Guiuan

This weekend I went to Guiuan.  The authors of the Lonely Planet, whose judgment I continually question, say the town has “remote remnants of WWII history on land, uncrowded surfbreaks on shore.”  Here are some pics:

The best part of the trip was the drive.  For a few kilometers the scenery looked like a miniature version of the hills and rivers surrounding Guilin.  Luckily I was seated shotgun so I got some good views.

This airstrip was built by the Americans during WWII.  According to the locals and nobody else, the Enola Gay departed from here before bombing Hiroshima.  During the war the airport had two airstrips, but the second one has been overtaken by the jungle and turned into the very, very wide main street of a small neighborhood.  Second tidbit: John F. Kennedy was stationed in Guiuan during the war.

This is the oldest church in the Philippines according to my tricycle driver.  It looked very run down, broken windows and all.  The bell tower next to it “used to be three times taller,” say the mystifying local tourism materials.

The décor in my hotel room.  When I went to bed I found out the puppies glowed in the dark.

This is the island where Magellan first landed in the Philippines.  My original plan for the weekend was to go there, but then I learned that the only vessels that travel between the islands are small Bangka boats (the ones with bamboos poles each side as stabilizers) and that the trip each way could take three hours.  Considering that the weather had been fickle for the past few days I wussed out.

The original flagpole for the US Naval Supply Depot.  This was the most concrete remnant from the American presence that I found (the airstrip has been repaved several times since the US forces left).

 I splurged and paid 11 bucks to hire this tricycle for the day.

The view of Guiuan and the surrounding area from a nearby weather station.