2nd October - Coron (Busuanga) - water collection

Thursday 2^nd October

Yesterday we could see big storm clouds over Coron.

Well we were ready, with our buckets, and our systems!  For a while the storm toyed with us – it rained to the right, then to the left, then somewhere else.  Eventually – yes!  It pelted down upon us and our preparations.

Pete has created a new system, aligned with the new white tarpaulin.  He bought a big bucket and drilled a hole in it, then shoved in a connector to the downpipe so that every drop which is collected in the bucket can go straight into the tank.  Nifty!

And it worked!

In the meantime I kept to the old system, off the old black tarp…

I think I managed to pour at least seven buckets of lovely fresh rainwater into the tank – SO satisfying!

After that we felt we had earned our lunch, so we had fabulous chili lobsters (little ones, like Moreton Bay bugs,) at Seadive.  (This is not at all extravagant…in fact I think it costs us about the same when we cook onboard as it does to eat out, in Coron.

We sat and tolked to Dolores at the Seadive office on he street.  I managed to capture the elusive Saint Monique 2.

The alley children had hijacked a tricycle parked outside – nobody seemed to mind..

We need to talk to Jim (Seadive owner) about our arrangements – he has been in Manila.  But after quite a long time sitting on the office steps, we decided to go for a walk.  Not up and down and around the streets this time, but along the main road.  There were lots of interesting things for us to gawk at.

For instance, I loved this spotty house.

But the road is narrow and there is constant traffic (trikes and motorbikes) and there are pitfalls everywhere so as well as trying not to get crushed by a trike, you have to watch your feet ALL THE TIME.

We stopped at the Kokosnuss Resort, about four kilometres down the road.  It is partly inhabited and partly being reconstructed after a bit of devastation last year – Cyclone Yolanda made a brief but powerful appearance on Busuanga.

I like the way they are re-building the construction around the big palm trees…

On the way back we very fortunately found a side road, leading down to the water.  Much more peaceful…like a walk down a country lane, really!  We found a house with a gleaming Jeep – obviously a prized possession – trapped behind bars.

Once we got back down to the water it was like being in a little village. 

The stilthouses are connected by wooden walkways.

And they do have electricity, although in comes in fits and starts, in Coron.  Everyone just waits patiently for the town generators to kick in again.

I took a photo of some darling schoolgirls on their way home.  When I showed it to them they clustered around the camera, and one of them said, “Oh so beautiful!”  Yes indeed!

We had read in the local newspaper that somebody had contracted typhoid after eating chicken giblets from a street stall.  Well that isn’t going to happen to us… And I took a photo of some giblets hotly grilling away on the side of the street as we came back into town.  No we were not in the least tempted, but a large group of Chinese students was happily munching away – the Chinese do love a giblet…

(For some reason I am not permitted to upload the giblet photo...maybe it is too gruesome??)