We are in the mood for food! 
We begin our exploration by the Aduana building, but there isn’t much here except for restaurants that are sort of like fast food chains in the states. One is a chicken restaurant that is entirely too reminiscent of Kentucky Fried Chicken. And while the chicken being smoked out in the grill area looks good…
…the inside is too fast foodish for us. There is also a Chinese place – but we want good old fashioned Filipino food. Give me some Lumpia and I’ll be a happy camper!
We wander back toward Plaza de Roma – because we know that will lead us in the right direction toward the ship. As Bong had been wheeling us around, I had spied a nice wooden restuarant sign in a side street and we managed to find it again. Marso cafe and restaurant. Looks good to us!
It was a cute little basic restaurant, only locals there – no tourists – and a basic menu (no Lumpia – bummer!) but oh so good! I ordered Pork Sisig (which I had no idea what it was, but the waiter/owner/guy said it was really good) and Ed had fried squid. Awesome! As it turned out, my Pork Sisig is a sizzling platter of pork pieces, mixed with onion, peppers, spices with an egg on top. Yum! And Ed’s squid was fabulous as well.
All for $6 USD. Seriously. Amazingly cheap. And as it turns out, this is the place where all the tour guides come to eat. There is a whole other room next to our dining area where the tour guides all file in and grab food. So, we picked a good place where truly the locals go!
Out on the street, we head back toward the gate entrance, snapping pictures of fun and different things - catch the sign on the wall…
…yeah, I’d not park there either! We try to take more photos at the Cathedral, but it is still pretty back lit…
So we make our way down General Luna, in search of some place to sit and have a beer and wine. There really isn’t anyplace. All the little restaurants are on side streets and they are more food stalls than restaurants, and we’re nearing the end of the walled town. We end up trying out Illustrado, which is noted in the guide books as a “splurge” restaurant. We’re not really in the mood to splurge, but we want to sit somewhere out of the heat for a little while and figure – what the heck.
It actually turns out to be not so bad. They have a little cafe/bar area where that is cool and sort of comfy. We sit at a nice table near the air and order beer (it’s not that overly priced – it was 100 fp plus VAT and 10% service – so that added up, but it was still like $2.50 USD a beer – which comparatively was probably high, but we were happy!), and then decide that maybe we’ll order Lumpia too – even though we aren’t the least bit hungry – but we’ve got to have it at least once!
We sit and sit, order another beer, watch the place fill up with people and food. And still we sit. We’re not in any hurry, but we’re getting a little curious as to why our food hasn’t come yet. Finally after 45 minutes, the waiter comes to tell us that the lumpia isn’t good enough to serve to customers. “Bad” he says. Well, bummer! But that’s ok, we really didn’t need it anyway – and heck, they then gave us peanuts! That worked.
So we snacked on our peanuts, watched the people in the restaurant, wondered what in the world was in the big pitchers of water that looked like they had plants in them, but were being poured into peoples’ glasses, and generally just enjoyed the atmosphere!
A trip to the restroom for both of us, where they had the funniest or saddest (depending upon your frame of mind) sign in the women’s room…. 
…then we are back out on the hot streets heading toward the ship. As we head toward the outer wall, we actually get lucky and flag down a taxi who takes us back to the ship for a pittance. Nice! So then I get to cry my way back aboard, watching all the families leave after a day of visiting their crew-relatives. Totally emotional – and I’m not even involved. Geez…..
Next, a great show before we sail.
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