June 20, 2011
We’re home—hot, tired, and completely enthralled with our short overnight trip to Moalboal on the other side of the island. I had asked Larry what he would like for Father’s Day and he quickly replied that he wanted to go on an overnight trip to a beach where he could snorkel. When President and Sister Byram found we were planning to ride the bus to Moalboal and then find a tricycle to a resort where we had never been, they offered to drive us in the mission van. We invited Ganirs and Jorgensens along for the ride too. It is so refreshing to get out of Cebu. An island paradise opens up away from the city, and it is rejuvenating to the soul to see such natural beauty. The two and a half hour ride was delightful with the company and the scenery. Both President Byram and Elder Ganir love to just drive and drive.
The directions to the Tibolo Resort were a little vague on the internet, and so we were not sure where to go once we arrived in Moalboal. After a wrong turn and some backtracking we finally paid a tricycle driver 50pesos to lead us to the resort. We traveled down a dirt road seeing signs for several small resorts along the way—and also seeing some run-down shacks which the others teased me about by saying, “There’s your resort, SisterWard.” When we finally did pull up to the outer buildings, Sister Byram and Sister Ganir said, “We’re not leaving you here until you have seen your room, and know it is safe to stay.” The restaurant and office were open air Filipino style Nipa huts. The guestrooms were connected with an outside veranda with bamboo tables and chairs by each unit. I went in and inspected our accommodations which were not the Taj Mahal, but the room was clean and fairly new and actually had a lot of personality: bamboo twin beds, bamboo etagere and bamboo stools; the curtains and bed covers were made of the same patterned material; the floors were tiled, the ceiling was divided into squares by strips of bamboo, and there was a ceiling fan as well as a small air conditioning unit. The bathroom had toilet paper, towels, soap and even a toilet seat on the flush toilet. (That’s how you tell if your accommodations are really good here—many of the bathrooms don’t have toilet seats, toilet paper or towels!) The hot water shower was a wand beside the toilet—no stall or shower curtain, and when Larry showered, the whole floor was covered with water but it all drained back into the floor drain. There was no TV, but that was fine because we did not come to watch TV. The grounds outside the rooms were lovely with many flowering plants and bushes and coconut trees. The pathways winding around the buildings were crushed coral and lined with lovely purple spear-like leafed plants. Steps carved into the volcanic rock led to the sand and coral beach. It was a lovely setting. Our friends left us feeling we were safe and would be comfortable. (On their way home a coconut fell from a tree hitting the van and breaking one of the side mirrors! How many people get hit by a falling coconut?)
Larry and I walked down the beach to investigate our surroundings. He discovered that the reef was less than 30 yards from the shore. We picked up a few shells for our collection, then Larry wanted to explore farther down the beach by himself and I climbed back up the steps to find Nelie, the girl we had met in Bacolod at the travel agency in February, waiting to see us. I had sent her an email telling her we were coming to her hometown, but had not heard back, so we were surprised and delighted that she had found us. She came in and talked to us for 30 minutes and we made plans to meet her the next day. Larry had brought all the Church brochures he could find to give to her. She is a member but has not been able to attend Church for years. She attended two months after she was baptized and then moved back to Moalboal and there is no branch here—the closest is about 30 miles away. We lay on our beds watching two lizards play tag on our ceiling. Larry, true to form, decided he wanted to discover more about what the neighborhood was like even though it was dark. He came back in just minutes, telling me later that a woman had propositioned him! That might have been one of the reasons he didn’t sleep more than an hour, but he said he was like a little boy waiting for Christmas morning, he was so excited to get out and go snorkeling!
I didn’t hear him leave our room, but he was walking the beach by 5:30 and was in the water snorkeling by 6am. When he bounded in the door just before 8, the room filled with his exuberance. “You can’t believe what I have seen! This is the best place yet!” And he proceeded to describe in great detail the varied colors and sizes of starfish and coral and fish he had observed. He absolutely LOVED it. He stripped off his wet clothes (yes, he wore his long khakis and his sport shirt plus his socks and the tennis shoes he bought here then cut the toes out because the largest size shoe he could find was a 12, and he wears a 14!), showered, redressed and then we went for breakfast at the outdoor restaurant. The owner of the combined tiny restaurant and about 10 cottage complex is a German who came to the Philippines 20 years ago and married a beautiful Filipino who bore him a son and two daughters. He has taken them to Europe and the US on trips, but they always return to Moalboal. He also runs a Planet Action Adventure guide service that does mountain biking, canyoning, trekking, horse back riding, volcano expeditions, climbing, rappelling, caving, etc. He told us he had been in Utah and had visited Moab but hadn’t time to do much there. I invited him to come back some time when he could stay longer. There was quite a cosmopolitan group staying at his Tipolo Resort—Three Germans, an Australian, a few other Americans and some other white people from ??? The food was pretty good, and the servings were very substantial. No one would go away hungry. Larry and I walked around the neighborhood for a short time, but he was anxious to get back in the water. Even being stung by a jellyfish did not dampen his enthusiasm. The big red painful welts on his arms testified of his encounter, but he didn’t actually see the culprit.
Nelie came back at 11:45 and we had lunch together. When we checked out of our room, Larry promised that we would be back. Nelie chased down a tricycle whose driver took us to the Orchid Gallery which was supposed to have 200 varieties of orchids. Unfortunately, we saw only three different kinds, but there were hundreds of pots filled with greenery and hanging root systems—just no flowers! Apparently they have “seasons” when they bloom. There were several exotic birds in cages, one of which would whistle the flirting “pretty girl” whistle and then say “Hello”; there were also monkeys, big and little baby ones. Our tricycle driver waited for us (I’m sure he was happy to wait since the usual fare is about 20 pesos and we paid him 200!). He drove us to the bus station where we loaded onto a non air conditioned bus that would take us back to Cebu over the hairpin turn roads, but with the windows down it wasn’t too bad until we picked up more people at one of the many stops along the road and we had to share our seat with a young Filipino college student returning to school—then it got hot and uncomfortable because we couldn’t even squirm in our seats. Larry’s knees will be bruised from being crunched! With his sore chest muscles from so much swimming, his stinging arm and his bruised knees he will be a fine physical specimen, but it won’t stop him for going back for more. At least he wore his hat so his head wasn’t sunburned as well.
We hope all of you had fun Father’s Days too!
Love, Mom and Dad. Grandma and Grandpa, Mary and Larry
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