June 20

We took a walk along the beach before breakfast—so beautiful!

After a breakfast of so many choices, we took a tour of some of the buildings of Las Casas de Acuzar.  Our guide spoke really fast! We had to take our shoes off for some of the buildings.  We learned about the different noble class mansions, former university buildings, wooden stilts houses, churches, etc. that were once old and decaying architectural pieces of a bygone era. These architectural treasures have been carefully reconstructed from different parts of the country and rebuilt, “brick by brick” and “plank by plank”, so to speak.  Some are mostly reassembled here from the original, some only are a part of the originals but are duplicated using materials from the appropriate time period. The effect is stunning, especially set against a back-drop of a majestic mountains, expansive rice fields, and a running river that flows to the South China Sea.

Afterwards, we traveled overland to Olongapo City on our way to Subic Bay, about 1.5 hrs.  We stopped in a bird sanctuary and were introduced to many endangered and rare birds; we felt right at home.  :) Andrew was reprimanded for speaking to a peacock!  It was answering him back! We also saw a jungle survival demonstration using only bamboo!  We were gifted a homemade bamboo spoon that we hope makes the journey home. 

Per our guide, Subic Bay is a special economic zone covering portions of Olongapo City and the towns of Subic in Zambales and Morong and Hermosa in Bataan. It covers the fenced area of the former U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay located in the southwest of Luzon Island in the Philippines. The harbor faces the Zambales Mountain Range to the west and the Subic Bay opening to the South China Sea. 

We checked into the Camayan Beach Resort locates inside the base;  it must have been something in its day! After last night it was nice but not as extraordinary as last night’s accommodations. We changed and swam in the bay, watching the sun set over the mountains.  We. Then checked out the pool-very nice-before changing and having a very light supper. 

Tomorrow is a big day as we go where Irvin was, where he marched and battled, and was injured.