from the tiny Dumaguete airport (there are 2 gates!) and they showed me around town a little bit. The first obvious contrast I realized was that it was much, much smaller that Manila. According to Arjan, "It takes 15 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other. If it takes any longer, people start calling the mayor to complain." Meanwhile, the only place you can get in Manila in 15 minutes is from one side of the street to the other side of the street- if you're lucky.

I reserved a spot to stay on Airbnb just the spare room in a private house. The map provided made it look like it was right in the middle of the city in a convenient location, but that actually turned out to be completely wrong. Instead, we ended up driving around the countryside looking for rice fields that looked similar to the pictures I'd seen of the house. Miraculously, we ended up figuring out where it was, and the owner of the house was actually a friend of Arjan's. Oh, how I miss small-town life.
The house was in a beautifully rural setting, surrounded by rice fields and with a view over the ocean. Everything I'd been missing while living in the concrete jungle of Manila. It was an oh-so-wonderful feeling to be able to breathe in fresh air that didn't feel like it was about to give me cancer.

My front yard.

Another view of the front yard- my house is in the middle, and Cuernos de Negros, a dormant volcano, is in the background.

The beach that was a 15-minute walk from the house. The island of Cebu is in the distance.

Cattle egrets (Bubulcus iris)

Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis)

Philippine Pied Fantail (Rhipidura nigrotorquis)

The conference I attended was on maritime cultures in Southeast Asia, so really what I got out of it was lots and lots of information about fishing societies. It was very anthropology-centric, with less information directly about my fields of study, so mostly I was just happy to sit back and learn. One of the main focuses was on the conflict currently ongoing with China regarding sovereignty of the South China Sea, the body of water between the Philippines and Vietnam. China claims sovereignty over basically the entire body of water and the tiny islands within it, while the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia state that they have their own claims to parts of the waters. China sees it as a valid historical claim, as they occasionally sent fishing vessels there for centuries, whereas the other countries see the Chinese area of sovereignty as a blatant violation of international law. I'm not going to go into the entire thing here, because it's an extremely complicated matter of international law, but I will say that it's hard to take China's claims completely seriously when you see the map of their claim.

The conference was held at Silliman University, the first protestant university in the Philippines and one of the better schools in the country. It was founded as an elementary school in 1901 with a grant from Horace Silliman, an American businessman, and became a full-blown university in 1910. Somewhat awesomely, it was occupied by the Japanese in World War 2, but the professors kept teaching students in a hidden camp in the jungle nearby. It's well-known today for marine biology and environmental science in particular, hence the reason it was chosen for the conference I suppose. It was started by American Protestant missionaries, and still has a distinctly American feel. There's even a large "American Studies" room, which looks like it was ripped out of my high school library back in Michigan (the primary difference being that there's better air conditioning).

For most of the first two days, I was mostly just stuck inside Silliman listening to lectures, so I didn't get much of a chance to explore the city. My second day though, I took an hour or so off to just walk around and see Dumaguete. Perhaps the most picturesque part of the town is Rizal Boulevard, a big sidewalk along the ocean side. It's got lots of families walking around, and a bunch of vendors selling different things. Maybe the only thing that ruined it was the sea breeze. And by "sea breeze" I mean "smell of dead fish". One more reason why I prefer lakes to oceans.

The Dumaguete Belfry- made of coral stone, and built in the 1760s to warn residents of approaching pirates.

As it happened, I was in Dumaguete during the Buglasan Festival, meant to honor the culture and history of Negros Island. I didn't see the entire thing as I was busy with conference stuff, but I was lucky enough to catch the last part of the parade, where every municipality in the area set up its own float, with dancers and a theme. The only parade group I saw seemed to be very nature-themed, which makes me wonder what other themes were.

The conference itself lasted for two days, but I gave myself an extra couple of days in the area, since it was my first time really getting out of Manila and I wanted to explore. Not to mention spend a little more time outside of the concrete jungle. My first free day, I decided to head up to Casaroro Falls, a waterfall up in the mountains west of Dumaguete. It turned out that it was very close to Arjan's house, so I ended up making the trip with a couple of younger family members who were there for a visit. The path was a little unique in that it wasn't a path so much as a very, very steep descent into a canyon on some moderately slippery, unevenly-placed concrete steps.

The hike itself was beautiful though, through some very green jungle-y vegetation, with lots of potential photo subjects. The bugs and views were a good distraction from the reminder that I would have to climb all the way back up the stairs later in the day. Descending the stairs very, very carefully was also a good reminder of my very, very clever decision to do the hike wearing Sperries.

Pictured: The attire of a seasoned outdoorsman.

After the treacherous stairs, the last part of the hike was over some treacherous rocks, criss-crossing the river at the bottom of the canyon. There had previously been a bridge over the river and a decent pathway, but it was destroyed in a typhoon a few years ago, leaving only the twisted remains of the bridge and some new concrete boulders to climb over.

Even after you've seen pictures of the waterfall, it's easy to underestimate how huge it is from the bottom- a good 200 feet high, with a deep pool down below. We of course went swimming in that pool, because what else are you going to do after a long hike? It was necessary to stay a fair distance away from the actual falls, however, because there were instances of people drowning when they got too close. Of course this is the Philippines so there were no warning signs or anything like that. Good luck kids!

After the hike, we had dinner back at Arjan's house up in the mountains. It was a beautiful house with a huge yard, and a great view over the city. In the unlikely event I ever become disgustingly rich and decide to just retire in the countryside, it would probably be in a similar setup.

These little guys were following me around the garden- Philippine magpie-robin (Copsychus mindanensis)

A couple of interesting facts about the Tuko or Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko):
1) They're quickly becoming threatened in the Philippines, because they're in high demand in traditional Chinese medicine.
2) They have a very loud, distinctive call that made American soldiers in the Vietnam War dub them the "fuck you lizard". 

My last full day, I decided to take a boat out to Siquijor Island, a smaller island about an hour and a half southeast of Dumaguete. Siquijor was known as the Isla del Fuego during Spanish times, apparently because it glowed during the night thanks to the numerous fireflies on the island. In the present day, it's best-known due its reputation for powerful shamans and witchcraft. Many Filipinos are wary of visiting, for fear of getting on the wrong side of a shaman, whereas lots of hippies go out of their way to visit it for similar reasons. It's also well-known for beautiful beaches and diving.

Once I got to the island, I realized that I actually had no idea what I planned to do there, and of course I hadn't brought my guidebook along with me. Instead of going somewhere in particular, I decided to just rent a motorbike and see how far I could get before it was time to return for the boat back to Dumaguete. Now, I've never ridden a motorbike before. In many places that would be at least a little bit of an obstacle to renting one. In Siquijor though, I was just dragged to the rental place and had a bike thrust at me. I paid 300 pesos (about $6), the guy showed me how to turn it on, and off I went. I got there a little late unfortunately, so I was stuck with the only automatic bike they had left- the small, hot pink model. 

My trusty steed.

Unfortunately I wasn't on the island long enough to try picking up a hot date with my new ride, so instead I just got onto the main road along the island and started driving, with no idea where I was going. There's something incredibly liberating about having no objectives and no-one to tell you what you need to be doing, so even though I may not have used my day as efficiently as possible, it was incredibly satisfying just exploring for its own sake.

A century-old fig tree up in the mountains. I'm not sure why 100 years is considered impressive, but it was a damn big tree. There were some stalls nearby this selling strange-looking oils for various ailments, as well as "love potions". I got medicine for headaches just for fun, but decided to stay away from the love potion; my love life is weird enough as it is without involving witchcraft.

The joy of the open road.

The St. Isidore Church in the town of Lazi- another old church made of coral-stone.

Casiguran Falls in the middle of the island, in the middle of some of the last non-deforested land on Siquijor. 

Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus)

The countryside in the top of the island- it was pretty, but it was also sad to see how much of the original vegetation had been denuded. That's bad news environmentally, but also economically since there's now nothing to protect from erosion or landslides.

After biking over the top of the island, I decided to find a good spot to walk along the ocean. Perhaps because I grew up about 5 minutes away from a beautiful beach in Michigan and got spoiled, beaches are never really the first thing I seek out when I travel. So, instead I just followed signs for a marine preserve, got lost somewhere along the coast, ad ended up in a tiny fishing village along the ocean. It was just before sunset, and there were still a number of people out in the water "gleaning"- looking for edible shells and other marine detritus that could be sold. One of the things I learned in the conference was that gleaning is employed more often when the sea itself has been overfished. Overfishing is a huge problem in the Visayas, the islands in the central Philippines, due to growing population and more destructive fishing methods. People are very aware of the problems with overfishing, but many are forced to continue because there aren't opportunities to find other sources of livelihoods.

The boats with the outriggers are called bangkas- one of the symbols of the Philippines.

Brittle stars!

I was wondering why this crab was staying so still for pictures. Then I realized it was dead.

The first time I'd ever seen a hermit crab in the wild. Obviously I haven't spent much time near the ocean.

I'm not sure why I like this picture, because objectively it's not that great of a picture. It reminds me of a painting for some reason. 

It's hard to describe how nice it was to be out of Manila for an extended period of time, and it made me realize how much I really needed to leave the city for good. Of course, when I do that isn't entirely up to me- waiting, remember? Still, it does feel as if it's getting closer and closer, and part of me feels like it won't be soon enough, much as I'll miss some parts of it Until then, I'll be here, enjoying the big city. And probably stuck in traffic.

Negros from above.

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog, and does not in any way represent the views of the US Department of State or the Fulbright Commission. I encourage readers to reach out with any complaints or inaccuracies.