Luzon Islands
San Jose
Do you know the way to San Jose? Depends. There are 13 places named San Jose in the Philippines. Around the world, there are almost a hundred places named San Jose and big enough that anyone cares. There are islands name San Jose. There are Hockey Teams and Football Clubs named San Jose. There are Colleges, Universities and Seminaries named San Jose. There are buildings and mines and rivers named San Jose. There is even an asteroid named San Jose. So when someone asks, "Do you know the way to San Jose?", the answer truly is, "I may go wrong and lose my way." Luckily we have a GPS.
A little ways south of Manila we have Lake Taal, a calm and peaceful little lake. It's actually a Decade Volcano, and the second most active volcano in the Philippines. It is estimated to have killed 6,000 in recorded history. As recently as January 12th, 2020 it blew its top and actually lost all of the water in the caldera lake. It has since refilled and is, once again, a calm and peaceful little lake.
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Next island is Mindoro, home of a feisty little bastard of a water buffalo. The only home in fact, so it is critically endangered. If one sees you it will attack, and you're not allowed to hurt it back.Mindoro is composed of two provinces - Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro. The terms Oriental and Occidental come from the Latin words for Rising and Setting and simply mean Eastern and Western. They are two of the French Words, the others being Septentrion (North), Midi (South), Zenith (Up) and Nadir (Down). But the eggheads are divided and some consider that South should be Austral; still others reject Austral but consider Midi to be archaic and insist upon Meridian. Other eggheads aren't happy with Septentrion for North and insist upon Boreal. I myself like Septentrion. It rolls off the tongue nicely. The word derives from the latin for Seven Ploughing Oxen and refers to a part of the constellation of Ursa Major, The Plough (called The Big Dipper in some parts). Two of the stars of the Plough always point to Polaris, the North Star. So this is the lengthy way of saying we continue to fly midially at about the zenith of what is possible with this cloud cover. |
A nice little valley to get us through the mountains.
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Farms mean civilization.
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Bingo. San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Right in front of us is Aroma Beach, which actually doesn't smell that bad. While here, you can visit Mt. Iglit-Bacao National Park, but watch out for those bastard pygmy water buffalo things.
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And so ends another adventure. Tomorrow we're into another island group - Vasayas. Hasta mañana entonces.
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