Sagada, March 12

Last Sunday, my mummy and I went for a ‘Pinay in Action’ run. It was 1.6 kilometres. My mum and I were tied together by an elastic band and my cousin Sari was there too. The boys couldn’t run because it was a girls only race. I got a stitch in the end but I ran all the way. We did it in ten minutes. There were four laps and after each lap, we got a yellow ribbon.

After the race, we got a ‘Pinay in Action’ mug and a pink rubber bracelet. We looked for my brothers and it turns out that they got free doughnuts and they were fresh and had just been made. It was so cool! We decided to get some free doughnuts ourselves. We also got to watch them being made. It started off as some dough, then it got shaped. When it came out, it got toasted and then it got flipped. After it got flipped, it went along the machine and into some icing. At the end, Sari got a squished doughnut.

When we went home, we had a refreshing swim at my cousin Sevi, Mica and Geo’s house. We got to eat pretzels, a sweet and some crisps. The pool was quite shallow.

We left for Banaue on Tuesday. Banaue is in the mountains and it is known for its rice terraces. Rice terraces are places where you grow rice on one side of a mountain. Some people say that this is the eighth wonder of the world. The rice terraces are about 2,000 years old. The view is very beautiful when you are up high. The journey from Manila to Banaue was eight hours. The road was very bumpy. In the mountains, there were lots of waterfalls. We even saw the source of one!

Today we left Banaue for Sagada. This time it took three and a half hours. We are staying in Rock Inn Hotel. The rooms are big. When we arrived, we left our stuff here and set off to see the sunset by a lake. Unfortunately, we could not find it. We saw two goats nibbling on a few shrubs.

Tali Beach, March 7

The past three days have been very exciting. I got to go to my cousin Sari’s school. The school was called St. Paul’s College. We had to wake up very early to go to school. We had to be there at 7 o’clock. But we finished early at 2:30. Everyone gave me a present – I got clay, notepads and pencils. I learned lots more Tagalog and the Maths was really fun. Sometimes at the bottom of the sheets it said ‘Good luck, girls!’ We had to do quizzes (they called the quizzes seatwork). I recited a poem called ‘Feelings’ to the class. I participated a lot in class. The school was an all-girls school. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my school shoes so I had to wear my trainers. I was in the ‘Best Girl’ list. This means that I was the best girl in all the class for my behaviour and schoolwork.

The school was different from my school because there was a canteen which had booths selling a variety of food. We also had to wear an ID which is a card with money in. Instead of learning French, we learned Tagalog. We had to pray a lot in school. We prayed in the morning and when each teacher came in. We also had to sing the national anthem at the start of the day.
I played with Bea, Sari and Sunny Kim. I talked a lot with them and I was in Sunny Kim’s group.

It was a great experience and I had so much fun. I would like to do it again.

Today we are back in Tali Beach. We have been playing in the pool a lot. We played golf in a mini course. I played very well today. Tito Phil and Tita Tech took us to lunch at Punta Fuego. I ate a ‘Hotdiggity’.

Calatagan, March 2

We went swimming and we had lunch in the bahay kubo. It is made out of bamboo and we heard a tuko inside the bamboo. A tuko is a big version of a gecko.

In the afternoon we came home.

Calatagan, March 1st

We had breakfast of bacon, koko flakes. When we got changed we went swimming and played “goofy” – it is a kind of game when the “itter” goes to the other end and calls out a category. You have to discuss it with your friends and then tell the itter what it is. If she calls out your thing then you have to swim to the other end and when you touch the other end you have to shout “goofy!” If you shout “goofy” first, then you are it.

In the afternoon we went on the quads and I got a bad stitch. When we got back we played outside.

Calatagan, February 29

In the morning we just hung around. In the afternoon we went to Calatagan to go to my friends’ (Patxi, Bea and Christina) country house. It was very big. We played a game and you had to pass the ball around as quick as you could but you couldn’t drop it or else you were out.

Puerta Princesa, February 28

On Thursday we went to the crocodile farm and we got to hold a baby crocodile. After that we went and saw lots of butterflies and cocoons. They were very beautiful. In the Philippines the name for a butterfly is paru-paro.

Then we went for lunch in a restaurant out in the sea. If you dropped your fork over the edge it would be the end of your fork.

In the afternoon we went swimming and I found one 10 peso and five 5 peso coins. Then we flew home.

Puerta Princesa, February 27

On Wednesday we started the day with a tour. We went to different places but the most exciting bit was going to the Subterranean River which is the longest navigable underground river in the world. There are loads of bats inside the cave. The mountain that it was underneath was called Mount St Paul because it was named after St Paul’s Cathedral by a British sailor.

There were shadows in the cave that looked like the Lion King, the Holy Family and horses. We had to wear a helmet in case we bashed our head on a rock. When we got to the middle of the river we saw a shape like the Skyway which is the motorway in the Philippines.

When we got back, we had lunch with Monitor Lizards. They are very very big lizards. We saw monkeys as well. One was chewing on the sign.

On the way home we had a break and saw some very cute kittens.

In the evening we went to the market. We saw lots of fish that sailors had caught that day or the night before. I slipped and put my foot in some yucky, yucky stuff!! After the market we went and had some dinner.