Parker's Big 30: Filipino Style

Parker's birthday celebration began at 4am. We were both in a heavy sleep when we thought we heard singing outside. The singing continued, it was soft and sounded like several people. I recognized my mom's voice and went to open the door. It was still pitch black and outside of our little apartment was my mom, lola, aunts and several neighbors in the small crowd of 15 people. They were singing and holding candles. My uncle was playing the guitar. It was a birthday seranade for Parker. This is something my family does for each other's birthdays. They sang Bisayan and English songs and happy birthday. Then all the ladies took turns dancing with Parker. There was more singing and hot chocolate and sticky rice afterwards. They had woken up at 3am to prepare for the seranade. It was was a touching experience to see how much my family has grown to love my husband.



Everyone, family and neighbors, have been so excited about throwing Parker a birthday party, Filipino Style:
* Lechon Baboy (roast pig) - check.
* Way too much food - check.
* The Mother of All Karaoke Machines - check.
* Tanduay (filipino rum) - check.


I don't know why this karaoke machine was so big but it kept everyone entertained. Parker will try to tell you that he does not sing or dance. I'll let these pictures speak for themselves. It was a good birthday for the old man.

5 Pigs, 2 Discos, 1 Fiesta

I haven't been back home in 18 years. It has been too long.


My family moved to the States when I was seven and my sister was six. We visited once four years later. My mom visits often but my sister and I haven't been back since 1992 and haven't seen my Lola (grandmother) in five years. I have a giant family. My mom is one of nine siblings and I am one of 22 first cousins. Most of my family still lives in Canubay which is a Barangay(community) of Oroquita City. We were greeted with open arms and joyous cries by my Lola (grandmother), the rest of my family and family friends. Seeing everyone again was overwhelming. It was difficult to fight back the tears as I thought of my sister and wishing she had been able to meet us. It feels good to be home again with my mom. And I'm so happy to finally introduce my husband to my family.

We arrived a few days before the week long fiesta for Canubay which is on held on the 13th of June. The Philippines is dominantly Catholic and the fiesta is a religious celebration for St. Anthony. It is a full week of many scheduled activities. It starts with a novena everynight at the chapel, which is only a few yards from my Lola's house. The first weekend of the fiesta begins with the Ms. Canubay Pagent. The following day, Sunday is the Fiesta Mass. After church the eating begins and we start hopping houses.

On Sunday evening we danced off what we could at the Fiesta Disco. The disco was a riot. The whole community showed up, kids to adults. The music was blaring and everyone was ready to hit the dance floor. The kids especially loved Parker and Eric. There was no blending in for these two. So the two Joes just went with it and showed off their mad disco skills.

What we tried to dance off were the five pigs we ate. You read that right. Filipinos are known for their lechons. Lechon baboy means rotissere pig . The whole pig is gutted and roasted over an open fire. Someone manually flips the pig on a giant bamboo stick for hours until it is nice and crispy. Filipinos love to eat and meals are a family affair. We ate five lechons in two days. Along with a buffet of seafood, traditional favorites and a beautiful spread of tropical fruits. We ate so much it hurt but we couldn't stop.

Somehow we surviced the first weekend of the celebration. Between the festivities, Parker, Erik and I went to a resort for a few days with four of my cousins: Odessa, Theresa, Karen and Shiela. We went to Dakak resort and then spent a few nights at Sunrise Resort. Sunrise Resort is a new development that is still in progress, so we were able to rent out the only two cottages available and had the whole beach resort to ourselves. We lounged around, snorkeled the reefs, chased crabs, climbed coconut trees, drank too much Tanduay (Filipino Rum) and then rolled around on the beach.

We went back to Canubay for the last weekend of the fiesta. Sunday was the day of the parade and the Sakay-Sakay. The statue of St. Anthony was taken out of the church and headed the beginning of the procession to the pier. Then the statue was loaded onto a boat along with the people who were in the parade and the band. Sakay-Sakay translates to Ride-Ride. The land parade was then turned into a one hour boat parade on the Pacific. We were followed by a few other fishing boats and many outriggers. The band rocked out all the way back to the pier and the procession continued to the cottages where everyone stayed for a family potluck at the cottages. The final evening of the fiesta was the Sakay-Sakay coronation and the second and final disco to end the festivites. What a week!

We literally eat every two hours. All day, a family member or neighbor would bring over a dish for us to try. We tried it all and ate most of it. We ate traditional filipino foods and tried everything that came out of the ocean, fish of every kind, squid, jellyfish, urchins, seaweed, giant shrimps and snails. Then it was nap time every few hours in the hammock garden under a canopy of mahagony trees. Eat, nap, eat, nap was our schedule.

When we weren't eating or napping, we explored the city on motor bikes, swam in the river, snorkled in the ocean and attempted mahjong. The national language is Tagalog but we are starting to pick up some of the Bisayan dialect, we learned how to weave little baskets to cook rice in and Parker and I started learning guitar. Life is good.

It's time for a nap.

Back to my Homeland: The Philippines

My mom, visiting from Oklahoma, met us in Manila. We were welcomed by my mom Estrella, my aunt Eugene and the steaming heat of the tropics. The Philippines is a beautiful island nation of 7,109 islands. Manila is a mega city with 12 million people on the biggest island in the Philippines.


Parker was quiet during the cab ride as he soaked in the surroundings (quiet is unusual for Parker). I had forgotten that this was his first time in Southeast Asia and a developing nation. Manila is a collection of many small towns with a mix of high rises and modernism next to slums and poverty. The city is hot, crowded and noisy but the very mild mannered Filipinos manage to make it work. Tagalog is the national language and English is the second language making it was easy to get around.

Parker, of course, is a head taller than everyone and very American so he attracts a lot of attention. Everyone calls him Joe. Every white man is referred to as Joe from the G.I.s who were once stationed here in Subic bay.He was especially a big hit with the kids and they chanted Joe!, Joe!, Joe!. Everywhere we go, people yell:

"Hey Joe!",
"How are you Joe"?,
"Where are you from Joe"?,
"Where are you going Joe"?,
"Do you want a ride Joe"?

It took Parker a few days to adjust to the Joe greetings. He likes to blend in, especially when traveling, so he is still adjusting to being the center of attention all the time. A couple of days later our friend Erik, a hiking buddy from the Appalachian Trail and now Joe #2, arrived for his two week vacation. My mom and Erik are our first visitors on our trip. After six months on the road, it's so good to see familiar faces.

We were in chaotic and smoggy Manila for five days where we stayed with my cousins Odessa, Theresa, Karen, Shiela and Aunt Mercedes. The most popular mode of transportation in Manila is the jeepney. In the Philippines, traffic rules, lights, lanes and signs are merely suggestions. And with no emission control, the exhaust of the taxis and jeepneys fills the air. There is an intricate transport system where point A to point B is maybe two jeepney rides, a hop on the light rail, a short taxi ride and then maybe a pedal side car to your final destination.

We spent a few days wandering around the city and eating foods on sticks. We did a little souvenir shopping and tried our hand at haggling. The prices of course shot up once the shop owners saw the Joes. So we did the whole browsing thing and my cousin Odessa went back and asked for prices. We started to learn the local price of the basics. The exchange rate is 46 Pesos to the Dollar. One jeepney ride is 7 pesos(15 cents), a fried banana on a stick is 5 pesos (11 cents), a liter of coke is 26 pesos (56 cents) and a good meal for two is under 200 pesos (four dollars).

After five days, we were more than ready to leave Manila. All eleven of us (my mom, two aunts, two Joes, four cousins and myself) flew south to the island of Mindanao to be reunited with the rest of the family.

What day is it?

Australia and New Zealand have a love and hate relationship. Both are under British rule and are similar in many ways but they are also very different. Several Aussies said, OK - all kidding aside, which is better Oz or NZ? But comparing the two would be like comparing Alaska to Hawaii.

We didn't see much of Australia other than the east coast but we noticed three differences between Oz and New Zealand: 1)size 2)weather and 3) expense.

Australia is a huge country, almost as big as the continental U.S. but with only 20 million people. The majority of the population lives by the coast. Sydney, the capital, has more people that the whole country of New Zealand with only 4 million people. From what we saw, Australia has the beaches, surf and diving. New Zealand's mountains and outdoor adventures can't be beat.

The southern hemisphere is going into their winter but we hit Sydney at the perfect time. As we headed north we managed to stay in the warmer weather. But even with winter right around the corner, Australia was still so much warmer than New Zealand.

Both countries were very friendly and easy to get around in. New Zealand had a much more laid back lifestyle where Australia was faster paced. We found New Zealand relatively cheaper for travel where Australia was comparable to the prices in the States. Which means expensive for budget travelers like us.

We were fortunate to meet a very generous Aussie who left us a key to his vacation home. We stayed in Airlie beach for another 10 days after Whitsundays. Thanks Perry, you are one of a kind. We did absolutely nothing while we were there. Just lounged around the house and relaxed by the water. Out of our four weeks in Australia, we spent over two and a half weeks in Airlie.

We enjoyed our five months in the South Pacific. I am addicted fish and chips and we are now tea drinkers. A few words have sneaked into our vocabulary: heaps, good on you, cheers and keen.

Our one month road trip from Sydney to Cairns, which was 2639 kms (1640 miles), was nice and lazy. This was the first time that Parker and I wandered around for weeks without knowing the day of the week or the date. All we knew was that we had to be in Cairns on June 5th to catch our flight to the Philippines.

Sea Kayaking Whitsundays

Whitsundays is at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. It consist of 74 emerald pine forested islands surrounded by white beaches and turquoise water. Most of the islands are undeveloped with only a few scattered resorts. The most popular way to see the islands are through sailing and yacht tours. We chose to go on a seven day independent kayaking tour. What better way to see the islands then to explore it ourselves?

We paddled out of Shute Harbor with all of our camping gear and Parker's fishing gear, seven days of food and water, our snorkel gear and a liter of sunscreen, a copy of Shantaram for me and Noble House for Parker and of course island inspired cocktails. Our 5 km paddle to our first island, S. Molle Island, was a good indicator of the adventure to come. The first couple of days were overcast, windy and the waves were big.


We made it safely to Sandy beach on S. Molle Island. Parker wasted no time and immediately casted out a line. Within minutes I heard him yelling that he hooked on something "HUGE"! We quickly realized that it was a sea turtle. We were worried that the turtle had swallowed the hook. We fought the poor thing for a good 20 minutes. Fortunately Parker only hooked the inside of the shell and we were able to set it free.

Day two was our big day to cross the Whitsunday Passage. The passage is known for it's crazy currents and tides. It was 10km to Henning Island and the weather was not promising. We checked the tide charts and went for it. We knew right away that we were in for a ride. The ocean is so deceiving, the waves were huge. Since I was up front I got most of the action. For the next three hours, I was assaulted by 3-4 foot waves. The nose of the kayak would climb the 4 footer, then it would dive 2ft into the water on the other side of the wave and the next wave would crash over my head. The waves came at me as if in slow motion but there was no escape. Parker and I paddled non-stop for three hours.

The rest of our trip was not as traumatic. We did have a couple of rough patches around some of the points but we were closer to shore. I was in awe of the beauty and danger of the water. We discovered a leak in our boat but we worked around it. Unfortunately, my camera stopped working so I only got a couple of shots. Major bummer. But the weather started to clear and we were finally able to relax on the beach. Our only real concern was checking the tides before we paddle out. Otherwise, we were on "island time". We read, fished, snorkeled and baked in the sun. Parker caught nine fish in one hour. He was in Parker heaven.

We paddled about 80 kms around the Whitsunday Islands. Now we know why people go on a tour or take a barge to the islands but we wouldn't have done it any other way. It was an unforgettable sea kayaking experience. We paddled over the Great Barrier Reef with dolphins, sea turtles and giant Manta Rays. We had most of the islands to ourselves. We had a few visitors during the day but at the end of the day they would pack up and go back to their resorts. At sunset we waved to passing yachts and sailboats from our very own beach on our private island.

Almost famous in Australia

From Australia: Sydney to Byron

The residents of Byron Bay worked together to successfully keep away the skyscrapers and fast food chains that clutter most coastal towns. Inturn, Byron remains a picturesque paradise with great cafes, shops, beaches and surf.

Parker and I decided to make Byron home for a few days to soak up the sun and play in the water. First, we purchased proper snorkel gear that is also suitable for our future dives. Then we were upgraded to shorter surf boards by default - they were out of long boards. The waves won, again, but we were able to get up a couple of times.

In a local pub, we met our two new friends Damian and Jan. Turns out we were staying at the same place. The pair are frequent visitors of Byron. They were on a three day break traveling with their 'Kostly Kombi', the coolest camper van we have seen. The next couple of days, we met each other in the communal kitchen and swapped travel stories.

Damian and Jan live three hours from Byron and they gave us an open invitation to stay with them. We enjoyed a relaxing couple of days in the cute coastal town of Mooloolaba. We especially enjoyed their favorite hole in the wall Thai restaurant that they have nicknamed Dodgy Thai. It's your typical hole in the wall, not so posh but great food and cheap.

Damian is a journalist and the weekend editor for the Sunshine Coast Daily. We were surprised when he told us that he wrote about us in his weekly column. We were quite flattered. He certainly made us sound way cooler than we actually are. At least some of it was true!

We got on well with our new friends who take a relaxed and fun attitude towards life. We were excited to find out that we were all going to be in Amsterdam the same time next year. Also, I think we have convinced them to put Austin Texas on their travel list.

Link to Damian's Column:

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/05/16/only-the-depth-varies-opinion/

No Guidebooks and No Road Maps: Australia

From Australia: Sydney to Byron

Parker and I were pleasantly surprised by Sydney. Australia's capital is more populated than the whole country of New Zealand. We immediately picked up on the energy of the city. The Opera House and the Harbor Bridge is as amazing as one would expect. It dominates the Sydney harbor and skyline.

We decided to home base at King's Cross for a few days. It is a part of the city that I would compare to the East 6th St./So. Congress of Austin. It has the perfect mix of dodgy and not so dodgy. On our first night, after a few drinks at the Opera Bar, we went back to King's Cross. It was unmistakably where people go to party.

After six months of traveling, we have become very relaxed and serendipitous in our ways of wandering. We have survived this far without a single guidebook. We found that every person with a lonely planet or any guide all go to the same places. What we do is ask the locals and other travelers. Granted, we can't avoid all the hot spots but we skip a lot of tourist traps.

We have a month to road trip Sydney to Cairns through the east coast of Australia. We left Sydney without a road map and just started driving north. On our itinerary is snorkeling, surfing and a whole lot of nothing on the endless Australian beaches.

Kiwi Hospitality

Parker and I have fallen in love with New Zealand but as amazing as this country is, it is nothing without it's people, the beautiful Maori and wonderful Kiwis. In our four months in NZ, we have been fortunate to make so many new friends, locals and travelers from around the world. Through our travels we have meet trampers, fishermen, 3 teenage pig hunters, deer hunters, tahr hunters, a gold panner, sheep farmers, sheep shearers, dairy farmers, as well as the city folks and everyone in between. We have been offered rides, tea, food and places to stay. They have opened their homes to us and shared with us their way of life.

Jack is an old friend from our days on the Appalachian Trail. He is Kiwi-American. He spends half the year in the NZ summer and the other half on the A.T., what a life. He guided us around Northland and showed us some of the most special places in the North Island. He intruduced us to the Kiwi way of life, the locals and the Maori of Waitangi.

Ski and Sonya became mentors in our time at the Bay of Islands. Ski is a Tai-Chi instructor who taught us how to control our breathing and how to connect our breathing with the present. Sonya is a yoga instructor and helped us with our morning yoga routine. These two are very special and we had an instant connection. Each session with them enriched us and taught us a different way of seeing and experiencing the world.

Maraea is the leader of the Maori Tribe in Waitangi. The Maoris are the natives of New Zealand. She taught us about the rich Maori culture and she shared with us their history and stories of her people. She also gave me a traditional Kumara Ho cleansing treatment and taught us how to weave tekes (baskets), a Maori cultural art and craft.

We met Bryce and Germaine at Mavora Lakes and again in Christchurch. We discovered they are adventurers and world travelers. They were our trail doctor and nurse and they kept an eye on our progress in the South Island.

Catherine in Te Anau offered us her rental cottage. She took us into her home and gave us a glimpse of rural life in Southland.

We met Paul and Els our first week and ran into them a week later in Te Anau. They decided to hike the Kepler Track with us. They are from Holland and Els was born in NZ. They are on a six month trip to explore NZ and Australia. We enjoyed our time with them and even learned a little Dutch.

Varsha and I met at the start line of the Rotorua Marathon. We became instant running buddies and ran 15k together. We met up in Auckland and talked about meeting up during our travels and running another marathon together.

We were honored to spend the last few hours of our time in New Zealand with the creators of the Te Araroa, Geoff Chapple the CEO, Miriam Beatson the secretary and Kim Olliever thier map Guru. The Te Araroa Trust is a small group of people with a big dream of completing a path across their country. We shared with them our adventures through the South Island and shared our thoughts on how to possibly make to trail easier for the next trampers. We also offered our assistance in answering the flood of emails they get about the trail. They thanked us for honoring the spirit of the Te Araroa and told us that we were their ideal hikers.The Te Araroa was very special part of our trip and an amazing and a fitting begining to our journey.

New Zealand has always captured our imagination. It has everything Parker and I love mountains, rivers and beaches. We have enjoyed our four months in NZ and feel that we got a good glimpse of the country and it's people. We have not met many Americans and we are surprised to find ourselves in the minority among the travelers we have met. It's still a good laugh when people ask why we don't have big hair or Texan accents. We leave NZ with a list of things to do for our next visit that could easily take up another four months. We'll be back.

Cheers, New Zealand!!

Run Like You Stole It!

From Rotorua

On my birthday, I felt inspired and signed up for the Rotorua Marathon, which would be my first international marathon. After a couple of weeks of rest from our South Island adventure, I had only five weeks of training until the marathon. I laid out a five week training schedule and worked it around our other adventures. It has been challenging getting in my training, while traveling, but it has also been a lot of fun. Parker runs with me when I need the company or if I was not motivated. We have ran on beaches, capes, tracks, country roads, major roads, around town, around lakes and on volcanoes.

The marathon challenges Lake Rotorua, the course circles the whole lake.'Take on the Lake' is the slogan. It is NZ's biggest and toughest 42 kms. I went to the start line, as always, with full respect of the distance ahead and ready to accept the pain that I was about to literally run into.

I met Varsha at the start with the 4:30 group. It was her birthday and her first marathon. We became instant running buddies and ran 15k together. After assessing my first hour, my legs were strong and I decided to pick it up a bit and separated from my 4:30 group. My ultimate goal is a sub 4, my PR is 4:09 and I coach at 4:30. With only five weeks training, I was hoping for anything between 4:30 and a sub 5 hour time.

Parker and the Silver Bullet followed me around the lake and cheered me on the whole way. They say that the race doesn't begin until mile 20, 32 kms. I got myself to the 20 mile mark, then I really dug in. It hurt but I felt great. I had a solid run and a strong finish at 4:20:25. 42 kms is no joke. What a long run.

Rugby, Paddling, Surfing, Dancing and Volcanoes: Oh My!

Highlights:
* Our first Rugby Game
* 5 days on the Whanganui River
* Surfing in Oakura and Crusing Surf Hwy 45
* Mexican Night and Ladies Night in Palmerston North
* Tramping on Volcanoes




No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls. - T-Shirt
As soon as we hit the North Island, our friend Jack promptly introduced us to rugby. We have been following it for over a month and finally went to our first game. We have been rooting for the Chiefs and watched them play against the Bulls in Hamilton. It was a great game but our team was defeated. The Kiwis love there full contact rugby and I love watching those boys - I mean, wow what a sport.

5 days on the Whanganui River
This was our first time in a canoe since our debut in the Texas Water Safari, last June. Parts of the river reminded us of the race and the lower Guadalupe river. Of course, that's minus the snakes, the alligators, the heat exhaustion, the non-stop paddling for 95 hours and the sleep deprived hallucinations.

It was a wonderful 5 day river trip. We paddled by waterfalls through the rainforest and beautiful gorges. We paddled about 20 miles a day. There were over 200 named rapids, some were bigger than others but there were enough to keep us entertained. We stayed in the canoe the whole trip due to our mad paddling skills. It was a nice change of pace from our tramping but we did manage to get a training run in for me to the Bridge to Nowhere (the bridge was built for a settlement that was deserted as soon as it was built).

The paddling came back to us naturally. We both miss the river. There were a few comments about me steering and Parker being at the bow. The power should always be infront especially if you are racing. Which also means that Parker gets to fish and I have somehow become his unofficial guide (funny how that works out for him). The Kiwis, even our outfitter, have never seen this switcharoo and were impressed. I told them that this is how we do it in Texas!

Surf Hwy 45
We headed east to legendary Surf Hwy 45 for a week of surfing. We chose the quaint little surf town of Oakura, the safest breaks on the coast. We enjoyed our couple of days surfing in Maui and have been looking for the opportunity to have another go at it. Turns out the weather had other plans for us. Summer in NZ is over and Fall has settled in. We waited out the rain by the beach for 5 days. We didn't mind too much as we sipped our drink of choice and read 3 books each. Finally, we decide to go for it and rented long-boards and wet suits. It was a riot. The water wasn't too bad but the air was chill. We both managed to stand on our boards. It was pretty challenging because our feet were frozen solid and it became dificult to balance (we never claimed to be real surfers). We were bruised, battered and utterly exhausted from our full day of extreme long-board surfing. I am sure we entertained a few people, we certainly had a good laugh.

Mexican Night and Ladies Night (+Parker)
After Oakura, we went south to Palmerston North to visit Brooke, an old friend from high school. Parker and I have been craving Mexican food so we did what we could with the limited Mexican food selection in NZ and had Mexican Night. Also I was due for some booty shaking so the girls took us out dancing. We had a blast. Thanks Brooke and Jenny for showing us Palmy!

Tramping on Volcanoes
So again, the weather has turned. On top of our N. Island list was the volcanoes. We kept shifting our plans around and waited for the weather to clear. Our innitial plan was to do a 10 day tramp around the three Volcanoes: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) and Ruapehu. That was quickly adjusted to a 5 day tramp and in the end we were only able to do one full day. The tops were still socked in but a snow storm was forecasted so we took what we could get. We went to Red Crater, the highest point on our tramp, and got a few seconds glimpse of the volcanoes and the red crater. Even with our limited visibility, it was still amazing to be playing around on the active trio and smelling the volcanic gases. It did cross our minds a couple of times about all the siesmic activity currently going on around the world.

It has been a very busy couple of weeks for the Silver Bullet. We are currently in Rotorua for the next week resting up for the marathon on Saturday. We are also trying to sell the Bullet. We are sad to let her go but we can't keep her. We have less than two weeks left in NZ. The countdown begins but until then, the adventure with the Bullet continues.