Seeing the sights

We had an excursion arranged by the VFV org today, to see some of the local sights and go to the beach - hooray! It was an early start at 8:30am but we had lots to fit in...There were 5 of us volunteers, some of the families we are staying with and people from the VFV and we had a jeepney at our disposal for the day...

1st stop was a shrine built by Imelda Marcos (Santo Nino Shrine) between 1979-81, with many guest rooms, all themed. It was all very elaborate and a little indulgent considering she never actually stayed there. Interesting to look at though.

Next we went to a mountain (OK - a hill – but it was very steep!) that had different representations (about 7) of Jesus leading up to the crucifixion all the way up. At the top, was a 17ft high statue (approx) and a great view of the City and the sea beyond - typically our camera battery ran out here!

We then drove to and out on the San Juanico Bridge, which connects different islands - Tacloban City (Leyte side) and Sta. Rita town (Samar side). Managed to revive the camera here luckily as the views were fab.

Then we went back to Bliss to pick up the food for the afternoon and made our way to the beach. On the way, we saw Macarthur Landing Memorial - the spot where General Douglas MacArthur landed with the American Liberation Forces in 1944. The statues of the liberators stand in a lagoon, 1.5 times bigger than lifesize. It is also the site of the 50th Leyte Landing Anniversary Commemorative Rock Garden of Peace. (I copied that last bit from http://www.wowphilippines.com.ph as I couldn’t remember the details!)

After all this sight seeing we were ready to eat! As usual Nanay Marlyn had cooked up a feast and we ate well! Then I had a glass of tuba before going in the sea for hours! The sea was really was as you would expect but some of the waves were enough to knock you over! I was trying to help Twinkle to swim but it was difficult with all the waves…

By the time we went home, everyone was falling asleep in the jeepney and I reckon we all slept well that night!