narra and the tree farms part two

the second day we walked even more and checked out some gardens we hadn't seen the first day. dad and jade talked to every caretaker to see how everything was going and to discuss what still had to be done. since they only talk filipino jade did most of the talking and translated everything for my dad, but i usually just spaced out and enjoyed the view :)

above the road leading up to the farms, if you click on it, you'll see two brownish spots, that's the highest point, the picture in the middle shows it more up close (the cottage on the left is where the house will be) and the right one is me with my dad chilling in a resting cottage thingy

below a couple of nice views:

the creek, it's water from the mountains so it's drinkable and very very nice, on the right a couple of guys cleaning the newest garden

the picture on the left is a nursery in narra. the seeds are planted here and when the seedlings are ready, they're transported to the tree farm, but they can't just be put into the ground immediately. the seedlings need to rest first in order to get used to the climate and just feel at home i guess. if you just stick them in the ground there's a good chance they won't grow. so the caretakers have to build a resting place (picture left) where the seedlings can adjust and chill out, until they are ready to go to the gardens.

we also went into town to get some stuff:

old skool coke bottles, a street, the market

inside a store, two filipino style jeeps

the money, which is very gross, since palawan is an island and there's almost never any new money coming in, a police car (you see that a lot, words spelled out exactly how they're pronounced)

people who wanted their picture taken

that evening i walked on the beach and found this:

beach stuff

if you look closely, you'll see a man with a beard and a hat in this tree trunk, palm trees

bangka and a very creative anchor (yes it is a rock)

this is me in a bangka, not knowing i would be almost facing my death that day...dum dum dummmmm. destination: isla arena. this is on the backside of the resort btw, it was next to the beach. so we left early in the morning the next day and the weather was a little shitty as you can see. i was amazed that this tiny little pile of bamboo held together with rusty nails, rope and a few tie-wraps was able to bring the six of us to an island 20 minutes further ahead. i was sitting in front trying to take some pics, but the waves kept hitting the front, so i put my camera away after a while...

that tiny thingy in the middle is the island, the right one is from the front of the bangka

it was so awesome despite of the weather. the island was really tiny, you can walk around it in like ten minutes. and there was just us and a couple of people who are staying there i think, building a resort or something. so all you do all day is chill out, hang out on the beach, swim, lay in a hammock and hold tortoises!

a big one, a tiny one and lots of tiny ones, cute!

the guy who owns the island wants to preserve tortoises so he has a nursery. when they are big enough to take care of themselves he lets them go. this picture shows the nursery from the tree house.

after that we had lunch, chicken adobo. it's a filipino dish and if you ever have the opportunity to go to the philippines, you must absolutely try it. chicken adobo with garlic rice mmmm. and fresh mango juice mmmm. or fresh coconut juice mmmm. and a plate of veggies. or noodles mmmm. anyway, the rest of the island looked a little like this:

waves, waves, my footsteps in the sand


root of a tree, palm tree and two little friends


the incredibly awesome treehouse where i chilled out when it started to rain, the other two are the stormy views from the treehouse

when the sky cleared i went snorkeling and found myself surrounded by a billion small fish i didn't even notice at first (they have this sandlike colour). they were seriously swimming around me in a circle, it was so cool and i wasn't even that far from the beach. i just sat down and looked around and thought about patrick watson's 'man under the sea' (album: close to paradise, 2006) and how it totally felt like that.
we left pretty early in the afternoon, because the guy who was bringing us back told us we had to leave, due to the weather. we got on the bangka and it was very windy. luckily it wasn't raining the way back, but i was still soaking wet because the waves were hitting the bangka really hard. in the beginning i was like woohoo, waves!! but when we almost tipped over the first time i got terrified! the wind started blowing even more, the waves got bigger and i was hanging on tight to the side (there isn't much else to hang on to). the sail broke halfway which scared me even more and we almost tipped over another couple of times. i was already thinking about where to swim to and who to help get there and which island was closer and realizing that there really wasn't any island closeby and thinking ow shit, are there any sharks here, damnit my camera is going to die, is my camera memory card waterproof, quite amazing how this tiny little pile of bamboo held together with rusty nails, rope and a few tie-wraps is surviving all this (ok, except for the sail), why aren't there any other boats around, they probably don't have lifeguards here, i hope it's not gonna rain, don't make any sudden movements just keep sitting still, i'm so calling my mom when we make it home...
...and we did make it home after an hour or so. during dinner we laughed about it, while enjoying the best bbq'd chicken i've ever had in my life (and i've had plenty, trust me). the guy who owns the resort makes it, we ate it almost every night we were there! picture left is the cottage i stayed at, nice huh! there was a mosque nearby, so every morning around six some chanting guys and the muslim dog who howled with them, woke me up...

we still managed to go to the treefarm before dinner, to meet up with some engineers who will make the road leading up to the treefarm. the road now isn't good enough (it's the one the van got stuck in) and it goes trough other properties (even though it's just jungle). i don't really know tho whole story precise, but a couple of years ago a lot of land got divided into different properties, marked with rocks stuck in the ground. so in order to build the road, these rocks need to be found so it won't go trough any properties and there will be no hassle afterwords. if you ask me the government should actually build this road, but since that will never happen and it has to be placed there in order to transport stuff, my dad has to arrange it. so first it's finding these markers (in the jungle) and then you can see where the road actually is supossed to come, hire engineers to set up everything and then build the road. so it was just business talk and i was bored and took some pics:

in search of markers, the road now and the main entrance


son of one of the caretakers and a sweet puppy

then we went up to guillermo's place where everyone was chilling and to talk over the last things. it's so cool that they always walk with us to the van when we leave to say goodbye :)

this ends the narra story...it was relly amazing and i can't wait to go back again. my dad will be retiring next year and they'll move there. one of the caretakers is building a house (like the ones on the farm) where they'll stay untill the house is finished. so when i'm done in new zealand i'll visit them to see how everything turned out and maybe help out with some stuff, don't know yet...