Sto Niño Island cont.

farming on a cliff near the water

Almagro Island in the back ground. Son in the water throwing a football

to his cousin

Sto Niño Island

For those that have not been to the island of Samar, Sto Nino is an island west of Calbayog City. It is about 14 miles from Calbayog. Many things have changed since I first arrived in Calbayog and Sto Nino in 1981. Sto Nino is only one of the smaller islands that are off of Calbayog City. In addition to Sto Nino, you have Almagro, Camandog, and Tagapul-an islands. Everyday, early in the morning, you will see many larger banka (pump) boats come in from the other islands bringing in fresh fish, copra to sell. Once these people have completed their business, they begin to go out and load up on the supplies for their families or sari-sari stores they may have. Of the many changes, there is still no 24 -7 power on the island of Sto Nino. There are some generators in some of the small barangays and those that can afford to, will run the power wires they need. Some homes have their own generators and use them daily. There is still no roads on the island which means no vehilces at all.

As you can see, the island has millions of coconut trees in which families harvest and sell the copra for an income. All of the families on the island live off the land or sea. Farming is hard as most have to set up farms on the sides of the mountains on the island or very small areas around their homes.

The first two pictures show an area on Sto Nino where the family cleaned up and set up an area where the family could go to swim with their little ones and have an area to get out of the sun and have picnics or BBQ.

Towing a Ferry Boat

We took Jeff out to the Island of Almagro for a couple of days. If any of you have been out to the small islands, in the Samar Sea, you already know it is quite an adventure. This time we rode on the ferry boat, locally known as a “pump boat”, called the Queen Aiko. It is a relatively new boat, only 1 year old. But the engine came from the previous Queen Aiko, so it is older. Shortly before we passed the first island, there were some strange noises comming from the engine room. Upon investigation, the crew discovered a transmission problem. We limped along to a village with another pump boat, and asked them for a tow. Here is a picture of the Queen Aiko being towed by the CrisJeff2.

This picture was taken on the CrisJeff2. The pretty lady in the back is my wife.

I know this next picture is a little difficult to see, but it was taken through a glass window, down into the engine room of the CrisJeff2. Most pump boat ferries only have one engine, but the CrisJeff2 has two! That really came in handy for towing the Queen Aiko, as there was still lots of power.