2. Mindanao - Cagayan de Oro City

After a couple days in Cebu I headed to Mindanao. I wanted to first see Cagayan de Oro City, and then Davao. CDO City is small, not a lot to do, but it was relaxing to hang out and get my bearings. I stayed at a pleasant place run by an Australian. He and his friends took great pleasure in showing me a good time and introducing me to the local favorite beer, Red Horse. It doesn't taste very good, but it really has a kick to it. I don't seem to have any pics of that place, but for some reason I took a pic of this little hut that was directly outside of the front gate. It was so weird to see affluence and desperate poverty juxtaposed like this, but it's everywhere.

The first day I decided to have a walk around town. I stopped in to have a look at the local library.

A manual typewriter and a desk if you had the desire to sit and type something.

It was quite hot for me and my rib hurt so much, so I stopped and rested a lot. There was a small stand that sold drinks and hotdogs and such in the middle of the downtown area, I was struck by how many tiny lizards were crawling on the wall.

It seemed there was a rubber stamp maker on every third block around town. I stopped and chatted with this guy, and drew a picture of a stamp I wanted him to make. He said come back in about an hour to pick it up. I had him make a stamp like the one I remembered in Val Kilmer's first movie, "Top Secret". A Nazi-like character had a stamp that said "KILL HIM". That's what I had the guy make. I guess it's lucky the TSA folks didn't find it in my luggage on the way home.

I visited a tourist center, got a map and continued on my walking tour. There was a small college where I stopped by to have a look around. 

The college had a guard, very friendly. They took my name down
as a visitor and let me in to have a look around.

Walking around on campus I saw a museum. It was closed, but when I expressed interest they opened it up for me and gave me a VIP tour.

The curator of the museum was happy to let me in to have a look around

Museum exhibit with all aspects of Filipino culture on display

They had a copy of Noli Me Tangere, a novel by Filipino polymath and national hero
José Rizal first published in 1887 in Berlin. Obligatory reading for all
junior-high students, it was displayed in a prominent place in the museum.

Very lovely garments worn by natives long ago. The rough cloth was adorned by
coral and seashells sewn into the fabric.

There were many other things in the museum, from old to new, art and artifacts of the Philippine people.

After the tour, I thought I would buy a phone. I don't know why, I didn't know anyone to call. You can pick one up for about $10, and then you buy a SIM card with "load". That's what everybody calls it--minutes, or chat time or whatever. I came across this shop which sold phones, and these two nice little ladies helped me select a phone, install the battery and show me how it works.

I do mean little. They were both about 4'-8" tall.

They then pointed me to a shop down the street I could by a "load" for it. It was tiny, run by a Muslim lady. While she was fixing my phone up with load, we struck up a conversation. She was full of questions about me and my life in the U.S. Then her husband came by, a police officer, real nice guy. I ended up spending the rest of the day and evening with the two of them. They drove me around and showed me the town, and then we went out for pizza. Nice folks.

Driving me around town, showing me the best places to buy a house,
talking about business opportunities

Having pizza, showing off my new T-shirt. I must have been drunk to buy that.