Saturday 4th April 2015
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| A row of tricycles baking in the sun on the reclaimed land outside the market |
It is hotter than
usual today. I even got hot doing my 72
under-the-boat laps…
A good day to fill
the spare (non-working) freezer with ICE!
Ice is big
business in the tropics. The machines
produce great slabs of it, and it gets crushed and shoveled into bags
and then off it
goes, dripping like crazy, loaded into tricycles.
Pete is so hot,
after lugging great slabs of it onto the dinghy and then onto 2XS, that I think
he is going to melt. He is sitting in my
blow-up beanbag chair (from Katmandu in Hobart) sighing gently and sipping on
coke with ice.
We also went to my
least favourite section of Coron – the meat market… I really like the longanisa
sausages they sell there but I have to avert my gaze as I walk down the aisle
to SausageWorld…
On our way out
last night we noticed a banka, laden with provisions, and with people, being
paddled by a faintly desperate looking man.
In the back of the boat a couple more desperate looking men were pulling
away at the starter cord, trying to get the engine to go. W watched them for a while and then went to
see if we could help. Not certain what
we could do…we surely couldn’t tow it anywhere, with our tiny dinghy. But we could maybe take a few people back to
shore. It all looked quite cosy on
board. Dinner was cooking on the
outriggers. It did smell nice (but would
probably prove to be fish-head soup…)
One of the women did climb into the dinghy, but a few minutes later they
called her back – the engine had started.
It didn’t sound very good, mind you.
They had a very long way to go, to Dimipacan, not far from the safari
park. Many many hours, even with a
functioning engine…
Yes I did go to
church, to the Stations of the Cross, entirely in Tagalog. It was relatively cool, in there, with high
ceilings, and fans. But…it went on for a
very long time… We left after about 90 minutes, and found, to our
consternation, that there was a larger crowd standing outside, patiently
listening. If only I had known I would
have – gladly! – given up my seat earlier!
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| The dinghy waiting patiently under Seadive |
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