cagayan de oro: where co-working spaces sell cold press but the heat still cracks your neck

i checked the app and it’s 26c out there-26c, 26c, 26c, like the weather’s stuck in a time warp while the rest of the planet moved on. my laptop’s cooler than the patio, and that’s saying something. the coworking spot downtown smells like burnt coffee and ambition; barista whispered “we have wifi, but sometimes the ghosts hack it” when i asked for the password.

walked three blocks to the old market today. my phone: 78%, but i’m not stressing. my neighbor across the street was yelling at a goat that’s also across the street. coffee shop sign outside read “if you burn out, manila’s a two-hour heatwave” and i laughed bc who needs a punchline? weirdest thing: the fishmonger’s wife told me the adobo stall guy said the mayor’s new policy is "taxing ghosts for tourism," which is either hilarious or yikes.

told a truck driver i needed a decent espresso and he grinned like he’d robbed a bank. “go to that cafe, “the one with the red tiles and the guys arguing about politics”.” walked there, nearly butted into a karaoke duel. the guy’s dad was belting “my way” off-key while quoting sun tzu. “outs bոյsed” he said, so i live like that now. this is your sign to order the halo-halo bc life’s messy.

eventually found a park called “the lungs” on google maps. lied to my quant self-tracking app: said i was hiking, but really i’m laying on a bench next to a guy in a banana hammock. he handed me a mango,“for the soul,” bc he’d heard i was a “digital something” and wanted to “optiñomate” me.

pro tip: the 24-hour internet cafe downtown has a vending machine that sells cds. asked about “mellowgold” and it dropped like 10 pesos on the floor. didn’t pick it up. same man bought my soul the next day.

local rumor mill says the water in your apartment isn’t ownable. if you get bored, cebu’s a two-hour ride away, aircon heaven. if you burn out, boracay’s a 5-hour tantrum. -someone told me that, drunk in a jeep prone to conga lines.

You might also be interested in:

• https://votoris.com/post/tashkents-chill-where-budget-students-street-food-collide
• https://votoris.com/post/the-weird-little-town-that-caught-me-off-guard
• https://votoris.com/post/bursa-housing-market-where-digital-nomads-crash-or-invest-spoiler-its-complicated
• https://votoris.com/post/hanoi-why-im-still-here-even-though-its-24-degrees-and-everyone-hates-me
• https://votoris.com/post/beni-mellal-blur-a-freelance-photographers-messy-snap-journal