Puerto Princesa, Philippines

            Wednesday, 20 Mar 2019 – Our ship docked at Puerto Princesa, Philippines at 11:00 AM.  We had booked an excursion for today, “Local Escapade.”  The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.  Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands.  The Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons.  As of January 2018, the Philippines is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world, with a population of at least 100 million.

We ate breakfast and went for a swim before exiting the ship.  Our small 8-passenger bus, which was one of five or so, left the pier at 12:30 PM for a short ride to Plaza Cuartel.  Our tour guide was Nelson.  Plaza Cuartel is a small park and is considered a national historical site, with the restored ruins of an old garrison where, in the evening of December 14, 1944, Japanese soldiers burned the 150 American prisoners of war, in a tunnel found beneath the park’s portals, which now stand as a grim reminder of World War II atrocities.  The remains of those who died were buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis Missouri, in 1952.  Only 11 of the 150 prisoners survived to tell the story.  After entering the park, we listened to an oral presentation describing the event and were then given time to tour the park.

 Next we were led across the street to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, where we stopped for photos.  During the Spanish occupation in 1872, a small church was built in Barangay Liwanag, along Rizal Avenue.  In 1961, the small church was renovated and turned into a cathedral.  The original architectural design of the church has been excellently preserved.

WWII Special Battalion Museum

Motorized tricycles that seat two or three guests are one of the more popular means of public transportation in Puerto Princesa and other small towns and cities in the Philippines.  Nelson led the two of us to one driven by Jhun.  After all of the passengers were loaded into their vehicles, we started our 15-minute trip through the city, caravan style.  We soon stopped at the World War II Special Battalion Museum.  Built around a personal collection of military memorabilia, it features equipment, vehicles and weapons used during WWII, as well as photographs and other items depicting the cultural heritage of Palawan. 

Jhun, Our Motorized Tricycle Driver

After touring the museum, we re-boarded our tricycle and continued another 15 minutes or so to a local souvenir shop for some free time.  After spending about 30 minutes in the souvenir shop, we were scheduled to visit a local market where we could see freshly caught seafood and other local products; however, Jhun asked us if we would prefer to skip the market and return to the ship, which we did.  Jhun took us to our bus, which was waiting near the pier.  Another pair of passengers was already waiting on the bus.  We said our goodbyes to Jhun and were taken on the short ride back to the ship.  We were sorry that we did not have the opportunity to say goodbye and thank Nelson for the tour.

Since it was 2:30 PM when we re-boarded the ship and the Terrace Café was already closed, we went to the Wave’s Grill for lunch.  Sally had a salad and Jesse a cheeseburger, and we both enjoyed milkshakes.  Then Sally napped for a little while and then worked on her book.  We ate a light dinner, since neither of us was hungry.  Then dancing was scheduled in the Horizons for 8:45 PM; however, when we got there, a Brainteaser Trivia game was in progress and there was no dancing.  There seems to be a serious problem with the dance schedules on this cruise, which we intend to complain about in our cruise comments.