Finding Beauty

Pasig river is very polluted. But I managed to get a nice photo from the walls of Intramuros shooting across the river. The dark clouds worked well I think with the image

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

I took this photo on my last trip to the Philippines. It was very dark and no tripod was allowed so shot this handheld at ISO 800. My canon 50D did a good job at controlling the noise in the photo. Would have been nice if the light wasn't shining on the painting but not much I could do about that. I forget the exact details of this church but it is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel inside Intramuros. I had been to the Philippines many times but never here so decided to wander around for the day exploring. It is worth the trip but beware, when you exit it is a nightmare trying to find a taxi.

I spent the evening tonight getting ready to fish as it is Senior Citizens Day tomorrow in Palau, which is a holiday. Got a new fishing pole I want to try out but it is kind of windy so will have to play it by ear.

Dolphins in Palau

Wow, it;s been over a month since my last post. Was off island for awhile and they busy with work. Also didn't have any photos that I wanted to post. But, on Saturday went fishing and on the way back a pod of dolphins showed up and put on a show. There must have been at least 50 of them. I almost didn't bring my camera that day but am glad I did. This is one of my favorites. You can see Koror way in the distance and we were about 15 miles offshore. We were also lucky enough to find a floating buoy and ended up catching a bunch of tuna/mahimahi/wahoo that day.

Sunrise at Two Dogs

Took this photo as the sun rise appeared over the horizon. We still had the beach to ourselves and I wandered around with my camera in hand. It was a beautiful morning and you could not ask for a better place to be. After taking this photo we ate a breakfast of spam and rice and I heated up some chili (yep for breakfast). Kids immediately went off to explore and I just relaxed with some coffee that we heated up. Just a great way to start the day and I wished we could have stayed for two nights, but next time we have a chance we most certainly will.

We ain't leaving now

This is looking out from two dogs towards Koror. When we arrived, the tide was high and we had about 5 feet of water. I knew the tide was going to drop so we timed our arrival. The bottom is sand so no problem with the boat sitting. I just made sure that there were no rocks laying where the boat would come down. I must admit, I did not think the tide would be that low. The boat was completely High and Dry. But, when the tide came back it was nice for the kids to swim.

You Talking To Me?

Well, finally decided to go camping. Got the permit to go to Two Dog Beach (as alot of people call it) and Saturday morning loaded up the boat. And man, we are talking about loading the boat. With six kids total, we had a full boat. Lots of juice and food, as well as blankets etc. Of course, I had to bring my camera equipment and fishing gear. We got the boat loaded at 11:00AM and it was a full boat. Headed out of Malakal and smack into high winds and rough weather. Of course, we are in the reef, but we had a swell and a full boat. In hindsight would have cut through the rock islands on the inside, but we braved it. Within minutes not a dry person on the boat. After an hour we hit Ulong and I was seriously thinking of camping there. But as we got around Big Toi, we got a little bit in the Lee and I decided to battle on. By 1:00 we were there. Pulled up the boat and all the kids except for my oldest daughter jumped off and started to swim. That left us to off load the boat. Finally got camp set up around 3:00PM. Two Dogs is great as the beach is sandy and there is a nice area to swim. The wind was blowing and although I was tied to a mooring next to the beach, I threw out an anchor in the front and another behind to keep the boat from swinging. By 6:00 it was low tide and the boat was high and dry sitting on the sand. Got the fire going and started cooking. All the tourists were gone by now and we had the place to ourselves. Kids running and screaming, grill going and cold drinks. Couldn't get better. As night came you could tell the kids had never been camping as the sounds made them nervous. But it was great and took them walking looking for sandcrabs and just looking at the million of stars you could see. By 11:00PM they were so sleepy they went to their tent. I sat in my tent and listened to them until they went to sleep. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a pillow or blanket for myself so slept in the tent with a towel for a pillow. It was not cold, but I'm getting too old to sleep on the hard ground. Think I slept maybe three hours. At 2:00AM it started to rain, but the tents I had never tried before were great and not a drop of water inside. Woke up in the morning to another low tide and grabbed my camera and got this interesting shot of an Egret. At 10:00AM we packed up to head back. The wind was blowing and I knew it would be a rough ride back. It was and we pounded our way back home. All in all, a great trip and the kids can't wait to go again.

I wish I could say this is a photo of a magnificent Sea Turtle sleeping on the rocks. I wish I could say a number of things................. But, this sea turtle is not sleeping. It is dead. Someone shoved a stake all the way through the poor thing. God only knows how it ended up by my house. It died for nothing. Not because someone was going to eat the meat. It just died. Look, I fish and I used to hunt, but I would never kill anything for no reason. And I would certainly never kill a sea turtle (in season or out of season). So who did this? We will probably never know. I did call the conservation and law enforcement department in the phone book and they said they will come down. I hope so. At least then it can be measured and hopefully something will be learned from this needless death. In the end, I knew I had to take a photograph, but couldn't bear showing the thing from an angle that illustrated how cruel people can be. So, I tried to take a photo that put some dignity into the poor thing. My kids found it first and asked why someone would do something like that. The only answer I could give is what I strive to teach them. We never kill anything for no reason. If we catch a fish and we are not going to eat it, we release it. If you treat things with respect, I believe you will also be treated well. If not, well then karma will come back some day and get you. Although I wish no harm on people, I hope the person that did this realizes what they did and regret it and learn. Probably not, but who knows.