January 4, 2009: Romblon Tour, Day Two

The second of our two full days in Romblon was spent in town.  The day started with an extra long mass; the archbishop of the diocese was leading it, and those guys can do whatever they want.  After breakfast, we went to the main shopping area, which was pretty much nothing but marble shops - like a dozen of them, all one on top of the other.  Romblon is known for its marble, and sculpture in the medium seems to represent a hefty chunk of the island's industry.  I got a carabao - Alma got two - and then I added a couple souvenir t-shirts to the haul.

After lunch, a break, and a quick stop by the provincial capitol building (which we had seen in the dark the previous night), we climbed the steps to Fort San Andres, an old Spanish fort from the 1600s.  The fort doesn't exactly get many visitors these days; it's full of weather measurement equipment and goat droppings, and we had it all to ourselves.  The guy minding it - who I think is probably watching the weather station and not the fort itself - seemed surprised that anyone wanted to look around, and in fact might not have let us do so had Alma's dad not mentioned that it was the first time he'd been back to the island in a long time.  From the top of the fort there were some great views of the town and harbor (see below).

After trekking back down from the fort, we went to the high school which Alma's dad attended; as mentioned earlier, we were only in the Philippines at all - and certainly only in Romblon at all - because it was his fiftieth reunion.  The campus was pretty empty since it was a Sunday afternoon, so we got to look around without having to sidestep a bunch of schoolkids, although it also meant we couldn't go inside any of the buildings (though I don't know that we could have done so on a school day either).   We dropped in one of Alma's dad's old teachers on the way back to the hotel, and then at night we had a farewell party with Alma's dad's relatives on the roof of the hotel, featuring karaoke again (I managed not to blow out my voice this time).  The night ended with another early bedtime as we had to get up quite early to make sure we could secure passage back to Tablas.

This sign was just sort of there on a side street near the downtown.  I certainly wouldn't say it was prominently placed.  The fort, as I mentioned, seems pretty neglected as anything other than a ruined old building, and the town's other fort has apparently become so forested that we couldn't even go see it.  I get the feeling that this is the difference between being in Metro Manila and being out in the "provinces" - in a big city where there's lots of money and resources, quite a lot of effort has gone into preserving Fort Santiago and Intramuros.  In the country it's just not a priority.

This was just any old house, but it has a balcony with a bunch of marble pillars in it.  This island is covered in marble.

See if you can guess what those letters are made out of.  (Hint: marble.)

Oddly, I'm pretty sure this statue of Ramon Magsaysay was not made of marble.  Magsaysay was the third president of the Philippines following the nation's 1946 independence from the United States; he's something of a martyr because he died in a plane crash in 1957, eight months before the end of his (potentially first) term as president.  He had also been a well-known defense secretary who led the fight against Communist guerrillas in the early fifties.

A look across the People's Park, near the Capitol Building.

The Capitol Building of Romblon province.  Pretty unassuming by American state capitol building standards.

I had assumed that this sign was written in Romblomano, the Visayan dialect spoken on the island, because it appeared to render the typical Merry Christmas/Happy New Year greeting, standardly seen in Tagalog as Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon, with different adjectives for happy and merry.  However, I consulted my Tagalog dictionary just now to be sure, and it turns out that mapayapa means "peaceful" and masagana means "prosperous."  So much for my knowledge of Tagalog.

A look down the local street near the capitol.  The 2000 census apparently recorded 36,612 people in Romblon Town, but if you'd had me guess at it I probably would have gone way under; aside from Monday morning, when we saw a lot of kids heading off to the high school, the town seemed pretty sleepy and empty the entire time we were there.

Part of the pool within the People's Park.

We all crammed into/onto a single tricycle for our ride back from the Capitol Center to the hotel.  I sat directly behind the driver, as seen here; Alma's dad then wedged himself in behind me (see that little metal "seat" to my left?  That's what he was sitting on), while Alma and her mother sat in the sidecar.  I think one of Alma's cousins was also on there somehow, hanging off the side or back maybe.  But tricycles will hold a lot of people if you want them to; on Monday morning I saw one go by that must have had ten high school kids on it - three behind the driver, four hanging off the back, and at least three more in the sidecar.  Of course I probably weigh as much as two of those kids put together, so.

A gate at the entrance to Barangay IV, one of Romblon's neighborhoods and the one we stayed in.

This was the hotel we stayed in.  Alma's cousin tutors the child of the owner, so our room was actually free.  I spent two thousand dollars on the trip all told - a little under 1800 for the plane ticket (it's not nearly so expensive at other times of year, but because of when we had to go, the cost was unavoidable) and a couple hundred in souvenirs.  But when I think about the percentage of accommodations, food and travel that cost me nothing because I was there as a family member, it makes me wonder a little what this trip might have cost.  Things are cheaper there, but two-plus weeks of food and lodging alone would have really run things up.  Anyway, I was lucky to be invited, and I owe Alma's family one.

A statue of Mr. Popular, Jose Rizal, in downtown Romblon.  The statue is near Alma's dad's elementary school, and he described hanging out by the statue with his friends while eating bread filled with coconut.

A look down the stairs on the way up to Fort San Andres.  And these were the stairs that were in relatively good condition; shortly after this point it got very overgrown and worn down.

Here's a shot of the town, taken from the first "landing," if you will.  Virtually the entire town fits into the lens at this point, and I'm only about 120 feet above it at the most.

And here we go.  After a certain point the stairs were pretty well covered in plant growth and a lot of the rocks were loose.

At this point the steps seemed to just sink into the plants.  San Andres' "twin fort," also called Fort Santiago, must basically be jungle if it's significantly worse than this, as we were told it was.

A panoramic look at Romblon Harbor.  That's Logbon Island in the center and Alad off to the right, giving the harbor natural shelter.  Way in the back behind Logbon is the northern end of Tablas.

A panorama of the whole town, with the edge of the harbor at right.  The word "nestled" comes to mind.  It really is how I would picture a small island town in pretty much any part of the world.

The outside of the fort, with weather instruments sticking out of the top.

The guard kambing, goat, at his post.  The fort was absolutely full of goat droppings, so I'm guessing he's not always tied up.

"Let's see some ID, buddy."

The front wall of the fort, which overlooks the town.

The front gate of the fort.

The sign reads:
FORT SAN ANDRES
Constructed .... 1640
By Fr. Augustin de San Pedro
(HISTORICALLY KNOWN AS PADRE CAPITAN)
ELEV. 156 Ft
Marker donated by: SL Madali Marbleworks
So, I have no idea how old that sign is, but in that condition it has to have been there for at least a couple decades, right?  Or maybe this is just what you get when marble is left exposed to the elements and not taken care of at all.

Steps inside the fort.  Could be worse considering they're 370 years old and largely ignored, I guess, although one wonders if they would have been cleared at all were it not for people hauling weather equipment up them.

The fort is 156 feet up, and then at the top of the fort is another maybe 15-20 feet.  So I was nearly 175 feet above the town for this shot, which again fits just about the whole thing in rather nicely.

A shot of the inner harbor from 175 feet above it.

One of the many weather instruments inside the fort.  I have no idea what this does (besides reflect me taking a picture of it).

A look at the interior of the fort.  Really, it was a very small fort; put a couple dozen people in there and suddenly no one can turn around.  It was probably mostly used for surveillance of the harbor more so than heavy defense.

Another nice look at the harbor, with Logbon to the left and Alad in the right background.  You can also see a couple of sandbars jutting off Romblon into the water, where the lighter patches of blue-green are in the center.

Another shot of the inside of the fort.  At this point you really have seen pretty much the entire interior.

A pan of the full harbor.  Unfortunately, from the top of the fort, the weather instruments and station block the view a bit.

The steps are fairly high, yet extremely shallow (and in addition to the shallowness, their age makes some of the edges a bit loose).  I had to take them sideways on the way back down to avoid falling.

Another shot of the inner harbor, taken on the way back down from the fort.

One last pan of the town and inner harbor.

The fort seen from just below it.  Even at this distance it doesn't look like much; no wonder there's hardly a groundswell of support to preserve it.  I liked it, though; the age alone made being there pretty cool.

The harbor again.  That's another ferry arriving in the middle of the shot.

"So, where are we again?"

This little square is at the heart of downtown, right across from the port, welcoming people to Romblon.

A sculpture of a marbleworker, signifying Romblon's primary industry.

Fort San Andres can be seen from the square, although you kind of have to know to look for it.

A large star ornament for the holidays hung in the center of the square - as you can probably tell, it was made almost entirely out of old plastic soda bottles.

The "shopping center," which was basically just a bunch of marble shops.  We wandered from shop to shop looking for particular figures; I was kind of surprised by how hard it was to find a carabao, although there were a lot of dolphins.  It was a bit awkward because Alma's relatives insisted on bargaining for us in most places, and I just felt weird trying to haggle over something that was being sold for less than $1.50 (and which in the States I'm sure I would gladly have paid at least three times as much for).

A full view of a tricycle.  This happens to be one of the motorized ones, but there are also versions with bicycles attached.  Those guys must be super fit.

The town festival was coming up a few days after we left, so the streets were festooned with streamers, somewhat strangely all featuring the Coke logo.

The gate out front of Romblon National High School.

The school's main administration building, seen from across the playing field's basketball court.

A pan of the field and track in front of the school.

My high school was one self-contained building, but I guess in warmer climates that's not necessary (South Africa and New Zealand, where I've seen high schools, also come to mind), and it's probably easier to have a few low, small buildings than one three-story behemoth.

And in the courtyard... a boxing ring!  Now there's something you'll never see at an average American high school.

The science building.

A look out at the field.  Some sort of band practice, possibly in preparation for the town festival, was taking place.

There was lettering on either side of the stairs indicating that one side was for going up and one for going down.  Orderly!

A map of the entire campus.  Looks pretty large from this view.  The land area of the campus is 33,800 square meters (you can see that figure at the bottom center), a little over 8 acres; it would be a small to medium-sized campus by US standards.

We saw a lot of roosters tied by one leg like this in Romblon Town.  Alma's dad said they were being kept for cockfighting.

Unless you're way out in the country, it's virtually impossible to get a bottle of pop for under a dollar in the US these days.  In Romblon you could get a bottle for six pesos, which is about twelve cents.  Sadly, we were never able to find anyone selling Arcy's Root Beer (it may not be that sad, since the two Filipino root beers I did have, Coke-produced Sarsi and local company Zesto, were extremely licorice-heavy and not really that good), but I did have a bottle of Juicy Lemon.  It wasn't bad, although I of course prefer my lemon soda tarter; this was more just sweet.  I also like this sign because it's a perfect illustration of Taglish in action.  Sarap means taste; I would translate this sign into full English ad lingo as "Three times the taste!"

I could not stop finding it interesting to see livestock in the middle of town.

The old bell tower at St. Joseph Cathedral.  We actually went inside to the first level, but after that the stairs were wooden and looked like they might be too fragile to support us, so we prudently went back down to ground level.

A fuzzy night shot taken from the top of the hotel.  That's the bell tower again at left, the Barangay IV gate lit up in the center, and the elementary school from center to right.  Most places we went in the Philippines were places where, when night falls, there isn't much light to be found; it's not like there are ubiquitous street lights.  There'd probably be even less in this shot if not for the lighted decoration atop the gate, which I think was only there because of the holiday time.

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