Creepy, crawly creatures are everywhere here in this tropical climate.  And everything that crawls seems to come in gigantic versions; big moths, big spiders, big geckos.  The kids (OK it's mostly the boys) are fascinated with bugs and seem to go in seasonal cycles playing with different insects as the bugs hatch and find homes in the vegetation. 

Recently spiders were all the rage with the boys collecting certain kinds and then conducting spider fights on the bristles of brooms.  One day I drove by a large group of school kids at a roadside vendor who was selling something in plastic bags about the size of rulers with something small and black in each bag.  The kids were buying the fighting spiders on their way home from school!

For the last couple of weeks the boys gravitate to the flowering plants as they enter the school gate in the morning.  Praying mantises have been emerging and the kids want to see how many they can find.  They don't use them to fight (thankfully), but are eager to carry the cool looking bugs around during the day. Impromptu mini-science lessons have happened with the appearance of these green creatures like learning that the female mantis eats the head off the male!  

So if you are into bugs, Cebu is the place to be.  Hang out with the kids for a while and you'll learn new and creative ways to play with bugs.