Pagsanjan Falls and Nayong Pilipino

In August we had a visit from our son, Bruce.  He was on a business trip to Bangkok, Thailand and stopped in Manila on his way back to the U.S.  We went on a boat out to Corregidor, which we had done previously with Derek when he came.  Then we traveled down south of Manila to Laguna Province and went on another boat to Pagsanjan Falls.  This boat was a lot, lot smaller, more like a canoe and we had two locals to paddle and drag us up stream.  Here we are on the boat:

 

 

There was not a lot of water at some of the rocky areas, so the two paddlers got out and pulled us up the rocks.  It was quite a workout for them with 3 Americans sitting in the boat.

Notice the bare feet running over the rocks...
We made it up to the falls and then rode on a bamboo raft right under the falls.  This explains why we had plastic helmets to wear.  The water was pounding on us, but we survived.

It was great having Bruce visit.  We never thought we would get more than one son to come, but to have two come was great.  We definitely are blessed. 

 

 

Dale and I went up North of Manila one Saturday in late August and visited the area where Clark Air Force Base used to be.  It is still there, but not operating as a U.S. Air Base.  Close to the base is a special cultural park that has cultural exhibits from all over the Philippines.  There was a greenhouse with some rare orchids, such as the ones above.

 



 

 There were also replicas of houses representing different areas of the Philippines.  They use a lot of bamboo to weave siding for the houses and they also use the bamboo for flooring.  There were even bamboo trees planted in the park.  See Dale hiding in the bamboo. . .

 

 

There was also another use for the bamboo.  We saw a cultural show presented at the park and the dancers did a bamboo pole dance.  Two people hold the bamboo poles at opposite ends and tap them on the floor and then bring them together and tap.  While they are doing that, the dancers step between the bamboo going in and out.  They can do this amazingly fast.  Here's a picture with blurry dancers because they are moving so fast.

 

 

After visiting the cultural park we went to a Mexican restaurant near the base.  We had heard from the other senior missionaries in our mission that it was decent Mexican food and actually looks like a restaurant you could find in America.  It was pretty good food for being in the Philippines.  There are very few Mexican food places here.

 

 

I will add one other picture from our apartment.  We had some of the young missionaries over on preparation day and showed them a mission approved movie, "Wreck It Ralph."  I think they are only allowed to watch Disney movies.  It was fun to have them over.

 

There are five Filipinos and one New Zealander.