Dear friends and family,
we hope that all of you are doing fine and are healthy and happy just as we are.
Again, it has been a long time that you last heard from us and a lot of things happened that we want to share with you.
After we finished our little forest hut in Lipa, we wanted to see more of the Philippines, especially interesting to us seemed to be the islands of Palawan. So we flew there and met with a friend of ours who showed us around the island and made that we could get a very good impression of some of the most beautiful places of nature that the island has to offer. We went swimming, snorkeling , we were driving through beautiful old acacia forests, and astonishing landscapes.
This friend of us has a wild land that lies just in front of a big mountain range between rice paddies and waterfalls aside a riverbed. His dream is to develop the place into an eco resort and an artisan place in combination with an organic farm. But he didn't know how and where to start something like that, so we offered him to stay there for a while and make a permaculture design so it would be easier to start. So we ended up being on his land for two months to observe and get to know the land and location better, for us to make a good design. As well we did very basic renovation of a small, old and very rotten house, to make it a first base camp for the future.
This was a very unique opportunity for us because in that way we could really see the rural life of Palawan and feel the weather and the people and get more information of the island´s politics, events, land prices and so on.
Some days it was very hard to continue to stay there because of a storm or heat, that we had to confront as we lived very primitive there. ( We bathed in the river, we got water from a spring and we washed clothes in the river as well, we walked where ever we had to go and we carried all the materials by hand. All that became very difficult during the stormy days where the river was no more accessible and all the wet clothes never dried)
But the two of us faced and resolved all the challenges, we had very successful and very frustrating days, but in the end it was very satisfying to see what the two of us can do just with our hands and minds. The experience to live so intense with nature and each other is unforgettable for us.
Palawan is so beautiful that it can take the breath away but sadly the locals don't see the beauty and as we looked more close, they are about to destroy it everywhere trough mining, logging, unsustainable agriculture and as a result, climate change and lack of rain which makes it very hot.
Politicians are very corrupt and to buy a land there is very difficult, because you can hardly be sure if the papers are true...The food is very expensive because its no more local produce....It made us sad to see such a paradise that is one of the last on earth that is being destroyed...
We now know that we don't want to live there for good but we would always come back for a vacation!!!!
Here we have some of the pictures for you in which we kept some moments of our experience in Palawan :
we hope that all of you are doing fine and are healthy and happy just as we are.
Again, it has been a long time that you last heard from us and a lot of things happened that we want to share with you.
After we finished our little forest hut in Lipa, we wanted to see more of the Philippines, especially interesting to us seemed to be the islands of Palawan. So we flew there and met with a friend of ours who showed us around the island and made that we could get a very good impression of some of the most beautiful places of nature that the island has to offer. We went swimming, snorkeling , we were driving through beautiful old acacia forests, and astonishing landscapes.
This friend of us has a wild land that lies just in front of a big mountain range between rice paddies and waterfalls aside a riverbed. His dream is to develop the place into an eco resort and an artisan place in combination with an organic farm. But he didn't know how and where to start something like that, so we offered him to stay there for a while and make a permaculture design so it would be easier to start. So we ended up being on his land for two months to observe and get to know the land and location better, for us to make a good design. As well we did very basic renovation of a small, old and very rotten house, to make it a first base camp for the future.
This was a very unique opportunity for us because in that way we could really see the rural life of Palawan and feel the weather and the people and get more information of the island´s politics, events, land prices and so on.
Some days it was very hard to continue to stay there because of a storm or heat, that we had to confront as we lived very primitive there. ( We bathed in the river, we got water from a spring and we washed clothes in the river as well, we walked where ever we had to go and we carried all the materials by hand. All that became very difficult during the stormy days where the river was no more accessible and all the wet clothes never dried)
But the two of us faced and resolved all the challenges, we had very successful and very frustrating days, but in the end it was very satisfying to see what the two of us can do just with our hands and minds. The experience to live so intense with nature and each other is unforgettable for us.
Palawan is so beautiful that it can take the breath away but sadly the locals don't see the beauty and as we looked more close, they are about to destroy it everywhere trough mining, logging, unsustainable agriculture and as a result, climate change and lack of rain which makes it very hot.
Politicians are very corrupt and to buy a land there is very difficult, because you can hardly be sure if the papers are true...The food is very expensive because its no more local produce....It made us sad to see such a paradise that is one of the last on earth that is being destroyed...
We now know that we don't want to live there for good but we would always come back for a vacation!!!!
Here we have some of the pictures for you in which we kept some moments of our experience in Palawan :
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| Packing list :) |
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| Our equipment for the next month |
El Nido
 |
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| with our good friend |
Nagtabon Beach
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| a sunset walk on the beach |
Sabang
Puerto Princessa
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| Parade Vehicle |
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| Annual festival that invite all municipalities to collaborate and compete |
Some of the Finalists...
The Farm Project in Estrella...
Before...
...work in progress...
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| use a Bucket in case of sudden rain... |
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| i see a window |
