Sunday, April 26, 2009

MAINIT KAMI MOULI RA

One Pair of Hands


Beautiful song with a great message.

ME AND MY FAMILY AT MAINIT MUNICIPAL BUILDING

This picture was taken in front of the Municipal building in Mainit. From the left: Uncle Marshall Beltran, Aunt Lydia Beltran, me, four people that work at the municipality and are part of the family, the last person on the right is my cousin Marlene Basil. I'm proud of all of them.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

PARTY TIME IN SANTIAGO

A couple of days after we arrived, my cousin Mayor Franklin Lim had a party for us and invited a lot relatives and friends. Good food, music, dancing, conversation. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long, long time. It was great fun.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Jabonga

We took a trip to Jabonga to pick up Ping one day and found a waterfall next to the road on the way there so we decided to get out of the car and check it out.

Mainit Lake Boat Ride

We stopped at the Almont Resort on Lake Mainit and they had a party boat that takes people out on the lake for cruises. We decided to give it a try and had a great time. Not a fast boat, but large enough for a party. I would recommend trying this if you are ever there.

Carmen Cave

We took a trip to Carmen outside of Butuan, on the opposite side of Butuan from Santiago. We went to an area above the ocean and beach that has a cave you can enter than will take you from the top of the cliff to the beach. We didn't go into the cave. Fear or common sense, not sure which, but one of them kept us from going into the cave.

Carmen Picnic

We went to Carmen a second time and went to a resort for a picnic. We picked up the food in Butuan and then drove on out to Carmen. It was a nice location and water was really clear and clean.

Tubay Beach

We made a stop at Tubay Beach about 15 kilometers from Santiago. The Chinese have a nickel mine there and you can see the ships there to transport the nickel.

Visit to Aunt Lydia's

In Mainit we visited Aunt Lydia. She is one of my aunt's that never married. We had a nice lunch and visit with her and her brother Uncle Marshall.

Leemark's Graduation

The first time we visited Mainit was graduation day for Mainit High School and Leemark Basil, my cousin, was graduating. We recorded a little of the ceremony, but didn't get as much as we wanted. The video camera battery died during the ceremony.

Maria Christina Falls in Ilegan

When we visited Cagayan we made a side trip to Ilegan to Maria Christina Falls and a resort. These falls generate electricity through 7 hydro-electric power plants then the river runs into the Philippine Sea. These pictures were taken at station 7, the one closest to the falls.

Ilegan Resort

After visiting Maria Christina Falls at Ilegan we had lunch at the Resort. It's supposed to be owned by Gloria Arroyo, the President of the Philippines. It's a real nice resort with 7 swimming pools terraced down the side of a hill.

Almont Resort at Lake Mainit

The Lake Mainit boat ride starts at the Almont Resort near Alegria. We sat around there for awhile waiting for our turn at the boat ride.

Lake Mainit - Second Boat Trip

We liked the boat trip on Lake Mainit so much the first time we decided to go one more time. It was still fun.

Waterfall and Hot Spring in Santiago

This is video of our last day in Santiago and the walk and boat ride we took to get to this place was great.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Saturday, April 11, 2009

VISIT TO MINDANAO

We recently visited Mindanao to visit my family. I'm posting some video below from our digital camera. We still have a lot of VHS-C video to process (3 hours) and will try to convert some of it to post later. We had a great time. We stayed with my Cousin Frank in Santiago, Agusan Del Norte. He has a really nice place and he and his wife, Baby, took really good care of us and made us very comfortable. So much so we really didn't want to leave and can't wait to get back. Thanks to everyone we visited in Santiago, Mainit, Alegria, Butuan, Surigao, Davao, Cagayan, Ilegan, Tubay, Carmen, and all the rest. It was a great vacation that we will always remember. We also posted some photos on Flickr, the link is on the right side of this page.

Waterfall and Hot Spring in Santiago

On our last day in Santiago we took a hike down the road, across the river in a bonka boat, and up the mountain to a waterfall and hotspring with a lot of the family. It was a great time. Thanks to all of you.

Jeralynn and Jerhart

This is my cousin Jeralynn and my nephew Jerhart, Vicky's son.

Loreta Macas and her daughter

More family, my cousin Loreta and her daughter.

Litoy Basil's Family

There was a group of relatives that met us on arrival in Santiago. This is Litoy Basil, Baby, Jessnar, Leemark and Litoy Jr.

Visiting Tatay Benjamin

Right after arriving in Santiago I went to visit with Tatay Benjamin at Frank's house. We stayed with Frank in Santiago during our whole trip. Thanks to Frank. He has a really nice place and made us very comfortable. We hated to leave.

Mindinao Trip - Arrival

Upon our arrival in Butuan this is the group that met us at the airport and they took us to this restaurant for lunch. It was great.