New Life mission trip to the Philippines, July-August 2006. Click on any picture for a full-screen view.

Day 2: driving from Manila to Legazpi City

Wake up at 4:00 a.m., leave at 5:00, drive south to Santa Rosa exit to eat at McDonalds. An armed guard opened the door for us. Many of the meals include rice.  Then we drove on the two-lane national highway through San Pablo and Lucena to Gumaca, in Quezon province, where we ate lunch at Jollibee, the Philippines’ largest fast-food chain. They are a bit more Filipino than McDonalds is. In the afternoon, we drove east and south past Daet to Naga. This stretch of road is mountainous, with frequent sections under construction. Small children often served as traffic control in the one-way sections; each child asked for a peso. We drove onward to Daraga/Legazpi, where we stayed in a hotel.

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