The Wet, Wild West Visayas
After an eventful few days in Samar, we flew to Cebu on the afternoon of February 10. The plan was to spend a morning birding in Cebu looking for the extant endemics before Doug and Andrew headed to Panay and I returned to Bicol for a few days. I'd been to Cebu twice already, and gone birding both times; first in the Nug-As forest of southern Cebu with Nikki, and next in the Tabunan Forest nearby Cebu City. However, it had been a while and I had never managed good photos of the Cebu endemics so I was looking forward to returning. Cebu City is the second-largest city in the Philippines, and really the only other proper big city in the country besides Manila. It's actually quite a nice city, with great food, interesting culture, an unusually good airport, and a fascinating cultural heritage. Playing host to a major, prosperous city has been great for the economy of Cebu island, and for Cebuanos in general but it hasn't been so good for Cebu's ecosystem; almost 100% of ...