Arrival in Banaue

Well our trip to Banaue was interesting to say the least. We rode on an old bus at had almost all of the windows repaired at one point or another due to broken glass. It was also designed for people who are very short. Buses are known for not having a lot of leg room, but is it by a large margin the least leg room I have ever seen. To add insult to injury the bus has one air conditioning setting and it is freezing. It was probably about 45-55 degrees in the bus and I was cold wearing long pants and long sleeves. Even though the odds were against me I still managed to get a lot of sleep. The bus did not have a bathroom so we stopped anytime anybody on the bus had to pee. Getting out of Manila took far longer than expected and the whole time all we did was get more behind schedule. Then I woke up to find that we were sitting still because there were two impassable landslides up ahead on the mountain roads we were on. We ended up getting off the bus, getting all of our belongings and hiking past the landslide. We then caught a jeepney to the next landslide for 20 pesos. It was about 10k to the next landslide and then we had to wait for an earthmover to clear a path before we could walk through. This was crucial because the water was so high on the high side where we were that we would have had to swim. The path was cleared, the water ran through, and then we passed through, knee deep in mud. We caught another jeepney and sat on the roof with our bags for the next 26 kilometers to Banaue. Luckily the weather was clear for our ride because it has been raining since we arrived. Here is a picture of the second landslide:

Here are some pictures from the past couple days the first one is a view from the garbage dump that shows the squatter settlements next to it.

Second is a view of the volcano's crater that we swam in. Notice the crater from the supervolcanoe in the distance, it is the lake behind.

Third is Reggie and me riding on top of the jeepney on our way back from the volcanoe

Hope you enjoy the pictures, it has been overcast and rainy from the remanants of a typhoon down south. We still have had plenty of sun though. The pictures don't really do justice to any of the places we have been but I hope you enjoy them.