As a whole, yesterday was boring and not much different from working all day in the US.
We got up, Scott and Joao had a swim, and I sat outside and wrote for a while. We had breakfast at Lallie and Abbot’s resteraunt, and plotted out the days ahead. We decided to go “Island Hopping” the next day, and we would go on a tour of something called “Snake Island”. It is a snorkel/swim tour.
Around about 10:30am (a full hour before the power was scheduled to come on) we set off towards the internet cafe. This was our dedicated “internet” day, and we set up camp.
After about an hour, my battery had lost its juice (I had been writing on it without power for a good amount of time in the morning as well) and I decided to wait out the oncoming half-hour instead of going back to the room.
I decided to journey down to the shop underneath the “Art Cafe” (internet cafe) and check out what was available. The internet cafe and the shop below it are both owned and operated by a swiss woman who speaks German, Swiss-German, French, English, and Tagalog. This is very impressive, as I have not yet seen any foreigners fluent in Tagalog (Tagalog is the language of Manila and its outer islands of the Philippines) before now.
The shop below, was nothing short of amazing. It was very well done with everything a traveler could need. The contents of the shop below gave great insight as to the past of the owner. She was obviously a very frequent traveler.
Mini bottles of mouthwash, socks, underwear, sunglasses, cell-phones, dynamo mini-flashlights, plug converters, sun-hats, mp3 players, this shop had everything.
After deliberating a great deal about the possible acquisition of a very cool three inch long dynamo flashlight (these are flashlights that you crank to charge the battery, thus providing a sustainable light source) and ultimately deciding against it, as I promised myself before I left I would keep the acquisition to a minimum, I decided to journey back upstairs as it was getting close to noon.
The power was already on as the cafe had switched on their generator. I was able to continue my work.
After all three of us, with our three laptops, spending all day in the Art Cafe, I began to shoot the owner apologetic glances whenever she came near. I had kept an eye out to make sure that we weren’t interfering with business and seating. At about 5:00pm, I had had enough. I was ready to go outside and take a few long walks, and I did.
Scott and Joao left not long after me and we all rendezvoused at the rooms. We decided (after Scott had fussed over the stiffness of his replacement towels for the day) to go to a beach-side rester aunt to watch the sunset.
The sunset didn’t quite happen, as we were delayed for various reasons. Finally, we made it to the beach. It was a very nice rester aunt, with torches stuck in the sand. We ate, walked back, Joao went out swimming, and then we all went to sleep.
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