orchids

Flowers from our area 1

Flowers from our area 2

Mickey Mouse flowers

Flowers from our area 3

Large fresh marlin and tuna are sold daily in the market

Young boy sells daily catch for grilling

Our team retreat

Nipa huts along local beach

On our kids daily ride to school they peer up at a nearby volcano that overlooks thousands of acres of sweet pineapple.

Fisherman on his way to get supplies for his daily catch

Sea urchins - steamed over an open flame, the flesh is scooped out with your finger. just a bit salty...

This crab is actually swimming, a local variety

Motorcycles can carry up to 11 people and loads over 200 lbs to bring people to places that cars and trucks wont go

Who is pulling whom

Fish market - ray for soup

Fish market - squid for grilling

Fish market - jumbo size

Hauling the fish from the boat to the buyers

Fish market - One of many large catches

Shark meat to be sold in local market

Nipa hut over the water

We came across this guy on the edge of our volleyball court

Fresh coconut being harvested for us on our hike in the hills above the bay

The carabao (water buffalo), an amazingly strong and dependable beast, is the farmers best friend

Just outside our city are hundreds of little villages and communities that flow along in long periods of peace, yet, occassionally are thrust into spurts of chaos by outside forces

Little white, soft shelled crabs are being scooped up for the evening stew

Our grilled tuna needed some protection from the warm tropical rain during a beach outing

Recenty harvested bananas ready to be prepped for packing in order to be shipped overseas

Disinfecting thousands of bananas before packing them

The bananas that do not quite pass the grade for going abroad are placed on a small conveyor belt and are sold to middle men who squeeze them into motorcycle carts in order to take them to the local market

We celebrated Philippine Independence Day at the beach, with protection from the sun provided by large Talisay trees

Our tropical island is an immensely beautiful place that lacks the intense typhoons that pass by just north of us

There are an amazing variety and quantity of orchids throughout our island similar to this tower of orchids

Each tuna in our local port is hand carried from the fishing boat and brought to the fish port where the middle man selects the prime fish for export.

SUSHI! Fresh Yellow Fin tuna just brought off the 60 foot rig and being prepped for immediate flight to Japan where it will be served as sashimi in just a few hours.

Fresh and canned fish are a major industry in our area. The best fish are shipped overseas but the left overs are still quite amazing!

You thought you had a good selection of seafood in Safeway!

The nearly ubiquitous Jeepney is the most common form of public transportation

A small eating joint in our little town. They find it hard to get repeat customers...

Public transportation can be stretched to the limit, even on the local tricycle. We once counted eleven people on one motorcycle which had people balancing on 2x4 planks for additional seats.

mother and daughter carabao