Today I was up early ready to run up a mountain, that old feeling of being ready to jump out of bed at 5am is back and it's wonderful. I can't help but be happy and enjoy every moment: from the delicious cereal to the fresh cup of tea :)
At around 9am Julie and I decided to visit the Cagsawa Ruins - a famous 1800s church that was the tragic site of a whole village being wiped out by the eruption of the Mt Mayon Volcano. Amazingly the Church Pier still stands and after numerous eruptions is still in very good condition. The best thing was the back drop of Mt Mayon at 2500m and the most perfectly shaped Active Volcano in the world.
We went out and explored the surrounding villages and talked to local farmers about possibly hiking up the Volcano without paying the huge tourist fees. By 10:30am it was around 40 degrees and unbearable others so incredibly hot here. The next stop was Daraga Church a beautiful old Spanish Church that was built on a hill near to Mt Mayon to replace the devastated Cagsawa church. After snapping a few photos we headed back to Julie's to have lunch with her father: another amazing feast of local fish and vegetables.
The rest of the afternoon I relaxed, stayed out of the heat and caught up on things on the computer. In the evening we headed into the city to meet another Couchsurfer Susan at her house for another wonderful wonderful chat: what follows is a 5 hour intense conversation about travel, enlightenment and Filipino Culture.
First up Julie told us all about her life and how thirteen years ago she joined a volunteer organization that allowed her to travel to some of the most far flung corners of the world - from Vanuatu to Botswana to Seychelles. She explained when she chooses these contracts or selects where she will travel to next - she decides based on how different, unique, hard to get to the destination is. Something I will now take onboard - too long I have been going to cities and places, sites simply to tick then off the list. It's now time to challenge myself with more adventurous, challenging places and thus more rewarding places. I need to research the volunteering aspect of travel a little more from AIV to the Peace Boat. It's very clear also the more people I talk to the more ideas I am getting and I am learning from others mistakes and successes. We then moved onto social etiquette in the Phillipines and that of other nationalities around the world. It was so interesting to hear a Filipinos perspective on the world, other nationalities, life and family. So different to ours but more inline with my beliefs. I learned so much from my conversations with Julie and she truly is a seasoned traveler that I have a lot to learn from. I hope to meet up with her again in a few days and will pick her brain a little more about her adventures abroad.