Daily Report: Crapping Out

We haven't heard back on Jungle On the Rocks, our hoped-for rental property in Camiguin — but should in the next day or two. There is another property for a similar price on Camiguin that Epril is going to go out there to look at next week... a hilltop place with a great overarching view of the island for the same price as Jungle On The Rocks.

In addition, since Epril is only partially keen on moving to Camiguin, we are looking for houses to rent in Cagayan De Oro as well. That's turning out to be a severe waste of time so far.

There are 3 different categories of houses to rent in CDO that we have seen:

The first are a collection of about 20 or 30 either moderately or ridiculously expensive fancy houses (40,000 pisos and up per month). The cheapest are just beyond our price range... but since these houses are owned by wealthy Filipinos who make enough money that they don't particularly care whether these houses get rented or not, no deals or negotiating are possible.

The second type of houses we have seen for rent are about 100-200 tiny, featureless, worthless little bungalows renting for ridiculously high prices (15,000 to 20,000 per month) because they happen to be located in (crappy, but Filipinos consider wonderful) "upscale" housing developments that make the owners think they can rent these bungalows for the same cost per square meter as the actual upscale houses above.

The third type of places to rent are a small selection of even smaller one-bedroom row houses and apartments that rent for even more per square meter than either of the selections above, which regardless are too small to even hold our entertainment center and bed, let alone Epril and myself.

Of course, there are other houses that fall outside of these categories in Cagayan De Oro: Nice houses that rent for reasonable prices. But here's a surprise: They are all already rented. I personally know of three people who rent very nice, very large houses in the 25,000 to 30,000 pisos range.

Any houses that we do find that we can afford are faulty in some way: One didn't have any driveway or fence around it, so your motorcycle, washing, and bbq grill would be stolen within a week. Another house had 4 bedrooms and only one bathroom on the second floor, no hot water, and kitchen cabinets that were 7 feet above the floor. A third was half a house... and I just don't share walls. For a fouth house you had to walk through somebody else's front yard to get to the place.

Well, Epril and I are not in a hurry to move, and Camiguin Island properties are still renting for a mere fraction of what the CDO places are renting for. So we'll just keep looking and see what comes along. My opinion is that fate will play a big role: If we find the right house in Camiguin and nothing in CDO, that's where we'll end up. If we find the right house in CDO and Camiguin craps out, we'll end up in CDO.

And until one of those eventualities arrives, we'll just stay where we are for now.