From Space, the Philippines Looks Serene

Head on over to Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi's Twitter feed, he's been posting Earth vistas from the International Space Station, including one serene photo of the Philippines.

From space, the Philippines appears like it did before COVID-19 struck and placed the planet in limbo. Some 24 million Filipinos are under a fresh lockdown for the second week to arrest a worrying surge in infections.

Soichi's photo of the Philippines captures much of Luzon and the Visayas with moderate to faint cloud cover. It's the summer and temperatures on the ground are searing hot, pushing 40 degress Celsius on the heat index.

The camera angle makes the Negros, Panay and Mindoro islands on the country's eastern portion look massive.

In the comments, there are conversations on how many islands the Philippines has and how many have been taken by foreign invaders.

Here are more photos from Soichi-san, for a temporary escape from the quarantine life. One year and counting:

This story originally appeared on Reportr.world. Minor edits have been made by Esquiremag.ph editors.