The Royal Mountain Police of Canada meets a kiwi

Lance is an older gentleman and after breakfast at the Southwind Palawan Hotel I sat down next to him to strike up a Dunhill, it is the first pack of cigarettes I have purchased since quitting 5 weeks ago.

I purchased this pack of cigarettes for one very good reason, these are the genuine original death sticks of the American British tobacco company blue packet sealed with the fresh lock pouch…. You just can’t get cigarettes like this in New Zealand anymore, the NZ govt have taken the second trimmings off the tobacco companies and repackage them as plain cartons with beautiful pictures of gangrene and heart bypass surgery…. Really quite facilitating if your into medical images and drawings.

Lance is Caucasian and originates from the great country of Canada 🍁, the land of syrup and black bears, he lives on Vancouver Island and has a son and a daughter which have given him the blessing of w grandchildren who when he’s not visiting his house in Mexico, or land in the Philippines he will spend his time fishing with them.
Lance is a nice gentleman, humble and friendly to talk to basking in the morning sun

Lance is a man of many traits including welding engineer, offshore fisherman, fish wholesaler and finally in 1987 he graduated the police academy of the Royal Mountain police.

his career was mainly spent in the crash investigation unit for traffic accidents and he was called in to asses the accident itself and also do the grievance house calls to families that had lost a loved one.

i asked him “if what he had seen over his years of accidents had tainted his mind”
His response was very simple “eventually you just switch off and it becomes part of the job and every day is just another day”. We chatted about the drivers in the Philippines and bot agreed that its probably safer to rent a scooter and commute around the islands but that aside he said he tried to not take too much notice of the driving and accept it for what it is.

Lance is a very insightful man and in his time here he has learnt a bit about the country, so here goes

in 1521 the Philippines was discovered by a Portuguese sailor going by the name of Ferdinand Magellan, he was sailing for the Spanish at the time and made claim to the islands in the name of King Phillip the second of Spain. The islands were originally called Las Filipinas.

over a period of 50 Years Las Filipina’s was under strict control of the Spanish government. Although the local Filipino did try to get independence from the European atrocities caused by the Spanish , they didn’t achieve their own independence until 1896.

Jose Rizal was a key figure in the revolution to get the Filipino people to realise that independence was key to the survival of their new way of life, the Spanish had brought a lot of infrastructure to their new Las Filipinas including agriculture and an export economy back to Europe of their domestic goods but Jose Rizal was very much contempt with the idea that Las Filipinas could be just as great without the Spanish control in the area.

Jose was a literature writer and Medical Doctor who ended up publishing 2 books on the horrors and atrocities in the Las Filipinas islands caused by the Spanish, these books were banned but smuggled in to the country and distributed widely amongst the population

José was executed by the Spanish empire on 30th of December 1896 and his birthday is still celebrated to this day in the islands of Las Filipinas islands.

The death of José lead to rebellion in 1897 and was lead by a civilian of the name Aguinaldo, the rise to independence was not a complete success but nor were the Spanish successful, this lead to exile in Hong Kong for the rebel fighters and they were granted immunity in negotiations with the Spanish which was named “Biak-Na-Bato”. While in Hong Kong in negotiations the Philippines flag that we know today was drawn up and is still used until this day.

on April of 1898 the Spanish were at war with America and Cuba and with that war came the destruction of the Spanish navy in Manilla Bay. This did not guarantee independence from the Spanish as at the time it was only concerned with Cuba being under Spanish control .

by 1935 the Americans establish 116000 troops in the Philippines and after the death of 16000 Filipino’s they were guarantees independence within 10 years and formed the government that we now know as the Philippines.

After our pleasant talk with Lance, Maga and I were due to flyout to the city of CEBU , the city is the second largest in the Philippines with a population of around one million people. The airline that fly’s out of Puerto to Cebu is called Air Cebu and is a local airline that is independently owned.

our flight was due to depart at 6.05 pm and arrive around 730 pm , we had organised a trike to take us from the accommodation to the airport which would cost around 3$nz.

the ride to the airport is interesting. Either my fat ass on the outside has collapsed the suspension or the suspension is broken . Either way the spinal alignment I got from every pothole in the journey was a reminder that this was a third world country still battling independence from its own corruption.

the wait at the airport was rather text book. 6pm came and went…. Then 7… Then 8…. Our flight had been delayed for 2 hours and there was no exact reason why, I said to marge. Either

A -they had an afternoon nap and for got that they still have one flight to Puerto and back to Cebu….

B – the wing has fallen off and were about to be witness to the next episode of “air crash investigation” on National Geographic HD.

at 8;15pm the flight finally arrived and unloaded from its previous flight, from there it loaded up our passengers and we were off.

fun fact the hold of modern Airbus Aircraft have a insulated cargo hold that does not let radio transmissions in and out of it. I know that because when we took off I checked the location of my Air tag and it was showing it still located in Puerto princess

arriving 2 hours late when your traveling is not the end of the world but its very frustrating when you arrive at your next destination tired and late, then trying to find somewhere to eat at 11 pm is also a mission. Epically healthy food.

Marge sniffed out a street canteen and offered us to try Sinigang, this translates to fishy smelling broth with a hint of ginger, I must admit it is edible but to have a fish head staring back at you making eyes with you isn’t exactly the most pleasant thing to dine over.

At midnight it was time to call it , tomorrow is the first day in Cebu for exploration.

” educate the masses, Elevate their understanding of intelligence, and you will certainly have a successful nation” – Alexander Graham Bell ( invented the bell telephone company)