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My room looked out onto the Celebes Sea, but I was more interested in the sounds of drums that woke me. A coup? Public labor union protest? It turned out to be nothing sinister at all – just the Boy and Girl Scouts gathering from all over Davao for a parade. They wore bright smiles, giddy to show off and get the morning off from school.

The morning factory meeting was hot, and the air conditioning in the restaurant dried the sweat on our heads quickly. Local seafood specialties? Of course! Clam soup with bok choy, squid stuffed with vegetables, deep fried tuna belly and jaw of tuna, pig ears chopped fine with red chilis in a brown sauce (this final dish goes well with a “drinking session,” I’m told). Wash it all down with coconut water and San Miguel beer.

A long, slow, six hour drive through the jungle. Poverty but not destitution. Wood framed two-room homes on stilts to protect against typhoons. The men tending the corn, and the women planting rice. Each property boasts a large pig, a few goats, some chickens. Every half mile or so holds a roadside food stand for people to gather and drink mango juice, buy some pork and rice, and watch the traffic pass.

Evening on the Sulu Sea in Butuan. Lizards warm themselves on the concrete around the hotel. A breeze comes off the water and reduces the oppressive humidity. Still stuffed from lunch, I skip dinner, find a 1974 Grateful Dead concert on the laptop and decide on an early night in the room. Good night.

This entry was posted on July 24, 2012 at 8:53 am and is filed under Food, Travel with tags butuan, davao, philippine cuisine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.