Bataan Day 2

We hardly got any sleep due to cold, roosters, dogs, monkeys and Filipinos, not to mention the hard bamboo beds that we had.  But waking up on a private beach in the South China Sea is not something I do very often so therefore I savored the moment.  There was a lot of talk, however, of Rooster Stew for breakfast........
We had a delicious Filipino breakfast (rice, etc - meal 5 straight with rice in it!) and then loaded on the bus again and headed for Morong.  We got stuck - literally - in Morong with the bus when we missed our turn.  We went to a small village called Nabylongong, home of the Pakiwan Conservation Center.  Pakiwan is Tagolog for sea turtle.  We had an educational talk about the Pakiwan (used by locals and poachers for soup, combs, eyeglasses, etc) and the efforts to preserve the creatures.  They collect the eggs over a 6 month period - each female laying 100+ eggs.  They move them to the safety of the conservation center and let them "cook" for 45-70 days before they hatch.  Temperature determines sex, so the center tries to breed more females by keeping the eggs out of the shade and at warmer temperature.
We were all given a little Pakiwan, hatched at 5 am that morning, and we took them down to the shore.  They need to complete the journey from shore to sea by themselves so they will know where to come back to in order to mate and nest. (25 years later!!!)  We had a Pakiwan Race (see photos) and enjoyed the lovely seashore.
Back at the ranch we had lunch and enjoyed the cool water while working on our tans.  We left for Manila later in the afternoon, around 3, and didn't get back until almost 8 pm because of road construction and traffic.  A late night run to the mall for some groceries completed the day and I crashed in my nice, soft, mainly rooster free bed.