Philippines Days 4 -7: Mac Arthur to Maasin

So when some one told me there was nothing to do in Leyte I knew they had to be lying. This morning as I woke up, I looked out the sliding windows of the guest house I was staying at and said to myself, “Now I Know they are lying”. The view of the ocean and sun rising was a sight to see.
At first started with some confusion in Tacloban, but my anger and confusion was quickly defused when I got to meet my good friend Jessa. That night we ate at the resort diner, where I had chopsuey and pinakbet, two vegetarian safe pinoy foods. But later that night there was also an anime costume contest. The contestants paraded their costumes for everyone around. This was a sign of the huge Korean influence in the Philippines.
The next morning my friend and I went shopping and then headed off to her home town of Mac Arthur. If you were to ask someone what there is to do in Mac Arthur, they would say “absolutely nothing” and that is about right. And that is also what I did. I did nothing, and enjoyed it. What I mean about nothing, is I relaxed, with the nice beautiful scenery of palm trees and a gorgeous ocean on the beach. Not to mention doing absolutely nothing with the locals who are very welcoming to the tourists. Always willing to invite to sit down and eat and drink some tuba. What is tuba you ask? Well it is not a musical instrument, but a coconut wine equal to moonshine, and damn good; at least when coke is added. This occurred more times than often, where I enjoyed some good
Times with some Filipinos.
Yesterday my friend Jessa and I made way to Castañas Springs in Balinsasayaw, Abuyog, which is about an hour and 15 minute trike trip from Mac Arthur. It is a gorgeous natural spring that is perfect for swimming, if you ask me. But if you ask my friend it was too cold.
After returning to Taragona Beach Resort, place I stayed for 1500 pesos ($35), we ate and cooked dinner like we had for most of our stay. The next day we would start our adventure very early to make our way to Maasin, a great place for hiking and cave dwelling. Unfortunately, the hiking and cave dwelling was not going to happen. Trying to hail a van passing by in Mac Arthur was hard as many vans were already full. Instead we made our way to Tacloban to catch a van. We waited about 3 hours for the van to fill up til we finally left. Now our adventure in Maasin awaits us, which is probably just a disco and some beers now, but tomorrow we head off to Ubay via ferry to the island of Bohol.