Going Potty in the Jungle

I don't recommend it.

Torpedo Rafting

Hands down, this was the BEST part of the trip so far.  Samar Island used to be extensively logged but now it is illegal to cut a tree that has not been planted by their tree planting program.  Local people who depended on logging have had to resort to new means of lively hood.  One budding entrepreneur started and eco tourism business using the dug out boats that the people here have used forever.  His team takes you down the Ulot River on a one hour trip, swim at the end for as long as you want, a delicious lunch and then a one hour trip back up river.  What a blast!  And the swim at the midpoint of the trip was even more fun.

 Here we are starting out.

Not a great shot of the rapids, but it was hard to get one any better than this.

 See mommy jump?

 Of course Stappy had to one up me.

You want me to jump WHERE?  It was worth it tho.  It is like jumping into a whirlpool.

This was heading back up river.  I wished I had gotten a photo of them pulling the boat up thru the rapids but I was paralyzed with fear thinking about being the next group.

At the end of the day when we were back in the truck, the military stopped us as we were leaving.  When I asked what that was all about I was told that Gaga, the director of Natural Resources, had asked them to strategically hide themselves along the riverbank to watch over us.  I guess there is a lot of illegal logging in the park and anybody who threatens the activities is fair game.  And to think, Daddy, you were only worried about me getting on unsafe ferries.  Bet you never dreamed of worrying about this, huh?  Me either.  Funny thing was, they drove us thru the park sitting in the pan of the pickup after this.  I felt like a sitting duck.

Drying Rice

There is a reason why rice packages say ‘wash before cooking’ on the instructions.  The streets and highways here are lined with plastic and tarps with rice spread over them to dry.   Sometimes there is no tarp and it is just spread on the pavement. Believe me, there are no emissions regulations and buses and trucks with black smoke streaming out the back come within inches of these homemade kilns, coating them with all of the evil toxins your little brain can imagine.  Often, when a large truck goes by at high speed, you can see the rice rise and scatter on the wind while the sweepers chase after it in an attempt to rescue what they can.  Then there are the chickens and dogs that are EVERYWHERE.  Every square inch of flat ground... soccer fields, school yards and parking lots, are covered in tarps loaded down with rice drying in the sun.

Unicef in Tacloban

We stopped at one of the malls in Tacloban City to change up some money and parked next to some of the Unicef vehicles in the mall parking lot.  I didn’t count, but would estimate that there were about eight of them.  I have no problem with relief workers having good food and a comfortable bed; after all, they are on the front line.  I cannot imagine working the way they are in this heat.  But look at these vehicles. 

 My flash bounced off the Unicef sticker in the first shot but the second shows it very well.

 A little over the top, don’t you think?  One of these would pay for 100 or more of the tiny (about 10’x10’) relief shelters that the homeless residents are still living in.  Not a great shot of the shelter but it gives you some perspective.

The driver of one of these vehicles got out and asked me why I was taking photos.  I had to fudge my way thru that!  He seemed to be on the defense, as he should.  It was vulgar to see the extravagance by this world relief organization in such stark contrast with the devastation surrounding them. 

Typhoon Yolande... a year after

I read about Typhoon Yolande in MacClean's magazine last year.  I remember thinking how awful it must have been and was struck by the enormity of the devastation..... and then I turned the page and started to read about the next bit of news.  There is nothing like walking in the streets where such a tragedy has occurred to drive home the horror.  One of our stops over the last week was Tacloban City.  Nothing could have prepared me for this. This city, the seat of Government in the Philippines, was flattened by Typhoon Yolande on November 8^th last year.  There is not a building in the city that was not touched.  Driving thru the streets you can still see where most buildings have the windows broken out or roofs ripped off.   The airport is still being reconstructed and because of the damage to the runways large aircraft are still unable to land.  It was flattened and much of the runway was destroyed.   It looks like a war zone here.  Yolande packed winds of 315km per hour making it the strongest documented typhoon anywhere.  The storm surge was three metres high and reached the first floor ceiling of everything in its path.  People here say that over 15,000 people were killed altho only 6300 deaths have been recorded.  Eleven million people were affected and many of those are still homeless.  The United Nations, Unicef, The WHO and many other humanitarian organizations still have a large presence here and are seen everywhere on the streets.  I sat next to the airline stewardess and struck up a conversation.  She said that the first flight that she took into the city after the Typhoon is forever imprinted on her mind.  She could see dead bodies all over the mountainside upon landing and when they opened the doors of the aircraft the smell of rotting flesh almost made her sick.   It looks the way I imagine Haiti looked after the earthquake.  It makes me realize how fragile we really are.

This is a before and after photo of Tacloban Airport

House with top story ripped off.

Truck thrown into the field.

Another destroyed building.

But look.... the people are still smiling.

model forest in Indonesia

I was invited to go on the field trip with the forestry crowd in Jogya.  It was very interesting... surprisingly. 

This is a photo of how the landscape looked in the model forest area in 1998.  I cannot imagine what was going thru the community's mind when they cut that last tree.  This area had been completely forested with a variety of trees including teak.  The government of the day insisted that all of the trees be harvested.  It was in 1998 that the government changed and the new president was concerned with being sustainable.

In 2004 they decide to replant and this photo shows the pegging process indicating where each tree would be planted.

Here they are transporting the tree seedlings to the planting area.

This is where the teak seedlings were started before bringing them to the mountain to plant.

The skinny on coffee here

When we were at the Phoenix Hotel in Jogja, I remarked to our favorite waitress, Ernie, on how good the coffee was.  She did the sales pitch, like a good employee, and showed us the pretty little boxes that they sell.  We decided to purchase two for gifts that she said would be waiting for us when we checked out.  When I picked them up on our last day and went to pay for them they were $180.00 American.  These boxes were about 6"x4"x 3" and most of that was packaging.  You may be surprised to know that I changed my mind on that particular purchase.  It would have come to 1/4 of our total bill for 4 nites, all of our meals, 2 massages and our bar bill.  I knew there had to be a story here.  On the field trip I asked Chitrek what the deal was with the coffee.  She tells me it was probably Luwak coffee.  The explanation....  coffee berries are fed to the Asian Palm Civet, a type of animal similar to a weasel.  They eat them for the fleshy pulp.  Once in the digestive tract the beans are fermented and pass thru the intestine and are defecated.  These beans are touted to be the best coffee beans in the world and sells for $700 U.S. per kilo.  The civet is farmed, often under cruel conditions where they are force fed.  Wild Luwak coffee is supposed to be much tastier than the farmed but there are no regulations here with labeling so farmed is often labeled as wild.

I think the anti sealing movement should concentrate on animals that are not quite as cute as seals but suffer in less palatable living conditions.  At least our seals enjoy some freedom.