Dressed up in my Sunday best I looked at myself in the mirror. “One last time” I said. One more church service, one more choir performance, one more message and then I said my fond farewells to the congregation who are shown below.

This afternoon I did something I should have done a long time ago… Geocaching! I cannot believe it’s taken me this long to find a cache in this country. I must have been busy or something…

For those who don’t know geocaching is an international GPS sport where geocachers (the players of this sport) go out into the world to find cleverly hidden boxes and containers.

Kuya Joel and I first travelled to downtown Olongapo and entered a sports oval. And there… hidden in the stands was that little container which gives so much joy to a geocachers heart.

Having completely hooked my friend with this idea we walked to another cache despite the baking sun shining down upon us. We arrived at volunteers shrine. The names of 8000 people who established the Freeport zone, namely converting a military base into an everyday civilian area. Anyway. There was a watchtower nearby and a little something attached magnetically to it. This took me far too long to find as it was camouflaged black and I was wearing sunglasses. Still. Veni Vedi (a lot of Vedi-ing actually) and then… Vici!

We then did the adult thing and explored the shrine itself and realised it’s an excellent spot for a bit of photography and we tried to capture some very dramatic shots as well as just some general scenery.

My personal battery level was at 1% when we got home which allowed me to crawl into a bed before napping for an hour again. Of course what could I be conserving my energy for but another adventure?

So what’s ultimately more scary in the Philippines compared to Australia but is still considered fun? Amusement parks! They are particularly terrifying due to them  being subject to, (if anything at all) Filipino safety regulations, remember the pictures of the tricycles right? With that in mind I set off for the first potential death trap. You can see it behind me in the photo below:

On this I screamed.

A lot.

Normally I like these but I could feel the safety handrail moving and I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to. Even my Filipino friends had shaking legs afterwards. You’d think the safety rails would be fixed….. Miss J had been here and her main comment was “it wouldn’t pass any safety regulations in the U.S.” I wonder if this is a secret way to try to kill off tourists before they go back to their home country.

To calm down I went on the biggest roller coaster in the park which was better (it had a seatbelt) but I truly felt the thrills which are usually advertised. You don’t know true adrenaline until there’s a real possibility of immediate death.

Having had my fair share of big rides we explored the stalls and my eyes lit up at one in particular. The shooting range.

I thought I’d do terribly given that my hands were  still shaking, but it’s fair to say I was on form as I’d knocked down five of the top row with ease. I won a packet of crisps for my effort then after another general wander we headed back. Exhausted, thrilled (especially to still be alive) and ready for bed.