I Wanna Be Elected & Sea Salt

Today's been declared a holiday here in the Philippines as it's the local and presidential elections.  The build up to this has been going on for much longer than in the UK and it seems that everyone and his brother is standing for some government post or another: honestly, I've never seen such a huge number and variety of candidates on offer.  At Jaro Square the railings along one side are completely smothered in election posters, so much so that bamboo extensions have been added and the posters now effectively cover a wall 10 feet high by 600 feet long.  It's not entirely made up of of individual posters as many have been replicated in order to try and raise the profile of the candidate, but it's still a huge array of people looking to be elected for government.

The well at the house has finally dried up.  I'm now having to shower using a bucket of water from the swimming pool, which fortunately has been cleaned up somewhat so that it's not all green slime and I don't end up looking like the lead role from The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I've been out cycling a bit more lately, although it's so hot nowadays that I tend to restrict it to a few hours in the late afternoon.  One place of interest is on the coastal road going north to Dumangas where there is a salt farm.  Areas of low-lying land have been divided into squares of around 15ft using irrigation channels and the bottoms lined with clay bricks.  At high tide the sea water floods the area with a few inches of water.  Then during the heat of the day the water is left to evaporate leaving a salt residue, which is then scraped into piles using wooded squeegees. These piles are then loaded into baskets on a yoke and carried to storage sheds for distribution.  It's quite astonishing the amount of salt that can be yielded from a few inches of sea water. 

Flooding During High Tide

Harvesting the Salt

Transporting to the Storage Sheds

Piles of Salt in the Storage Sheds

What drew my eye to this cottage industry was a couple of old chimneys (what with being in the chimney business myself) that were sited nearby.  I was curious to know what the chimneys were used for and asking the locals it seems that they are for the kilns used to manufacture the bricks to line the bottom of the salt extraction pits.  If ever they need a new chimney, they know who to come and speak to.