We'll begin at the Philippine Heroes Cemetery on Bayani (Heroes) Road in Fort Bonifacio, Metropolitan Manila, which we visited with two West Point graduates, American Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Thomas Morgan, class of '58, and Philippine Army Gen. (Ret.) Ramon Ong, class of '63.
The impressive entrance to the cemetery
Part 1 of a Douglas MacArthur quote:
"I do not know the dignity of his birth"
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Part 2 of the quote:
"but I do know the glory of his death"
A section for the Filipino Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor
We continue to welcome visitors to Corregidor from all over the globe. Jiri Krondak, a war history buff, and his wife Lenka, are citizens of the Czech Republic. Jiri's English is quite good, and we could tell that Lenka understood our conversations, but was not comfortable speaking English. If you search the web for "Jiri Krondak" you will see that he is renowned for his metalworking, especially swords. Specifically his company produces weapons, armor, and the like for war reenactments. They were a very nice couple to get to know, and invited us to spend time with them in Prague should we ever be fortunate enough to travel to Europe. They even said that they would accompany us to nearby Poland and Slovenia, the places where Steve's ancestors emigrated from.
Lenka and Jiri Krondak at Battery Cheney
The next three pictures were taken on the north shoreline of Corregidor, facing Bataan.
A banca approaches Corregidor from Bataan. On the upper right is the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), which provided the honor guard at the recent anniversary festivities here
A nice photo of two sun patches reflected across Manila Bay from high clouds over the Bataan mountain ridge on a rare, mostly cloudy, cool March morning
A little later it began to rain. We were eating breakfast at the former Mac's Cafe (now Freedom Cafe) and stayed much longer than normal while waiting for the rain to let up. Later in the day it returned to sunny and hot, the norm for this time of year.
An almost full moonset over Morrison Hill on the morning of March 8
A stunning Bougainvillea along the driveway up to the Corregidor Inn, where we are living for our last four months on the Rock
The last series of photos are bugs and birds seen here recently.
A moth who might have thought that he was blending in with the pattern on a seat cushion in the lobby of the Corregidor Inn
Fans of the Michigan State Spartans will know immediately what this reminded us of. We think the Block S consists of insect eggs, but it could be something else.
For the second straight year, a Brahminy kite (fish hawk) has nested below our favorite overlook. Steve escorted a large group on a jungle hike Sunday morning, and all were excited to see the kite on the nest and the other parent soaring above the nest but well below us.
A collared kingfisher above the Lorcha Dock on the north shore
A pair of Asian glossy starlings, one caught on the wing, taken from the window of our room at the Corregidor Inn
Whereas we often see many kites flying together, it is far less common to see two eagles doing the same. Here Marcia captured a pair of Philippine serpent eagles, which are slightly larger than the kites, but appreciably smaller than the white-bellied sea-eagles which also reside here.
Pink-necked green-pigeon, again right outside our inn window
Black-naped oriole, also outside our window
Closeup. What a beautiful bird!
We hope to be able to present you with some nice pictures of the Banaue rice terraces next week.
Steve and Marcia on the Rock
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