Harvest Time

We do miss the changing of the seasons and even the changing of the days.  Being close to the equator means the temperature doesn't change very much, there are no real seasons like we are used to (just hot and hotter and rainy and dry) and the sun even comes up and goes down pretty close to the same time all year long. Here it is September already, we can only tell by the calendar, and all of you back home are harvesting gardens and enjoying the fruits of your labors realizing that the first frost is getting closer everyday.  Here in the Philippines the harvest is on all year, though some fruits are seasonal, so we thought we would share some of the fruits that we get to harvest by walking down the street to the local fruit stands or when we go to the stores.  There are many more than we have listed.  We can also get imported fruits such as apples and oranges but our blog shows fruits grown in the Philippines.

An open fruit market.  Almost every fruit you could want in one place.  The large green fruit is Jack Fruit which we tried but we didn't really care for it, kind of a texture thing.

The bottom container is Avocados.  Sister Sorensen has to have Avocados every week.  She learned how to know the ripe ones by shaking them.  The top container is Mangosteens and the middle one is Mangos.

Bananas, all shapes and sizes and also different colors.  We like the yellow ones and there are different sizes of those.  The green hanging bananas are for cooking, fried boiled and with brown sugar on the outside.  Notice the watermelons also.

This is a Red Banana, that is the color and not just an over ripe banana.

Lanzones.  Lanzones was originally native to the Malaysian peninsula, with the Malaysians calling it “langsat.”

Lanzones opened showing the fruit inside.

Limes.  They are very small but definitely are limes

Mangos.  Sister Sorensen has to have mangos almost every day.  The mangos you can buy in the United States don't even taste like the same fruit.  We simply love sweet mango shakes.

Mangosteen.  they cannot legally be imported into continental United States due to concerns that they transport insects into the country.

This is the inside of a Mangosteen.  You eat the white parts.

Papaya. We haven't eaten these yet.

Philippine Lemons.  They look different but taste just like lemons.

Pineapple.  We love the fresh pineapple. The one on the left is different than the one in the middle. The fruit on the right is called Durian.  It has a very unpleasant odor and we can tell out in the hall from our apartment if someone has brought some up.  We haven't tried it yet but will before we leave.

Pomelo.  These taste like a sweet grapefruit.

Rambutan. Its name means "hairy " and is derived from the Malay word rambutan. The fruit inside is white and looks like a lanzone..

Watermelon (Pakwan), red and yellow.  Both are good.

The Rest of Cebu Island Trip

This is our fifth week back from the temple closure in July and we are having wonderful experiences in the temple.  The last blog talked about our swimming with whale sharks which was only one day of our trip around Cebu Island during the closure so we will now finish up with some of the other things we were able to see here in the Philippines.

We were at the beach several times and at this particular one as we were looking for sea shells we noticed that if you stood still for less than a minute many of the small shells started moving.  Baby hermit crabs were everywhere in the shells.  These two are in Elder Sorensen's hand.

This is Tumalog Falls.  We loved being here.  The volume of water coming off the falls was far less than other falls we have seen but with the outcropping of rocks and the water being dispersed in numerous directions creating a fine mist, it was just beautiful and peaceful.  Notice the large bamboo plants on the right side.

Elder and Sister Sorensen enjoying Tumalog Falls.  It's great being Senior Missionaries.

Sister Sorensen enjoying the peaceful atmosphere while soaking her feet in the pool at the base of the falls. 

There were all these little fish that came up and were giving Sister Sorensen a foot massage.

This is Kawasan Falls, much more commercialized than Tumalog Falls but beautiful.

If you wanted to you could get on a raft and actually go into the falls, for a price of course.  We stayed dry.

Walking back to the van from the falls we saw this Nanny with her Kids enjoying lunch.

The last night we spent on our trip was at the Virgin Beach Resort which was highly rated by some on the web.  As we continued down a long mostly dirt road we were beginning to wonder.

The welcome sign seemed to be a little damaged, what could that mean?

This was the resort.  We were the only guests there and survived the night but were glad to be on our way.  This area was hit hard by the earthquake and typhoon that devastated areas of the Philippines last year.  We could honestly say that "at one time" this was a nice resort.

We were at the North end of Cebu Island which is highly agricultural as can be seen in this picture.  We loved the open space.

This is one of the many sugar cane fields that we passed in this area.

This was by Bogo still in the North.  Cultivating a field using Carabao, which is an Asian water buffalo and the National Animal of the Philippines.

Swimming with Whale Sharks

The second week the temple was closed we decided to make a complete trip around Cebu Island to see more of the Philippines.  The first place we stayed was at the Garden Stay Resort in Lagunde which is close to Oslob where we planned on swimming with whale sharks.  We were not disappointed.  Just a few facts about whale sharks:

✦ Whale sharks are massive creatures. The largest whale shark to have been recorded weighed 47,000 pounds and measured 41 feet long.

✦ The dot and stripe patterns on a whale shark's body are like human fingerprints. They are unique to each individual shark.

✦ Whale sharks have about 3,000 teeth set in 300 to 350 rows. However, these animals being filter feeders, the teeth are not of much use.

✦ They have very big mouths, almost 5 feet (1.5 meter) wide.

✦ Whale sharks live for 70 to 100 years, with some living for an even longer time.

✦ These species of fish are slow-moving. When they are moving in water, they have a speed of not more than 2 to 3 knots per hour.

✦ Female whale sharks are larger in size than the males.

Pictures just can't come close to sharing the experience of swimming with these amazing creatures but here are just a few to share with you.   Sorry the pictures underwater aren't better but they were not taken by a professional photographer but by the boatmen that took us out to the whale sharks.

The four couples that went together.  Left to right starting in the back: Elder and Sister Johnson, Arizona, Elder and Sister Sorensen, Elder and Sister Henthorn, Washington, Front, Elder and Sister Decker, Arizona.

This is Toni owner of the Garden Stay Resort.  He and his brother own this home and rent it out.  Toni was a wonderful host. 

Entering the Garden Stay Resort.  The Johnsons and Deckers stayed in the cottages on the right and the Henthorns and Sorensens stayed in the home just past the van.

Yes it can be tough sitting at the edge of the ocean seeing the waves roll in and watching the sun set. 

This is in Oslob where we had the wonderful experience with the whale sharks.  At first we went to the structure on the right for orientation.  We were cautioned not to touch the whale sharks because you may injure them.  There can be a fine and time in jail for intentionally touching one.  There were zoologists present to watch all the visitors and insure the whale sharks were not harmed in any way.  If we had sunscreen on we were told to wash it off before going in the water.  The boats you can see are where the whale sharks are.  They are fed everyday starting at 6:30 am until noon so they will come to this area for people to see.  This day there were seven sharks who had come in to feed.

Yes they really are sharks as you can see in this picture.

This is Elder Sorensen with a very close encounter.  Twice he had to move out of the way so a whale shark didn't hit him as it swam by.  At one time the fins and tail of one were within inches of hitting him.

Just how big is this whale shark?  BIG

Sister Sorensen warning the sharks to not get too close.  At one time we were surrounded by three whale sharks. Notice the one behind us here.

Whale shark coming through.  Elder Sorensen can be seen just behind the dorsal fin and Sister Sorensen is in the pink on the right.  The foot is one of the boatmen that took us out to the sharks.

Elder and Sister Sorensen getting a close up view of a feeding whale shark.

Yes they have very LARGE mouths.

Sister Sorensen just above a whale shark.

Elder Sorensen floating as a whale shark goes by.

Did we really just experience this?  We were only allowed thirty minutes in the water but words can't explain the emotions it created..

First Week of Temple Closure

The temple was closed for two weeks for maintenance beginning July 14th so the temple missionaries took the opportunity to see more of the Philippines close to Cebu.  We went with four other couples to the Island of Bohol, which is a two hour boat ride from Cebu City, on a fast boat.  It is hard to truly convey what it was like but hopefully through pictures you will get a feel for what we were able to experience.

This is the type of boat that we traveled on to the Island of Bohol.  Some of the baptistry groups use this type of transportation to come to the temple. There are lots of seats inside and no one got sea sick either going or coming back.

This is the Oasis Resort where we stayed.  It is located on Panglao Island just  across a bridge from Bohol.  It was a nice place to stay, remember we are in the Philippines though, and was very close to the beach.  The food here was very good.  The owner actually lives in Cebu not far from the Temple.  He was here when we were and visited with us several times while we were eating.  He was impressed with how the church takes care of its buildings and helps people.

This is an old Catholic Church and school built in 1872.  It sustained damage from the earthquake that hit the Philippines on October 15, 2013 just one month before the Super Typhoon hit.  The epicenter of the earthquake was in Bohol.

This is inside the church.  There was some damage in this area but more on the opposite end from where I took this picture.  It was interesting that they allowed pictures in the church but not in the museum which was also in this building.

This was a different old Catholic Church in another part of Bohol that received extensive damage in the earthquake.  There were numerous old churches in the Philippines that were damaged either by the earthquake or the typhoon.

We stopped at a small zoo, maybe a dozen animals total, where Sister Sorensen wanted to play with this iguana. 

Sister Sorensen playing with Melia the Burmese Python.  It was hard to hold up because of how heavy this snake is.  The world's largest python was here last year when the missionaries came but it died a month after they saw it.

Men working in a rice pattie. Rice is the number one staple food in the Philippines.

This is a bamboo bridge that we walked across, mainly to say we did.

A close up view of how the bamboo was woven to make the bridge.

We had to stop at the Tarsier Conservation Area.  Philippine Tarsiers are among the smallest primates in the world and are only found in the Philippines.

Tarsiers are nocturnal so we caught them while they were trying to sleep.  They eat mainly insects but will eat other small animals such as lizards.  The biggest threat to their survival is habitat destruction.

This Tarsier opened his eyes part way to see what was waking him up.  They are small enough to easily fit in your hand.

We had to visit the chocolate hills of Bohol.  The chocolate hills consist of no less than 1268 hills. They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. We were there during the rainy season so they were green not chocolate.  Geologists have not reached consensus on how they where formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay.  Many of the hills experienced land slides during the Bohol earthquake.  

While we were in Bohol there was a typhoon that hit Manila and caused several deaths.  We were far enough south that we got some  of the rain and wind.  Some of the waves were fairly high and I was glad we weren't in the typhoon.  As we were watching the waves crash into the shore this Filipno walked out into the waves and then started swimming out to the boat on the left.  I didn't want to try swimming in this rough water.  Shortly after he made it to the boat two more men went into the water and swam to a different boat.  They were checking to make sure their boats were safe.  There were two boats that sank here this day because of the waves. 

Our final day in Bohol we took this boat out to the Island of Balicasag to do some snorkeling.  The wind had died down so we were safe.  What a beautiful area and a great snorkeling area.  There was a steep drop off out just a small distance and there were lots of fish there.  One of the other guides was feeding fish close to us and there were so many fish around him it was amazing.  To bad we don't have an underwater camera to share with you.

These are a few of the resident of Balicasag.  We sat here and ate food that we brought and they were very willing to sell us items to remind us of our trip.  The tourist trade is the main source of income for the residents. 

Sister and Elder Sorensen walking barefoot on the beach.  We never expected this kind of experience on our mission.