Marebec met me at the airport with her niece and took me back to her parents’ house. We went into town, where we kept bumping into people Marebec knows, met her sister and had dinner at a restaurant there.

The next morning we took a bus to Malaybalay in Bukidnon province, where we met Tanya (another former VSO) and her friend Mavic (a former colleague of Tanya’s) at a nice café. There are some nice caves in the area, so the following day we took various buses and jeepneys to reach the ‘blue water’ cave.

The next destination on Marebec’s plan was Camiguin island, just off the coast near Cagayan de Oro. We took an early bus to the port, then a very slow and rusty old ferry across to the island. We ended up staying at the Caves Dive Resort, their cheapest room was right by the beach (admittedly with a shared toilet and no air-con). We spent the afternoon lounging around or in my case mixing lounging around with trying to get through to Qantas’s office in Manila. On our second day on the island we hired a ‘multicab’ (a small truck with a minibus body built on the back) to take us around the island. Highlights were the Santo Niño Cold Water Spring (nice for swimming but quite cold), the ruins of a church destroyed by a local volcano and the Ardent Hot Spring, where we stayed for the night. On the way back from Camiguin we were incredibly lucky and saw some dolphins.

Back in CdO we had a free day to do laundry, drink coffee, do a bit of shopping and buy tickets back to Manila. Then in the evening Marebec picked us up and took us to the company she works for: MORESCO UNO. As the culmination of their company sports competition they were having a cheer-dancing competition and Tanya and I had been roped in as judges. It was one of the more surreal evenings of my life, sitting watching teams of electrical company staff performing their dance routines and having to award points.

On our remaining days in CdO we went to see “Sweeney Todd” at the cinema and spent a morning rafting on the Cagayan river. Then I had a much less worrying flight with Cebu Pacific back to Manila.

We’ve spent a few days in Malaybalay and another couple of days on Camiguin island. There are photos but I’ve not had a chance to upload them yet. In fact I might not get around to it until I’m back in Scotland.

On Monday I’m planning to fly back to Manila then catch a bus up to Baguio to start a bit of a tour round Northern Luzon. If all goes according to plan this will include the rice terraces in Batad and Banaue and some time in Sagada. For any remaining days I’ll try to find somewhere peaceful and relaxing before heading back to Manila and flying home.

The wedding was great, fantastic weather down on the beach and really relaxed. Hannah and Lee looked like they were really enjoying themselves and I think all the guests did too.

Anyway, here are the pictures (if you hover the mouse pointer over a picture you should get a short caption):

You can browse all the wedding pictures I took.

On Saturday Mo (another former Nigerian VSO) collected me and we took the ferry across to the Sunshine Coast. A friend of hers has a house there, where we spent Saturday night. We had a couple of nice meals, wandered around a bit and caught up on all the news since we last saw each other in Nigeria.

Today Dugly and I took a fairly long trip for a bath. In the forests near Harrison, along various rough logging tracks there’s a lovely little hot spring, undeveloped apart from some hot tubs and decking. It was lovely sitting in the hot water and looking out at the trees and snow-topped mountains. The way back was less relaxing, various traffic holdups and torrential rain.

I’ve been out and about a bit, visiting some of the museums and walking through more of Stanley Park.

The raccoon was just at the entrance to the park. Locals obviously feed the animals there as they were all very tame and approaching people looking for food.

I met Adrian’s girlfriend Amy at her work, dropped off my big bag and set off for a wander to occupy some time. I only got as far as the big public library around the corner, which had the benefits of being warm and dry and having internet.

Once Amy had finished work we headed for the apartment, in the West End of Vancouver. Amy then took me for a walk to show me the neighbourhood and we had dinner at a Greek restaurant nearby.

This morning—after a nice lie-in— I did some washing then wandered into central Vancouver to buy some new rechargeable batteries for my digital camera.

The apartment is quite close to Stanley Park, so I went for a walk round the sea wall, which has only recently reopened after severe storm damage last year. It’s a lovely walk, especially on a cold, clear day like today. The first picture shows an apartment block near the park; the tree apparently represents the height of the trees that used to be in that area. The second picture is of ships waiting to enter the port.

These pictures show a view along the sea wall, Siwash Rock and the Lions’ Gate.

I spent most of Friday wandering around town, starting with an early-morning walk along the lakeshore.

The town is mostly quite low-rise, with quite a few nice old houses dotted around the streets. I visited the Okanagan Heritage Museum and the BC Orchard Industry Museum and went on a tour of the local brewery.

Yesterday Tammie and I went on a tour of a few of the local wineries: St. Hubertus, Cedar Creek and Summerhill Pyramid (that’s where the pictures were taken). On the tour of Summerhill I had to bite my tongue as they explained how their pyramid-shaped cellar and its magic powers improve their wine.

Early yesterday morning I left Stirling with Mum and Dad, heading for Edinburgh airport. The start of a long day of airports and flying. I’d allowed plenty of time at Heathrow, in case of delays, so I ended up hanging around there for several hours. I’d bought access to the Servisair lounge in Terminal 1, so had somewhere pleasant to sit and something to eat and drink. Unfortunately, they only allow you in three hours before your departure time and my flight started boarding well before that so I only got two hours for my £18, not sure if it was worth it.

The flight from Heathrow to Vancouver seemed endless. The food was good (sausages and mash) and they’ve now introduced video-on-demand, so I could watch films and TV programmes until my attention span dropped to the point where I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I managed to doze for about half an hour and then woke up with the usual stiff neck.

Vancouver airport seems very new and shiny, lots of sculptures, nice wood panelling and a few water features. A lot of construction still seems to be going on. The immigration staff were polite and friendly, lots of questions about what I’m doing in Canada but that’s fair enough. Then I had to check in at the domestic terminal and sit and wait for my flight to Kelowna. By this point I was in that weird state that seems to happen after too much flying and not enough sleep, everything seemed a bit surreal, especially as the airport was mostly empty.

Today’s plan is to wander around town, see if I can persuade one of the Canadian mobile networks to sell me a pay-as-you-go SIM and buy a few supplies.

We went to the NAF club on Friday night; for a hike near NTI on Saturday; to PDP Saturday evening and had a lovely buffet lunch at the French Café on Sunday.

At the end of Saturday’s hike we were all hot and desperate for a mineral, so we stopped at a small shop in Rigacikun. Within minutes a huge crowd of children surrounded us, watching our every move with great interest. The shopkeeper occasionally tried to chase them off but they always came back straight away.

I’ll see if I can borrow some photos from one of the others to add to this post.