Day 12: Crocodiles and Fireflies

The day started with a tour to a weaving factory. They use ordinary grass, boil it and dye them and weave them to produce beautiful materials that are later used to make bags, table runners and table mats and other things.

One of the things I see here is the intelligence of man. Imagine, something as useless as grass can be made into beautiful works of art and materials that could be useful. This reminds me of how God works. Many people think there is no hope for themselves, that they are useless. But this proves them wrong. God has made everything beautiful. There is no such thing as wasted material. Everything has a redeeming factor. God can use anything and change anything to make them beautiful.

After this, we went to the crocodile farm. This made me realize how much the Philippines has come. With facilities like this, it has shown that it is capable of supporting these researches. There were also animals they rescued from the wild to rehabilitate and later on release them. 

We went to Rancho de Mitra. This ranch is owned by the Mitra family. The patriarch used to be a senator before martial law. He was imprisoned when Marcos declared martial law. After the EDSA revolution, he became the Speaker of the House and ran for president. He did not win though. Now, his son is the governor of Palawan.

The ranch is very large. Situated on top of the mountain, it has a 3 part zipline. The guide told us that the road is where the rich people live. And not surprisingly, the houses are huge! One is owned by a retired Commodore of the Philippine Navy.

The walkway was beautiful. One of the things our guide told us was that it used to be a slum area. The mayor cleared it after a fire and made it a walkway. We also went to the fort where soldiers in WWII were massacred by the Japanese imperial army. There was a tunnel that was used by the US armed forces use to escape but the Japanese killed those in it.

The site is right across the Cathedral. The Cathedral is very simple. It was set up as a small church in the late 1800’s but was destroyed during WWII. The current Cathedral was built about 50 years ago. We went in and said a little prayer. There was also a baptism that was about to start. What is strange is the parents were not locals. I would assume these are foreigners living in the city - because their entourage was all foreigners.

We had lunch at Bilao’t Palayok. They had boodle - which is a meal served on a square board about 4 feet on each side. Everyone was satisfied and we had some to take out. Cost including shakes for everyone - P1600 or CA$40 for six people.

We ordered the boodle for 4-5 persons and it was more than enough for six! It seems that in Palawan, the servings are larger than normal.

We headed back to the hotel and at 6pm, our tour guide picked us up for dinner. We went to Leslie's. It was buffet and they cook the food as you order it.

After dinner, we went back to the walkway for the firefly tour. The problem with this tour is that the river was too dark that our camera could not even take pictures.



The fireflies were amazing. The trip to the place was amazing also. It was very dark and you could see stars in the sky - lots and lots of it! I was trying to imagine how Abraham felt when God told him that his descendants would be as the stars in heaven. It must have scared him and he probably thought - really? That much stars?

We rode a big boat to the mouth of the spot and had to take a smaller boat into the site because the waters are shallow and the large boat would not pass through it. And when the boat passes, the fireflies would light up like Christmas tree lights!

God uses the darkness to show beauty in his creation. The lights even if they were small could be seen meters away. Darkness cannot conquer the Light. God will always win over evil.

After watching it, we went back to the walkway and called it a night.