Manananggot

This guy climbs all the coconut trees (no harness) to collect the juice from the premature fruit stalk which he then makes into a tuba (local coconut wine).

(Word mananaggot comes from the rootword 'sanggot', a curved knife used to etch a young fruit stalk. Manananggot is the tuba gatherer and maker and sanggot is the tool of the trade.)

Manong Sorbetero

Sorbetes of course, is 'ice cream'. Kids love this. I had 3 scoops of peanut flavor.

Pabitin

It's a children's game at parties where the kids grab the toys they like. The frame (usually made of bamboo) is lowered up and down with a rope and the kids try to jump to grab the toys they want. A kid usually cries afterwards. Must be fun for the adults.

Fan lady

At a tabo (marketday)

Buying dried, salted fish and squids (pusit). Good for the heart ;D

Beach life

Sometimes small fishing boats would come in from the sea with their catch. The act of meeting a boat and buying fish directly from them is called 'pagtapo' in our language. The photo above is of the fish we bought from a fisherman. Grilled at the beach, sprinkled with kalamansi juice (small citrus).

Beach photos

This is how I'm spending my summer.. watching boats pass by, taking photos of coconut trees and the sand and the beach.. and getting sun-burned.

6 days to go

To the Palarong Pambansa (National Games) to be held here in Tacloban (and the whole of Leyte province). Added game is the skimboarding in Tanauan which is said to be the place where skimboarding started, although other towns might challenge that claim. Overall.. I'm avoiding the overcrowded downtown area these days. (Photo taken yesterday.)

Beach photos

Tuba

Local fermented coconut wine, dyed with barako.

Empty beach

Not for sale

Beach boys

Easter bunny

I knew easter eggs hatch into easter bunnies! Happy Easter everyone!

(This funny rabbit is named Fluffy, owned by my 8-yr old niece. Photo taken by my sister.)

This Jesus revealed

I was following these men (penitents, notice their blue costume slung around their shoulders) unceremoniously carrying the Jesus (Santo Intierro) that devotees reverently kissed and prayed to at the Cathedral during the vigil. They were returning the borrowed statue to the family that owned it. Performance over.

Lent moments

Penitents (tais-dupol).

The penitents' costumes were fashioned after the ones in Seville, Spain. Which incidentally, the KKK also fashioned their costume from. The penitents and the KKK both hide their faces from the public: the penitents so they can pray and sacrifice in anonymity (they walk around barefooted on the hot concrete collecting money for the Church), and the KKKs for their own obvious reasons.

Penitents guarding the 'Calvary Hill'.

Shepherd boys

Fall of Jesus.

The crucifixion

Btw, the 'Jesus' nailed on the cross is not a real person. We don't do that here in the Visayas. A Jesus statue is switched at the last minute under the structure.

Old house

Old houses here are still mostly owned by their original family owners. Most of them are run-down. Nobody seems interested in renovating them, or preserving them. I can only think of two that have been preserved, one to a hotel, and another to a museum/office. The others are falling apart, like the picture above.

Ukay-ukay

Or second-hand clothes shop. The only a/c ukay-ukay store in town.

At Felisa's Cafe

I always order this monggo con hielo.. it's very, very delicious with the recipe remaining the same since the restaurant opened in the 1950s. Felisa's Cafe is more known for their halo-halo, but I still prefer the monggo.

 This is one of the oldest restaurants in Tacloban. When here, try to order the monggo con hielo with extra serving of (sweetened) monggo, or the halo halo. Also, buy your binagol pasalubong here, they sell the special kind.

Halo-halo

Young acacia tree

Just across the street.

Another beach picture

At the back of the house, we have this part of the Pacific Ocean :-)

Drying palay

..on streets. This was just outside the mausoleum gate (previous post). You see this often here, people use the street to dry their newly harvested palay (unmilled rice), leaving the other lane empty for passing cars. This practice is tolerated in small towns.

Neglected Romualdez Mausoleum

Where the bodies of Imelda Marcos' parents are buried, and her stillborn child, surrounded by cherubim statues. This used to be a well-maintained garden/park, but was ransacked by heavily armed men during the Edsa Revolution for buried Yamashita treasures, and was never the same again. I grew up spending summers and weekends running around the area, climbing the fence, picking the kalachuchi flowers, exploring the underground 'tunnel', or just sitting on the fence with cousins.

Signs of summer

Theme Day: Yellow

Streetfood pancake.

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