Greetings from the Philippines!

On the morning walk today I consciously kept my eyes wide open in search of something new or interesting. That’s a challenge because I’ve been walking the mean streets of Barretto for going on two years now. I actually have four basic treks that I utilize to fulfill my morning 10,000 step goal, so I walk each once or twice a week.

Anyway, on today’s path, I crossed the same creek in two different locations. I usually don’t pay much attention to this waterway because unless it’s flooding there’s just no compelling reason to do so. But given my new motivation to be more observant, I took a closer look:

About fifteen minutes further up the road, I circled around to head back to the highway and crossed the creek again.

We have three drugstores in Barretto proper. My walk along the highway took me past each one. And they all had something in common this morning.

Walang dispras maskara! I wonder why they’d all be out of face masks? Oh, there was a confirmed case of Coronavirus in Manila yesterday–the first in the Philippines. Not surprising to me. I mentioned in an earlier post that those Chinese cruise ships turned away in Subic were coming from a port of call in Manila. Hey, maybe it’s just a coincidence. I guess if you need a mask around here you are up shit creek for sure!

I continued on up the highway and encountered the old woman I call “mama” (and she calls me papa). I don’t really know her story, but my driver tells me she is a former bargirl. Says she had a foreigner husband who deserted her and took their baby back to his country. And now she lives on the streets. I first saw her a few years ago when I was here as a tourist. She was sleeping behind a billboard on Baloy Beach road. I felt really sorry for her then. These days when I see her (usually five or six times a week) I’ll give her 100 pesos so she can get a meal at least. I think some other foreigners help her out a little too. She still sleeps on the street but I think she is doing alright. She always has a big smile at least.

Okay, that’s enough “interesting” things from one walk, don’t you think? Well, I did take a couple of photos last night at the Arizona floating bar I’ll share with you:

Now, I have it on good authority that the urine deposited in these comfort rooms does NOT flow into the bay. Rather, it is brought to shore and disposed of in the sewer/septic system. I guess hauling shit is just too much hassle. Well, I choose to believe it. Especially when I’m wading in the waters of shit creek Subic Bay!