Excerpted from private journal, 21 April 2007, 2:45 a.m. Cebu time:

It’s nearly 3 a.m. I’m not sure, but I think I’ve hit a low point in the trip. I’m feeling a bit discouraged. Yesterday, the shuttle driver who picked us up from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport told us that the Kadaugan Re-enactment of the Battle of Mactan had already happened in January or March for the ASEAN Conference. This, I knew about already from following Cebuano news over the last couple of months. But the tourism boards kept showing that the Battle was still going to be re-enacted on the 27th for the local communities. Two other young men I’d talked to had no idea what events were even happening for the Kadaugan.

And then, even worse, the shuttle driver introduced the idea that the Philippine Star and the local radio have been saying that Magellan was really killed in the CAMOTES ISLANDS (where, most notably, I will NOT be staying).

Let’s recap: Word on the street is that there’s no Battle of Mactan Re-enactment this April. And that Magellan was NOT killed in Mactan like the shrine and much of the scholarship I’ve read says. So WHY did I travel thousands of miles to get, literally, half-way around the world to conduct research in April?

I’ve had a monkey-wrench thrown on my grasp of history. And the planned climax of my research trip may not happen.