at last, palawan! (part 1)

for a long time, i have wanted to go to palawan. i envied a high school classmate who spent her summers there, and i bugged my mother to no end when i found out she had a cousin there. but it was not until last week that i was able to go there and spend 8 days at "the last frontier".
i, along with katti, rene, and dani went for the kalugta'n arts festival in el nido. katti would teach painting, rene terra cotta, and dani nose flute. i was there to write about the event. a few days before, my mom's cousin and his wife were in manila for their son's graduation, and we asked if i could stay with them while in puerto prinsesa. (i didn't want to have to tax any personal resources, as well as of the organizers) my tito and tita were very gracious--never mind that neither had ever met me, and it had been more than 30 yrs since my mom and her cousin had seen each other.
when the plane was hovering, approaching palawan, the sight of very very lush and verdant mountains took my breath away. when we arrived at the airport, a band welcomed us! (as they do all guests, it turns out)

as we were waiting for our check-in baggage, i was met by my tito. i went with him while my companions went off to get to a pension house. my tito works with the ATO, so his house was just a few meters away. we rested a bit, i met my 2 cousins, and we went to explore a bit of puerto prinsesa. we went to the mitra family's resthouse up on a hill, in a very posh part of town. it's called rancho sta monica and has amazing views! people can just come in for free during the day, picnic or sight-see. while i was there, i was reminded of tagaytay somehow.

then, we went to nearby baker's hill, which is something of an amusement park/zoo/bakeshop. we saw some ostriches and a peacock. apparently, my cousins hadn't been there for a while, and they went crazy taking photos of the animals. me? i wanted to swim! haha. we dropped by their mall, nccc, which is always packed with, i suspect, people who wanted to escape from the heat.
we then went home to a feast! inihaw na panga ng tuna, stir-fried shrimps, lato (seaweed that looks like miniature green grapes), and alimango! it was like being fed a last meal at dampa! after lunch, i couldn't move for a while from the kabusugan. but my tita insisted i nap before we went out.
around 4:30, we went to the cathedral (i was hoping to catch the anticipated mass, but was much too early). a wedding had just ended in the beautiful church. i said a prayer though, thanking God for finally, finally letting me set foot in palawan. and for the days ahead.

then, we went to buy a cake to bring to my tita's cousin, whose husband was celebrating his birthday. their house is HUGE and is very near the beach. just mangrove patches away, in fact. we watched the sunset on the 4th floor roofdeck while the "men" (my tito and tito ollie, the celebrant) set up the barbecue.

at first, i was thankful that we were just eating salads, and thought i could have more than enough room for the mango cream pie we bought. but as it turns out, there was a parade of dishes coming our way. and of course, how could i pass on authentic german sausages? tito ollie is from bremen town, and their family (tita lot and katja) had lived there before they came to settle in palawan. we stayed there til the wee hours. tito ollie described the different islands in palawan, and it showed how much he loves the place. at around 12:30 am, with no sighting of the promised meteor shower, we decided to go home. thankfully, our original 5 am departure the next morning had been rescheduled to 7 am. i just hoped that i could get up in time...