Wednesday, March 2
We traveled in a fourteen passenger Manila Tours bus into the countryside headed for Catatagan and the Punta Buluarte Resort. It was a new world. Cariboa–domesticated water buffalo—pulled plows to cultivate rice paddies. Pineapple, coffee, papaya, banana, and coconut palms were all growing together in the fertile volcanic soil. Our driver honked to clear the road of people, pigs, and chickens. We passed fields of gerbera daisies and stands selling bananas and watermelon. Men chopped weeds with bolos, women washed clothes along streams and spread them on bushes to dry. We learned to identify new birds– pied chats, Brahminy kites, yellow-vented bulbuls, pigmy swifts, striped cane grass warblers, European tree sparrows and Schach shrikes.
Punta Buluarte Resort is a part of the Elizades family estate situated high above Pagapas Bay. We stayed in cottages covered with bamboo and ate in the spacious dining hall with parquet floors and beamed ceilings. Mrs.Busser helped me select chicken timora—a stew with chicken, green payaya, green peppers and chili greens. .