April 16,

Jeff was still having digestive issues and I did mildly also. So we mostly stayed in, having a laid back day. Breakfast was veggie omelet and toast for Jeff. I went with French toast and sliced banana… Roy had to borrow our scooter to get the banana.🤣  After our meal we hung out at our place. Jeff was taking the last of some GI medicine we’ve had since India(??) I think that’s right. There’s enough for today only. I was just uncomfortable, “crampy,” so I did not need any.

Around lunch time we went into San Vicente on our scooter. We chose to eat at Aloy’s Grill & Restaurant. I wanted soup, so I ordered a small Chicken Lomi, which is a chicken noodle soup. It was a huge serving bowl, enough for 3-4 people!😂🤣 I also had an order of fries. Jeff had Tuna Ceviche with rice and Buko, which is a coconut meat shake. We both loved our food and enjoyed the feel of the place more than the restaurant yesterday. It cost us 705 PHP, which was $12.45, but they did not have the change of 95 PHP to give us back. So Jeff said to make it 50PHP. Again crazy coin issues, but Jeff was thankful to not be carrying 95 pesos worth of coins! We had them put the other half of the soup in a take away bag. There was a French(?) couple there as well. So there are a few other tourists here.

We left the restaurant and went to the three different Pharmacies here. Nobody had the anti-diarrhea medicine we wanted, so hopefully the days dosing we have will be enough for Jeff. We went back to our place and afternoon evening was watching YouTube, having popcorn, and “chill-axing”. Clouds rolled in so no visible sunset.😢

     April 17,

Up and about – we both felt normal!!!  Yahoo! When I looked out the windows were wet so it had rained sometime through the night. We got around. We like our place here the views are excellent and the breakfasts are great, but the shower… Well, you do get wet, but it surges- volume (full out to a very minimal trickle then back full) and temperature (almost scalding to too cool). It is very fickle and keeps you guessing. It does make for quick showers! Breakfast this morning was veggie omelet and toast for Jeff. I went for scrambled eggs and toast. We have been having our Javas, but we don’t have a kettle up here. Jeff goes down for hot water around eight and brings it up. We sit out on our balcony porch area and watch the sea as we wake up (or relax after our jumping about in the shower😝).

After we finished, and since we both felt better this morning, we jumped on our scooter. We stopped at a local barbershop… Jeff needed a haircut! We had to wait about 10 minutes. Then the barber called Jeff, asked what he wanted, and I showed him a picture. He did a fine job! The price was posted 80 PHP!!! Jeff gave 100 PHP, which is $1.77. That price was…. Unbelievable!  Now we went over to Long Beach. We parked and walked a potion of this beach. There were a few scattered fishing boats on the shore, and less people than boats. We just enjoyed the ocean and sounds of waves. One way along the beach, the sky had clouds stacking up; and the other way was clear. It was strikingly different. When we started feeling the sun quite a bit we loaded up and scootered on back.

Arriving at the main town, we stopped at Aloy’s and had a shake each. I had a Mango and Jeff had the Buko. We finished and paid 200 PHP, or $3.53. On the way back to our village and place we stopped at a very local bakery and bought some bread with a splurge of two cookies. Once at our place we were thinking of getting our soup out for lunch. Jeff went down to get some water and was taking awhile so I went down. Roy’s wife was making Cassava type bread and offered us one. We nixed the soup. The cassava was so tasty with some toasted coconut shavings inside. As we were sitting on our balcony eating it with the bread and cookies, a bunch of thunder started rolling and echoing about. Sure enough a thunderstorm commenced! We were glad we had made it back, as it began we went inside our place. It started pouring… as in a lot! It lasted 20 minutes and was torrential.

After the rain finished we were settling in when we has a knock on the door, “Sir?” It was Roy and another man. He wanted to get our breakfast order for tomorrow. We decided placing our order, and then Roy introduced us to the owner of the Guesthouse. Roy bowed out – he bowed our scooter again. The owner’s name escapes me now, but we talked for quite a bit. He’s Filipino, but just came back from Florida. I did not catch if he lives there part time??? Anyway, he mentioned how next year this beach will be commercial as it is already licensed this way. The government will move the substance fishermen to another area. Ahh… so progress?? The airport here just opened, so it is bound to happen, I guess.

Around 1730, we hopped on the scooter, and went to “Hundred Steps.” It is a vista view point for stunning area views and quite busy at sunset. It cost 25 PHP/person (44 cents) entry and closes after sunset at 1830. It was a great 360 degree panoramic view! There were a number of locals there enjoying and three other tourists – two of which were the French couple from Aloy’s yesterday. The sunset was a fairly decent one, but we didn’t wait around for the after show. Jeff wanted to get back before it got to dark, as it had just rained. (Did I say it was a lot… a good tropical rainstorm.) Anyway, it was a steep dirt road and the wet did not aid, then adding darkness… Well, that’s a recipe for disaster!

We stopped at another local bakery and found some dinner rolls. Back at our place, we now heated our soup and had the dinner rolls with it for supper. Beautiful day and we were able to get out and enjoy it!