Apple Mango

 

The morning of our second day in El Nido turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip and happened quite by accident. The previous day our driver had mentioned that he had an apple mango tree growing in front of his house. I had never heard of an apple mango which is a variety of mango that looks somewhat like an apple on the outside. Curious, when our driver picked us up in the morning, I asked him if he would mine showing me his apple mango tree and he readily agreed.

When we arrived at his modest house, he motioned for us to sit on the front porch in the shade of the apple mango tree and went inside. A few minutes later he came out with a different shirt on and no shoes and before I could comprehend, he was 20 feet up in the apple mango tree with a plastic bag in one of his hands picking the fruit and putting it into the bag.

I couldn't help but jump up and go into the lane in front of the house to get a better view of the apple mango picking action. Out of the corner of my eye, a woman came from the house and was soon up in the apple mango tree herself and had a long bamboo pole which she leaned up against the tree before she scampered up. I didn't have to wait long to see what the pole was to be used for.

In what turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of the trip, the wife braced herself and then held the pole up to her husband who came down a few branches with a full plastic bag of apple mangos. He put the handle of the plastic bag into a notch on the end of the bamboo pole and she lowered it down and handed the bag to us.

Despite us thanking him and saying those were plenty, our driver went back up the tree and picked a second bag full of apple mangos and gave both of them to us. The whole scene lasted less than ten minutes and they we were walking back to the van ready to head out to our planned first stop of the day. Our driver was so nice and went out of his way at nearly every point to make our vacation special so I was already planning on giving him a modest tip which is rarely done in the Philippines. The next day when he dropped us off at the airport, I gave him a really nice tip even by crazy U.S. tipping standards to show our appreciation and to thank him for all the mangos. 

On a somewhat related note, our driver's name was Julie and he denied being a son of Johnny Cash or having a brother names Sue.

Our planned first stop of the day was actually a hike up the cliffs that pressed El Nido towards the bay. It was a short but very steep hike. The first part was a scramble up large rocks but soon were were walking up steps and walkways of welded steel pipe and mech that had been anchored to the face of the cliff and faults within that. By the time we made it to the top, we were quite warm as it was turning out to be another very hot day with 95% plus humidity. But the view from the top was hard to beat and made it worth the effort.

Next we decided to do a little shopping and walked a few blocks to what we were told was a souvenir market of sorts. Indeed it was though not of the kind we were hoping for. I am always on the lookout of locally made items that you can't find anywhere else. But the souvenir market was just a series of about a dozen stands all selling the same refrigerator magnets or keychain type of trinkets, likely not even made in the Philippines but ordered from China. Deciding we weren't interested in shopping anymore, we called Julie who drove the van from where ever he had been parked and picked us up for our next destination.

We decided to head north out of El Nido to another much less crowded beach where we first had lunch beachside. As is likely expected in the Philippines, Julie dropped us off, parked in some shady spot and was going to spend the day waiting for us to call him. But after the apple mangos, I just couldn't let that slide so pestered him to join us for lunch at a beachside restaurant until he finally relented and joined us. After lunch though, he made his excused and disappeared back to his van where I later found he had meticulously detailed it while waiting for us.

For our part, we spent the afternoon in a rented nipa hut like beach shelter where we could stay out of the brutal sun while my kids and their cousins all headed out into the surf of the China Sea West Philippine Sea. Occasionally they would come back to snack or get more sunscreen. I spent my time laying down on the bamboo seat trying to get as comfortable as possible and reading a book the entire time.

My brother-in-law and his wife kept their eyes on the kids having fun and making sure the surf didn't wash anyone away.

Eventually the kids tired out and we decided to move to another beach on the way back to El Nido that was known for it's sunsets. Being close to the equator, sun sets this time of year were quite early compared to my home which is much father north of the equator but we got there with time to spare. The kids were disappointed since there weren't any incoming waves at this beach but the adults were happy to sip on some drinks and watch the sun set behind the islands out in the bay.

When the sun set, Julie picked us up one last time and we headed back to El Nido, stopping on our way into town to pick up some food from roadside vendors to take back to our villa for supper. We also made sure to send Julie home with a bag full of food to further show our appreciation of the the day he had helped us create.