Wednesday, March 16
As we drove back down from the Chocolate Hill I enjoyed the many ferns and orchids growing on the rocky hills. Our drive warned us that this area was noted for the poisonous ground snake that was also the reason the huts were built on stilts.
We continued to the home of Primo Pizarro, amateur naturalist and taxidermist, who was to be our guide in finding a tarsier. He had located one in the jungle earlier that morning and felt that it would still be in its tree as they usually sleep all day. The tiny bit of brown fur is hardly 8 inches long with large ears and bulging eyes and a long tail with a tuft at the end.
As we approached the area we heard dogs barking and excited voices When we came into a small clearing everyone was dejected. When the tarsier heard the dogs it fell to the ground, but was unable to escape among the rocks and the dogs killed it. It would still be sleeping in the tree if we hadn’t disturbed it.
We stopped at the Pizarras home where our lunch baskets were distributed. They were packed in buri palm baskets trimmed with nito, a climbing fern stem. Inside we found crab, prawns, a banana and a green papaya salad. Among Mr. Pizarras’ pets were a Philippine frog mouth, a bird about the size of a small owl, and an iguana.
We checked into the La Roca Hotel in Tagbilaren in late afternoon and some of us walked a few blocks to the market. I had come to photograph baskets but Daubie said I ended up saying, “I’ll take one of each.” But how can anyone resist those beautifully designed and woven mats, hats, and baskets—and at those prices!