A Quick Study

 

 

 

Here you can see Mike's ridiculous hand made guitar made of mango and all kinds of other rare woods, in addition to Dek really taking to his Ukelele. He would enjoy "singing" along (i.e. he'd do this hum along thing but without words "uh Oh iiii oooh, ahhh" when Mike would sing). 

Climbing on Up

 

One of the later stops on the tour, we stopped at the Clarin Ancestral House. The house dates back to the 1840s and was the home of the former governor of Bohol (when it was still a Spanish colony). Descendants of the house live in it until this day. The main reason I'm posting this is just to show you how "hands on" Dek was about everything in the Philippines. He wants to touch everything. Stairs, floors, toilets - you name something unsanitary or unsafe - this kid would go for it. After awhile we gave up, but by the end of the day he'd be like a little Pig Pen with his own cloud of dust, not to mention layers of dirt on his feet, following him everywhere.

Floating Lunch

 Next stop on the journey was: lunch! We got to enjoy lunch on the boat, or on a "floating restaurant" which was complete with buffet and also a Filipino singer that covered all kinds of obscure 80s power ballads and oldies type music that gave Mike flashbacks of singing for his uncles as a child.

Let me tell you, meat-on-a-stick was a total winner with this little guy. Luckily, he didn't get ill from eating anything on the trip (Mike got a touch of food poisoning after eating at this "floating" restaurant ordeal)

The Loboc River included some amazing views of tropical scenery while we enjoyed our leisurely lunch.

The river cruise stopped at a village where women and children played ukeleles and danced with us. They invited Dek to join in on the fun for a photo op. He happily (mostly) obliged. We totally made him the first one on the boat and start dancing since the rest of us were too shy. Of course, Dek has no issues with the spotlight and loved it.

Like I said, more meat on a stick (I think he hate 5 or 6). What can I say, Dek did not starve on this trip in the least.

Butterfly Sanctuary Stop

 

 

 

I'll try to keep getting a couple of posts each day of the different stops on our trip. Today's is a little later since I had to sort out some photo issues at home.

Continuing on... our countryside tour of Bohol included many stops that I'll include in the next round. After our stop at Chocolate Hills, we headed to this little Butterfly Sanctuary where you could walk around with butterflies all around you. Dek was a bit scared of the caterpillar, despite our introduction of the Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar book previously. He had a good time, and our guide offered to take cheese photos of all of us with "wings" including Dek who is almost about to jump!

Alona Beach!

With "Cur-Teen" (Co Christine) as they go for a wade at dusk. 

Enjoying the wave less water in Alona. 

 Pooltime!

Climbing Chocolate Hills

 While in Bohol, we got to explore the really nice countryside, which included lots of scenic ride paddies, mountains and greenery.  One of the more remarkable landmarks was "Chocolate Hill" - which are over 1200 limestone formations the size of a small mountains, or rather tall hills, that stretched across the country side. Folk tale has it that they are tears from a giant, or poos from a rather large caribou.  During dawn, they actually look more brown and also in the fall when things dry out a bit, hence the name.  Regardless, it was a very sunny day and Dek had to be carried up pretty high so he could enjoy the view. We were all sweating pretty badly, but glad to see this signature site.

 Doesn't he look thrilled? Not quite. 

Still not as thrilled with dad. 

 Headed down the mountain.  This is where I couldn't really even enjoy things much since I was quite worried he would take tumble that would land him in an accident.  In the weeks following our trip though, Derek will often flip open to the guide book and exclaim "Chocolate Hills!" though he wasn't that impressed on the actual visit. 

My First Guitar (Ukelele)

 

 

The main reason we stopped in Cebu is to get Mike's guitar, but while we decided to go for the bonus feature and get Dek his "first guitar" - a ukelele! Truly spoiled. Your first guitar is handmade in the Philippines, Derek! Now he'll point to it and say "Derek's guitar!" vs. Daddy's guitar which is much bigger.