Sun and Sand

What an amazing week we've just had. It will be a good way to say farewell to this beautiful country we've called home for the past 6 months!!

We have so many pics, so you'll have to go to our website to check them all out, but get the stories here first.

We've only eaten at Ting Ting's twice, but it was amazing both times. They don't have AC seeing as they are an open air eatery so we had to go there on nice cool days and those are few. They have the best buko (young coconut meat) shakes in town! We had to go to FedEx but had some time to kill around lunch time because offices close down here for lunch... crazy huh... so we decided to partake of their wonderful atmosphere and food one last time.




We decided we'd better take one last mini vacation before heading off to the land of the lost, so we headed down to Punta Bulata Resort and Spa near Sipalay. It was around a 3 hour drive, and the last 4km were bumpy, rocky, dirt roads so that was fun :-P It is a lot more mountainous down south and as always AMAZINGLY beautiful!!!

The beach was fun. It was covered in coral, hermit crabs, and shells - many of which we collected (the shells, not the crabs) - but when you stepped in to the crystal clear water the sand was as soft as a baby's bum. It was the perfect day, overcast but not raining so we stayed out as long as we could. When it got dark, we went for a swim in the pool. We were the only guests that night so we had the entire beach, pool, and grounds to ourselves! It was so calming and peaceful. It did sprinkle on us the 2nd day, but that didn't stop us from playing on the beach and swimming in the pool again :) The kids got to play with more starfish and we got to see a sea urchin which was fun. All in all, it was a great way to start our weekend away.



























The second half of our weekend was spent in Pontevedra, Brandon's first area of his mission. We tracked down Walter Pobledor who was the Branch President when Brandon served. He helped us drive around and we were able to meet up with some old friends and just hang out in their little neighborhood. The kids are amazing out in the province and just had smiles and giggles to share the whole time we were there. Ærowyn found a chick to carry around and was extremely sad when we wouldn't let her bring it home with us. We stayed that night at a little beach resort in Hinigaran. We got there late at night so we didn't get to do much that night other than swim in the pool, but that morning when we went down to the beach we got to see some fishing boats and the men fixing their huge fish nets. We chatted with them for a while and then it was off to church. The branch there is small, but the members are strong and so loving. Ærowyn (as always) found some little creatures to love - this time is was a little frog and a tiki.








To end our wonderful weekend away, we visited an old friend of ours here in Bacolod. Medley Caspe was a sweet lady who picked us up in her car one day because she was afraid we were lost and didn't like seeing Wrævn and Ærowyn in the heat. Anyway, we went to say hello and ended up staying for lunch and chatting most of the afternoon while Ærowyn played with her cats and puppies (the only animals she's been able to play with here). We're glad we got to see her again and say farewell for now. It was a great weekend away. Hopefully we will be able to come back and visit all of our friends again some day.