Detrick Home: Buwan isa (Month One)

Today is our one month anniversary of being expats. We are still living in the hotel, our supplies that we brought are running low, I'll be buying Filipino diapers tomorrow for Aiden, local style! We are anxious to move into our house and get settled with all our "stuff". I felt so cavalier about the move (it was so fast) and now regret I didn't stuff more items into our balik bayan boxes...oh well, bahala na!

Today is All Saints Day and tomorrow is All Souls Day - two very major holidays here. Petaluma had one of the most amazing Dia de los Muertos celebrations, but this place has it beat - it's a national holiday - streets are jam packed with people, vendors selling flowers, candles and offerings, everyone takes the day off & goes to the cemetery to visit their loved ones and have a picnic.

We were told that the traffic would be terrible, but that didn't stop me from wanting to adventure out. It was almost like a Ben Stiller movie today - We decided to take the whole show on the road to Anilao, 20 km south of Taal where we've been exploring lately, on the South China Sea (a 2 hour drive from our hotel) I wanted to see the ocean and visit a super cool resort for lunch. We drove through miles of coconut palms, banana groves, sugar cane, and rice fields. It was so beautiful - reminded us of Hawaii. The road trip was fun, traffic wasn't too bad. We got to Anilao to arrive at Vivere Azure without a reservation - lucky for us they "fit us in" to the empty dining room...as we walked in, we were swarmed with mosquitos, Adam told me later he was watching two bites on my neck swell & recede, he didn't want to freak me out as I ran to grab the mosquito repellant. If I get dengue, I will know the day I got it!

We had a screaming good time at a tree house like restaurant. This was a very wooshy resort, and the kids were in full form - screaming and yelling at the lovely, expensive, QUIET beach resort. There didn't seem to be too many guests so I don't think we disturbed too many folks, the staff loved Aiden & his blonde curls, Sophia enjoyed playing with the umbrellas from my drinks. The food was OK, the pina coladas were delicious! We hope to come back - the snorkeling and beach looked very inviting, but we weren't prepared for a swim, we hiked out to the car and headed back to town...

Unfortunately, EVERYONE else decided it was also time to go back to town - at once we were in a major traffic jam. The trip took 4.5 hours, one emergency potty break, lots of snacks, singing all our favorite tunes (I want to wake up in the morning at Camp E Dew Hoppy...) and arrived back at the hotel in one piece for bath & bed.

Wishing you all a bueno Dia de los Muertos - blessings be!

H-A-S-A