Chris the tricycle driver picked us up at 10:15am to take us on a tour of the city. We stopped at the McDonald's of Philippine food chains, Jollibee. We were in a rush to get the day started, so something fast is what we were looking for. Jollibee's food was cheap and they love to spread a lot of sauce on their burgers, the patty almost slipped out the back of the bun. We hopped back in the tricycle and Chris took us to the waterfront while he left to get more gas. We ate our food and took some pictures of the pier while we waited for him to come get us.
The first stop of the day was at the Crocodile Farm just outside of Puerto. So we had a good 20 to 30 minutes of riding and photos from the tricycle. We saw the Convention Center and noticed the names of some shops before it opened up to countryside.
As we pulled up the attendant said that there wouldn't be any tours for over an hour because all the staff was out to lunch. Chris suggested we take a tour of the penal colony farm just up the road while we waited for the next tour to begin. He wanted another 200P to get us there, and I haggled him down to 150P. Remember, almost anything in the Philippines is negotiable. We got back in and he drove us another 20 minutes to the penal farm. The scenery was beautiful with open fields, farms, animals and beautiful trees scattered.
I was a little scared that we were going to visit a place with convicts, but was surprised to see how relaxed it was. The guard at the entrance simply waived us on to the grounds, to my amazement, and we noticed that the convicts were walking around freely while waving and smiling at us. The prison staff teaches the convicts about farming, carpentry, and woodworking in the hopes of giving them some kind of education and learning a trade before they're set free. On the way to the center of the prison there were rice patties, homes for the prisoners and their families, and medium security housing. As we entered the center of the farm, we were shocked to see honest to goodness bars! When I mean bars I mean the kind where we go to drink alcohol! If I had to be incarcerated anywhere, I suppose that would be the place!
We took a loop through the little town and made our way back to the Crocodile Farm.
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