Taking Stanley Training

Saturday Nate and I went on a little training bike ride, up a VERY steep hill (on which I was down to the first and lowest gear!). That was just hill #1. Then from the plateau we biked up yet another hill, but this time we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the mountain, valley and sea below. From each side of the narrow road we could see the whole city and valley below. Beautiful, God! Your creation is marvelous!

Then we went up even more until we hit gravel and dirt roads. It was a bit hotter up in the village, so we stopped to buy some (safe?) water at the little sari-sari (small store). We KEPT going until the road narrowed into a motercycle path. We thought it was funny how on the map we were using it was marked with a solid line representing a secondary road. "I'd hate to see what the tertiary road looks like!" I thought as we mucked our way through the mud with great effort. We had fun asking for directions along the way and practicing using the local language we have been learning.

We made lots of friends by using the people's language and by introducing them to Stanley. I thought my little 2nd grade buddy who mailed Stanley to me would like to experience the rural life through our adventure Saturday. I can't wait to write all the stories for him about all the Filipino experiences he had! I also want to tell you how happy we were when we just coasted back down a paved road to the city again. More adventures to come...My Nate =)