My weekends always start with a morning walk. I wake up around 4am, brew a coffee, and sit on the balcony bench, gazing at the sky. I watch the last stars blink out before dawn — and on lucky days, the sky turns brilliant shades of orange, pink, and purple. Once the sky returns to its usual blue, I head out for a stroll around the neighborhood. It’s become part of my daily routine.

Cebu is a place of endless summer — or so I thought. But sometimes the mall runs a “Summer End Sale,” which puzzled me. I asked a Filipino coworker: what season comes after summer? “The rainy season,” they said. Another colleague answered, “Hotter summer.” In the Philippines, there are essentially two seasons: rainy and not-rainy. After August, the days do get shorter, and nights become rainy — sometimes even cool enough to need a blanket with the window open. Fruits like mangoes and avocados have their seasons. Yet many plants along my walking path bloom and bear fruit year-round, which is a different kind of joy.

“What’s that?” I once wondered, spotting a cluster of small striped fruits — some turning red. I asked Google: it’s called snake gourd (カラスウリ). The young fruits are edible and it’s also used in traditional medicine. Something new every day.

Papayas grow as naturally as weeds in the neighborhood. Bananas and coconuts are everywhere. Someone once told me that bananas aren’t actually trees — once they bear fruit, they wither and send up new shoots from the roots. In Cebu, I’ve come to appreciate just how versatile the banana is. The fruit itself is obvious, but the flower (called “banana heart”) shows up in salads, and the leaves are used to wrap and steam food or serve as natural plates.

A single papaya trunk can carry dozens of fruits at once. Green papaya makes a great salad or stir-fry. As it ripens to yellow, it becomes sweet and refreshing like a Japanese melon. Deep orange papaya has a richness that rivals Yubari melon.

Further along the path, goats appear. Head down, quietly munching grass, completely indifferent to humans. Free-roaming goats are common in rural Cebu — you’ll even spot them on the road sometimes. Baby goats are impossibly cute.

Lately I’ve been eyeing this incredibly loaded jackfruit tree. Every time I pass, I see ripe fruits falling and rotting on the ground. I keep thinking, “Could I just have one?” 😄

This walking course takes about an hour. Partway through is a carinderia (Filipino home-style eatery) that makes incredible empanadas — see Street Snacks Part 3 — so I often do this route just for those. Mornings are cool, but by 8am the sun gets strong. Pleasantly sweaty, empanada in hand, I head home: shower, fresh coffee, and a good start to the day.