Puerto Galera with Carol # 1

Randal is in the galley making us our first pineapple shake. I just tried it and you can almost imagine rum in it: it tastes just like one of those wonderful bar drinks with the little umbrella and cherries hanging from it. Yum! One day I’ll be brave enough to make us avocado shakes.

We just had the best weekend visit with our friend Carol Carino. She came to visit and she took us on a tour of Puerto Galera! We visited Escarceo Point Lighthouse, Coco Beach Resort, Tamaraw Falls, Calapan, Ponderosa Golf Course, White Beach and had a special breakfast and tour of The Moorings, a hotel and resort just up the hill from the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. Carol had stayed with us in Subic Bay when we were tied to the pier, but was afraid that the boat motion here would make her seasick. So she stayed at The Moorings and asked them to provide her with a car and driver. The “car” was a converted mini pickup truck with two benches set up in back. It was bright red inside and out, cute and actually quite comfortable. And we covered some really bumpy, hilly terrain. Between us, Carol and I took hundreds of photos. My favorite is the one where I made friends with a water buffalo! Carol took lots of photos of that and some video too. The pictures from the top of the old Escarceo Point Lighthouse are neat too. And then there are the ones from the VM restaurant in White Beach where Carol and I had really great Halo Halos. We saw beautiful scenery, ate too much food, and had an altogether wonderful time that was way too short.

Carol came Saturday late morning. Her driver, Michael, took her from Makati to Batangas where she caught a morning banca ferry to Puerto Galera.

After she checked into The Moorings and got settled she had her driver take her to Muelle Pier. Earlier in the morning Randal had gone to Sabang to pay for our Scuba outfits and was on the pier in the Rock N’Roll Café at the computer. He stayed there, but Carol took the service boat to DoraMac to bring us some vitamins. She had been kind enough to bring us a gift of Caltrate for me and Cardio vitamins for both of us. Carol wants us to stay healthy! About 11 she and I took the service boat back to the pier and we made our plan for the day. In trying to plan for Carol’s visit I had read about the Escarceo Lighthouse just outside of Sabang. Amazingly in our prior trips I hadn’t walked there. It is slightly uphill and about a mile out of Sabang the opposite direction from Puerto Galera. Carol’s driver Dante knew the area and took us there on our way to lunch in Sabang. The landscape and 360 view was lovely.

Then it was back to Sabang and lunch at Portofino.

After lunch we went off on another adventure, to Coco Beach Island Resort. Coco Beach is between Sabang and Puerto Galera so was on our way home. It was supposed to be a nice place to swim so we thought we would check it out for another day. It was much more interesting than a simple resort. More like a socially responsible resort that was trying to maintain the environment and offering good work to local families. I’ll tell you about it next email.

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac