Puerto Princesa, Palawan, PI

Puerto Princesa is indeed a city and not a village.  It is big, geographically speaking, but its population is less than half a million.  The city has some very wealthy people, mostly involved with the government, but it is home to many, many people in great poverty.  To illustrate more clearly, the minimum wage throughout Palawan is less than 500 Philippine pesos per day . . . that’s the approximate equivalent of 8.25 USD per day.  People with a job, like driving a tourist van or leading a tour, or working in a construction crew or retail, might earn up to three times that amount.  Though the work in a job might be relatively steady, twenty-seven percent of the people in Palawan live below the poverty threshold of just 13,000 pesos ($214 US dollars) per month.  Clearly, life is tough here.  Medical care is sparse, and dental care is almost non-existent. The weather is hot, rain can pour down in torrents, many houses are flimsy, weeds and jungle strive to cover and choke everything, and yes, it’s a fairly dirty place.

I am not sharing this information to degrade or criticize Filipino people, this island, or this country.  Not at all.  The land and the surrounding waters are heavenly magnificent.  And Filipinos are kind, genuinely caring, hard-working people.  Though most family houses are made of grass mats or whatever scraps of materials they can find, their children go to school each day in crisp, perfectly clean uniforms; boys with fresh haircuts and girls with long, shining hair tied in ribbons.

Yes, the weather is insanely hot and humid here; it is the same year-round.  I don’t know how they stand it, but this climate is all these people have ever known.  When we tell people we are going to Baguio in the mountains in the next few days, they say, “Oh, it’s so cold there!”   I reply, “Ahhhhh!  I can’t wait!”  I was born a sun lover.  Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I do not mind the glorious sun’s rays, and I don’t mind turning golden brown.  My saggy and wrinkled body attests to my lifelong appreciation of Old Sol.  Here, however, when Stan and I go to the pool at our little Airbnb place, I sit in the shade, not because I want to avoid the direct sun, but because I cannot bear the heat. With shade, the temperature is a sure 20 degrees cooler!! If I have not made myself clear, the Philippines are hot.  Still, I like it.

In exploring Puerto Princesa, Palawan’s largest and most important city, first and foremost, we have learned to use the Jeepneys. These crowded 14-passenger “buses” (converted Jeeps from WWII with elongated covered beds for passengers) pass by our street every few moments. All we have to do is flag one down and climb on. We can’t go wrong in choosing the right one; there are only two routes here. The jeepney takes us from the road that leads to our apartment to the nearest supermarket for just 28 pesos. If we wish to go to the city, the ride is about 40 pesos (66 cents for the two of us). Yaaay for us! We learned a new thing!

In getting to know this part of Palawan, we made a boat tour to Honda Bay . . . it was pretty but not as spectacularly beautiful as the islands and water we explored in El Nido.  In a tour of the city, we discovered shocking history, particularly one horrible event that took place in WWII when the Japanese, rather than giving up their American POWs, burned them alive.  The site of that massacre is now a protected park on the beach in the city.  Of the 50 captives, only 11 survived.  Stan says this is just one of the many atrocities that took place in that war. Thinking of such a thing makes me ill. I pray that we human beings, with all the gifts God gave us, find a way to get along on this planet without war.

Today we visited a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world’s seven natural wonders of the world:  Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.   Do you know the other six natural wonders?   Our visit today means we now have seen 5 of the 7.  This famous river winds 8.2 km in an underground path down and through a limestone mountain from Sabang Beach until it empties into the South China Sea or the Philippine Sea, as it is called here.  Only 4.3 km of the river are navigable.  Our hand-paddled boat ride took us only 2.5 km into the vast caverns of majestic stalactite and stalagmite formations created by water, drop by drop, over millions of years. In our otherwise silent passage, hundreds of bats flew above us, darting here and there, emitting their sonar system clicks to navigate and hunt in the darkened space. We were reminded to keep our mouths closed to avoid catching bat droppings.

On the tour, but not included in the outing, some participants chose to do a zip line ride from the mountainside across the shallow bay to a small island just off the beach, and/or take a boat ride through a mangrove.  Stan and I have done both . . . several times, so we bowed out.  Instead, we spent our time exploring the beach and then sitting in a shaded place where all the vendors selling shark’s teeth necklaces and beaded bracelets hang out.  After a while, one of the vendors asked us where we were from.  That question started it all!  Oh my!  How we did chat . . from Trump to cities in the US, what their lives are like, what ours are like, the price of fresh fish here, how many children we each have, and finally, how old we are.  Invariably, everyone we meet asks us our age. They are usually appalled that we are so old since their parents and grandparents are usually younger, yet are bent and use canes.  What fun we had!!  And the things we learned!!! They gave us remembrance gifts of beaded bracelets.

I’ll say it again, we love this life!