Day 18 - Sunday at Sabang Surfing Beach, Baler, Aurora

We woke up on Sunday morning to a knock on our door providing us the breakfast we had decided on the night before.  It was a small cardboard box with a fried egg, garlic rice, tomato slice, and beef strips (Tapsilog).  They also provided water and instant coffee. Chris went downstairs to get hot water and made himself tea with bags he had brought.  He also walked down to the beach to see if he could catch the sunrise.  He even saw some dolphins close by!

They headed to the beach and all except me paid for 2 hours of surfing lessons (1 hour of instruction and 1 of going it on your own on the rented board).  I was all bruised, burnt, and sore from body-boarding the day before so I just decided to get a henna tattoo (P200!!!  Though...not the best job in the world drawing two anchors and a ship wheel-lol), just get my legs wet and take photos and video of Chris surfing.  The result of that can be seen below!  The instructor helps tremendously because they tell you when to get ready and push you into the wave at the right time.

They all surfed until I was time to head back to the hotel to clean up and check out.  We went back to the Hungry Surfer to eat again and then headed out of town to buy some souvenirs, more suman, and check out the biggest Balete Tree in Asia.  It is estimated to be about 600+ years old and 200 feet tall with roots 50 feet in diameter. You can even fit inside it if you squeeze in and scramble around a bit.

Here's a view looking away from the tree.  Everything on the way to Baler was beautiful flat country side with mountains in the distance, then you climbed over a mountain, and found yourself instantly surrounded by acres and acres of palm trees.  You knew the ocean was finally near!

 The roads getting to and from Baler were slightly treacherous at times.  There were many bridges or pieces of road that they were working on and they would force everyone into one lane, so traffic had to decide when it was east-bound's turn to go and then west-bound's turn to go because there was often no one helping decide the matter.  Add in motorcycles going whenever they want and heavily pot-holed or just gravel roads, and it was an adventure.  However the most amazing part was the rice drying on the road.  On the way there you would see many people drying rice on the shoulders, on basketball courts, in schoolyards and sidewalks. They just pour out big bags, use rakes to stir it for a few hours, and then do the next bags.  But on one particular long road in the countryside, they splayed it all out all over the road that people still drive on!  WASH YOUR RICE PEOPLE!!  Isabel says they wash their rice twice before cooking it, and I will now do the same!

Here is a video of us driving down the long road covered in new drying rice.

The roads aren't very well-lit at night so we hurried so we could be back by sunset (about a 4 hour drive).  We just about made it on time, but Google took us weird routes so we got there right about dark.  Apparently most people here use Waze to get around and it's much more accurate than Google.  There are many restaurants and businesses that Google either has no clue about or puts way in the wrong spot, so I'll try to use Waze from now on.

I want more suman....