Arranged by a friend I had the opportunity to go to the province in the Philippines to get a sharper picture of the country and understand more what this monster Metro Manila is in comparison to the province, where all the people are from that try to make a living in Manila.
So, here the ferry is unloading its passengers. It was a safe travel, as the water had been calm. On the way back I was happy using a bigger vessel as the sea was rough.
taken while driving, so not very focused: the transportation means are used until there is effectively not any space left on the vehicle.
On of the economies, besides coconuts and rice, is butterflyfarming. They sell the butterfly to collectors. Apparently the business is going better than most others on the island.
It looks very much like an idyllic place, but people are working hard for their livelihood. This is a fisherman’s hut. But also foreigners from overseas are buying lots at the coast and build big houses for their holidays. Mostly these houses are empty and not used. What a waste!
At the Marinduque State College I took the chance to give a lecture on Open Source software and its opportunities for the Global South. The college students are mostly females and they were too shy to ask questions, so they passed them written down on paper. The interest in Open Source was considerable big and maybe I could make them understand that there is a difference in Pirated MS Windows and a "for free" Ubuntu distro.
The college has some unique features, such as an amusement park that includes the biggest shoe on the island.
This is the river that passes Boac, one of the bigger towns on the island. This river was used by copper mining companies and got polluted very heavily. In fact, the mining company has been thrown out of the island after a big desaster where they would not care about anything like cleaning up or helping locals. The river lost its water and is now a shallow small water.
See the Wikipedia article for more info.
I left the island and reached Manila in the evening only to leave for Bangalore the next day.