May 3,

Jeff has started symptoms of my cold. Crazy that it has been like 2.5 weeks and he just now getting it. Makes me bad though. Anyway, he had awake since just before 0500, and I didn’t get to sleep until around 0100. So we did not sleep well again. It rained briefly this morning. We slowly got around and had our Javas and then our breakfast of scrambled eggs with onion and garlic with pan toasted pesto bread or camp toast. We also did another load of laundry… so glad when we have a washer in our apartment. It just makes it convenient.

Then we went out around 1015 to return the scooter. We hit a window when it was not raining. There was a no trouble with the return and after we left “Lauren”, we decided to finally ride in a Jeepney. We caught the next one we saw and crowded into the back and rode like so many locals. We arrived near the public street market area, and got out here, along with many others. We were charged 20 PHP (36 cents) for the both of us!! It probably would have been less if we would have had smaller change, but we only had a 100 Peso bill. The Jeepneys are convenient and cheap, but noisy and warm. I would use it again if I did not have real far to go and the weather was iffy, like today. We walked along the market with stalls selling everything from- meat and veggies to goods and clothes. Many locals are here buying. As we were walking, a local store had their employees out dancing on the sidewalk & street to choreographed music! So you have to have rhythm to work there.🤣😂  That was new one for me… workers dancing outside the building!!

Then we came to a little park with a photo op advertising Bacolod as the “City Of Smiles”. I don’t think I had mentioned that. All the bigger cities here seem to have a tagline, branding them. Anyway, we did our selfie. Now we went back to the San Sebastian Cathedral. We were able to go inside and see the beauty displayed. It was all ivory white with gold trim. There were rows and rows of pews. I don’t know how many or the amount of people it could hold, but it had to be in the hundreds. The ceilings were arched and had huge fans to stir the air. The transept had a columned gazebo structure, setting the altar even further away from the pews, but it highlighted the alter dramatically.

Now we walked to the mall near us and went inside to get more steps. Then we went back to our place, and cooled off. After a couple of hours we went back out for lunch. We went back to Aida’s Inasal Chicken, ordering the great chicken, a chorizo, and a garlic rice. I had a Sprite and Jeff had a San Miguel beer. We will miss this place… so good.

After we finished and we walked to The Negros Museum. Our entry was 100 PHP each ($1.80 each). This was a pretty small Museum but we spent a good deal of time here. There was a small exhibit of a local lady. The placard read, “Maria Beatriz ‘Patis’ Pamintuan Tesoro is an icon of Philippine fashion and textiles” and had some material draped on a canopy. It seemed a lot of write up for just this. Then there was a room dedicated to sugar cane and it’s production. Next was a set up of an upscale Filipino House, similar to what we had seen in Cebu. The display included the birthing chair, a “Butaka”, that we had seen before. A last room in the museum, displayed paintings of native peoples. We finished and it was pouring rain… so we had seen a theater and had watched a short animated film there. So we went back. They were playing a life story of Vincent Van Gogh. It was like animated, but with brush strokes like his paintings. It was actually the best part of the museum for me. I don’t know when the film started… it would have been a long showing. We sat and watched for it at least an hour. When it ended it was 1630 and the museum was closing. It was just slightly raining now, but we had to use our umbrella and walked the couple of blocks back to our place.

The evening we videoed with my mom as tomorrow we will be flying. Supper was an apple salad I made with coconut yogurt and the last bit of herb cream cheese, slice of pesto bread, and a Chilean red wine, as it rained more.