This past weekend Lauren was able to make a trip to Carles, Iloilo (one of the areas severely hit by Typhoon Yolanda). Friday 12 boats were donated by the national government to the local fisherfolk organization to help them patrol the Marine Protected Area (MPA) and use for their personal livelihood - fishing. This community like all coastal communities in the Philippines rely on the ocean for their livelihood whether it's a specific type of fishing or gathering of shells to make local products. Carles is located on the Northern tip of Panay Island, one of the most beautiful places for island hopping.
While island hopping Lauren was able to watch a small fishing community compression fish. This is an extremely dangerous style of fishing as fishermen tie a rope around their waste, put wooden paddles on their feet and then dive down with just a flimsy tube that provides air to them by attaching it to the compressor of their boat. In this particular location, they were diving down around 60 feet to harvest scallops for 45min - 1 hour at a time. It was absolutely amazing to see and scary as you are watching hundreds of meters of tubing throughout the ocean attached to 30 plus fishing boats.
This past week was Anilao’s Fiesta not to be confused with the Festival in November. Yes, fiesta and festival are two different events in the Philippines. All the floats this year were decorated in the theme of roses. The LGU (where Lauren works) competed in the float decorating competition. All of the roses used were made out of clothe the week before by all the LGU employees including Lauren. We lost count after a few hundred…..
The parade was a fun event through the Poblacion (downtown area). The girls in their evening attire looked beautiful and magically didn’t sweat – don’t forget, there isn’t air-conditioning anywhere. Lauren on the other hand looked like a wet dog and was in shorts!!! The evening event was the coronation of the king/queen and court. The theme was from Frozen, the latest Walt Disney movie (the writer of the theme song is Filipino so it’s a huge hit here). Everyone did a wonderful job of putting on this themed production.
