Interesting day… I hope a resting night too… The problem is my neighbour’s sound… I am in Cebu City, Philippines. I took a plane Manila - Cebu this evening, and here I am. Shockinq day; first, the airport. The domestic wing. Posh. Snob. That is the word. Domestic flights are too expensive in the Philippines. The light isn’t enough. I’ll write some more tomorrow.
Back at work… the office. Back from the remote places. Well, it sounds strange to those places to be called “remote”. Overpopulation. That is the word. I have been with Stephany spending four days and a half on the… wilderness (?) of the northern Luzon - biggest Philippines island. We have a tent - pretty cool, actually - brand new and wanted to use it. Not a simple deal. The more distance to Manila, the less developed and poor. I always think while moving around Manila that it deceives… it shows a more-developed-than-reality face of the Philippines. The more I now about this particular country, the more I want to know. For me it is a big impact, a big shock to observe some facts of the daily Philippine life. Garbage problem. Dirtiness. In my opinion, it is a matter of education. You take a car. You drive. You arrive to the middle of nowhere. Then, there is a village. Actually, may not be even called “a village”. Let’s say, a set of huts. Some huts. A few. And the garbage. The garbage watches you. They are surrounded by it. IT. It is disgusting to hear from First World Bastards… “yes, I know… tropical people… they are… lazy…” Ummmmmm hard to say that. I do not think Philippine people are lazy AT ALL. They are always active. Calm, but working. Moving under this burning rays of sun. I think it is all about customs; all about education; all about what they have been doing forever before; all about what their parents were doing. Just, discarding. Piling up. Garbaje chaos. Polution. My nose is black. It is black since the second week of my stay here. It is true that Manila is really polluted, but it hides the whole reality. Actually, the Whole Reality does NOT exist, so let’s talk about my view. Poluted; that is MY VIEW. Pollution. Not only within Metro Manila. Let’s jump into driving. I think it is an important part of the Philippine development level… how to move inside the country. By land. Chaos. Roads are basic, but not bad. The word “highway” does not match with my previous idea of it, but it is still good enough. The problem is again, knowledge. How to drive. It is clear that the resources are not being fully used, as far as two-lane-roads are normally used 50%; right lane is normally reserved for parking and pedestrians, mostly. It is even dangerous to use completely the road. I have been driving some hours during this free days… and it has been nice. It has some kind of magic… I mean… chaos itself, but some kind of hidden rule… some kind of hidden link between all the vehicles that make the system quasi-work. Yeah, I do not why, but I think that happens. It works. It is possible to drive pretty comfortably. Back to office…
At the office again… I have just updated this weekend new text. Um, sounds blurring. What this weekend happened is that we went diving to Anilao. It is a well known area in the south of Philippines’ biggest island - Luzon. Why well-know? Um, I am not sure if it is because it’s quality diving spots and beaches or it is because it’s proximity to Manila (about two hours - which is quite a short trip within the Pilipino timing and taking into account the quality of the roads). Anyway, we spent the whole weekend there… and it was quite nice. We took five dives - two on Saturday and three on Sunday - which built my underwater experience up to 13 dives. That means I am ready to take the advanced course… while I am yet fighting with my own mind about the decision. Right now I am pretty sure that I am going to take it, and most likely with the same instructor as I took the basic course - Alex Floro. He will be out for approximately one month since now… which makes a nice timing for me, and I could join Stephany taking her course; she is planning taking the basic course with he same guy, so it will be possible to make the course at the same time. It does not matter the fact that we will take different courses… we can make it with Mr. Relax - Alex Floro. Interesting to compare Alex Floro and Chester ways. Chester is last weekend’s instructor. He works in a shop that fixes adventure sports up. Like Floro. Actually, I felt like the fact of diving alternatively with both makes it more… complete. Chester is really good for beginners - like me. He explains very well. He has really good communication skills. He explains you everything clearly, dividing any task into short, simple, defined steps. He guides you, he pulls you to do anything in his way. Alex is kind of opposite… He never pulls you. He never explain things in such a step-by-step way. He just lets you explore by yourself. Alex encourages self learning. Watching him is an experience, itself. This guy is 30 years old and had spent half of his life diving. Isn’t it amazing? Yeah, let’s consider it outstanding… He seems to be this underwater eminence, taking you down. He seems to be sick of telling stupid beginners: “for setting the weight belt up you have to take the belt, put it around your waist and close it”. Doesn’t it sound STUPID? Yes, that is the information that Alex Floro omits. He would never tell you which color should you wear, because he doesn’t give a fuck about it. Chester is more step-by-step-guy. He would probably make a big thing out of wearing a weight belt. Interesting, isn’t it? Yeah, I spent some time during the weekend discussing with Stephany about The Two Ways. Good to have both available. Good to know where the both ways are.