Miami to Panama City - March 11, 2024 - Santo Tomas de Castilla, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala

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Manila, Philippines - March 7th

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Port of Manila This morning we docked in Manila around 8 AM.  Our tour left about 9 AM and we headed for the Taal Volcano ...more about this later. Upon leaving the ship we drove through the Intramuros section of Manila which is an historic walled area within the city (.26 sq. mile).  During Spanish rule this was considered the City of Manila.  The Battle of Manila in 1945 entirely flattened the Intramuros with the exception of the San Agustin Church.  The Intramuros is still be reconstructed. We passed by the Manila Hotel which is an historic 5-star hotel built in 1909.  The oldest surviving premiere hotel in the Philippines. Street scene Street scene Here are some street scenes we passed in Metro Manila on our way to our next stop.  Bamboo Organ Next we headed for the St. Joseph Parish Church which has a 19th century bamboo organ. We were fortunate enough to hear it being played. Link to Organ Videos.  St. Joseph Parish Church Whole Jack Fruit...
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Kuala Lumpur – Batu Cave, Firefly Cruise - February 23

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Somehow in packing, I carefully charged my camera batteries, put the charger in my suitcase but somehow the batteries don’t seem to have made it, so we started the day taking a taxi to a local mall (Plaza Low Yat) to buy batteries for my camera.  Luckily, we found some but paid double the price.  I thought I was so organized, NOT. Our guide picked us up at 2 PM for an 8-hour tour.  We started with a visit to the  Batu Caves , a series of limestone caves on the edge of the city and one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. But, to enter the cave you must climb 272 steps just to reach the entrance.  This is a lot of steps even under normal circumstances but add 90 temps and 90% humidity and it becomes a definite challenge.   We slowly made our way to the top, surrounded by monkeys ready to steal items left unattended.  This one snagged a baby bottle with milk and obviously knew what to do with it. Once inside, there...
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Danum Valley - Borneo Rainforest Lodge - March 13th

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Chris with leech socks We got up early and headed to breakfast around 7:00 AM.  As we had a schedule hike, we put on our leech socks before heading out. The dining area is all open air and has a great view of the river. So while eating our breakfast we watched for birds and listened to the morning chorus. There were 6 other people in our group with Donny our guide…a couple from England and a family with two girls ages 8 and 10 from Malaysia.  Our scheduled activity for 8:30 AM was a hike up to the lodge viewpoint.  It was steep uphill climb (and very hot and humid), we decided not to go.  The couple from England had the same thought and the lodge found us another guide for a morning hike.   Trail  We walked through the jungle for 3 hours (about 2 miles) at a slow pace to watch for birds, animals, and insects.   We had on our leech socks and did encounter some leeches.  The tiger leeches sit on leaves 3 feet above...
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