Back to Brookes.

At 3am, we woke up in a lodging house on the island of Bancalaan. We got our stuff together and went to the Port. The reason for our early-morning-escape, is there is a high school convention going on in Puerto and ALL the high schools on the province of Palawan were invited. When Roy learned this he realized that the passenger boat that comes from Balabac, might be full of students by the time it reaches Bancalaan. So he arranged for us to ride with the Bancalaan students. They were being brought by one of the local fishing boats at 3:30am. Unfortunately, we had 1 minor overlook....they told us the boat was leaving at 3:30am, but we forgot to add in "Filipino time". Filipino time is an inside joke throughout the Philippines. Filipinos are very easy-going, leisurely people that feel free to take their time....all the time. Any event that is given a start time, you're suppose to add 30 minutes to it. Sadly, there is no exceptions to this rule, even the airlines run on Filipino Time. I guess its just one of those cultural quirks, that trouble you but at the same time make you love this country even more.

Anyways, so we ended up waiting at the Port for an extra 30 minutes before people started to show up and then we started loading our boat. The fishing boat we were taking was rather large and had no seats inside. Everyone sat on the floor. As we climbed into the boat there were no lights, except for 1 flashlight. As LeAnne and I made ourselves comfortable in a corner of the boat, we laughed, at the thought, that it felt like we were illegal immigrants being smuggled somewhere. 

EJ and JM zonked out almost immediately as the boat pulled away from the dock in Bancalaan.

We may look like crap early in the
morning, but our backdrop is
amazing!

The boat finally started towards Rio Tuba about 5am, almost 1 1/2 hours AFTER our anticipated departure time. While most people tried to catch some shut eye, LeAnne and I faced ourselves toward the outside opening of the boat. Shortly after we started our journey, the sun began to rise. It was a BREATH-TAKING sight coming up over the water.

The ride may have taken 4 hours, but it was the most beautiful, peaceful morning that I had experienced in a Very long time. I definitely needed it. :)

After arriving at Rio Tuba, we waited 2 hours for our bus to leave and finally arrived back in Brookes around 1pm. We were exhausted and spent the rest of the day unpacking, being lazy, and preparing for our last Sabbath in Palawan :(

"That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other."

~Isaiah 45:6