PI - Day 7

3 am came a lot sooner than we thought it would, but we were both so anxious to get to the island of Boracay that it didn’t matter. This was the part of the trip that I was most excited about and couldn’t wait to dig my toes into the white sand beaches.

waiting at the airport...

our little plane, it was so tiny...the cockpit didn't even have a lock on the door, we were in the first row and we could see everything that was going on...that was a little nerving for me.

The Domestic Airport was a bit crazy with people trying to get out of town for Holy Week (one of the biggest holidays in the PI, similar to spring break but a lot more crazy), so we were glad that we got there early. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:45 am, and wasn’t too incredibly late getting outta there. The plane took us to Caticlan where we then hopped a small boat to the island of Boracay.

the city

We got to our hotel a bit early too, and weren’t able to check in for a few more hours, but the staff at Dave’s Straw Hat Inn were super cool and let us leave our stuff at the front desk. They hooked us up with their special secret-recipe homemade mango iced tea as a welcome drink, and gave us some beach towels to use for the week. Janet told us to get out and enjoy the beach and that our room would be ready and waiting for us later.

the sand was so fine, it was like baby powder!

She didn’t have to tell us twice. So we put on our suits and headed for the beach. We don’t really need to say much else…other than this day was our 2 year anniversary so we celebrated with a nice dinner!

this is the market where everyone sells jewlery, bags...all the souvenirs

and for dessert..yummy cake!

cheers...i had a fresh watermelon drink and eric....a fresh lemonade drink!

PI - Day 8

yummy fresh papaya juice

yummy mango pancakes...the greatest thing in the world (eric says...well i guess i agree too)

The day before was filled with…nothing! We just relaxed by the white sand beach and clear blue water…took a couple dips…and that’s about it. So today we wanted to be, well, adventurous and do a lot of activities! It’s so much cheaper to jet ski and go parasailing than anywhere else so we had to hit that up! It was a blast. On our parasailing ride around the island, we stopped aways out from shore in the coral reef to go snorkeling. I first realized I was afraid of fish on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but my fear was intensified when we were out in the middle of the ocean – it felt like – with a million fish around us! So I didn’t go all the way in the water, I just hung onto the boat and Eric went off adventuring. Before we got on the boat, the guide told us to buy a loaf of bread to feed the fish…who knew fish ate bread…I thought that was a duck thing? Anyway, the second we put a piece of bread in the ocean the fish went nuts. They would even eat it out of your hand; that I could handle!

boat ride to the wave runners

bye!

coming back from our 45 min ride

the pretty paraw (sail boat) we took around the island!

We finished off the night walking along the beach and enjoying the live music at almost every hotel/restaurant. When the sun goes down, all the restaurants move to the beach and set up tables and chairs. There were so many restaurants to choose from along the beach that we couldn’t decide where to eat…so we chose the coolest looking set up…we ate Chinese food on the beach floor! I would have to say it was the best meal of the whole trip…for me anyway. Of course the Filipino food was delicious too. We didn’t touch balut (partially developed duck embryo – a delicacy in the Philippines) so we were good.

I can't tell you how many pictures Eric took of the sunset

the very nice, romantic dinner

beautiful site...too bad that's not us sailing into the sunset

PI - Day 9

Since the activities were so cheap on this island – they would have been cheaper had it not been for Holy Week, but still cheap for us, we decided to go all out and hit up some ATVing and kayaking. We were under the impression that the ATV’s tour would take us all over the tiny island, including the “Bat Cave”, but I guess the place has been shut down to tourists recently…. We didn’t find that out until AFTER the tour guide brought us back to the drop off and was like “that’s it, that’s the end of the tour!”






It was a lot of fun to drive to the top of the highest point on the island and see the whole place from the lookout point up there. The lookout point also has quite a few native animals around, sorta like a zoo, so you can see the different creatures of Boracay. The monkey’s were CRAZY, and were so bold towards people, that when I got close to their cage one of them YANKED my sunglasses from my face! It took a few minutes, and some coaxing by the tour guide, to get the glasses back. Luckily, they were still in one piece, minus a few teeth marks here and there.

that's as close as i got to the bat!!!!

We then cruised over to a place where they had butterflies and bats inside a big net room, kinda set up like a greenhouse or nursery. Here we got to get up close and personal with the native butterflies and fruit bats of Boracay… Eric was even man enough to hold one from his arm! I could tell he was trying hard to not be scared of the thing. That was the closest we got to the Bat Cave. If I would have known that was the end of our encounter with the bats, I would have held one too. But I was thinking I was gonna be swarmed by bats in the Bat Cave later on our tour! Oh well! It was still fun.
After the ATVing, we were hot and sweaty so we took and dip in the ocean and went kayaking. The green algae close to the shore of the beach (happens around this time of year) got in the way of our pictures…once you go in about 15 feet or so it disappears and you see the clear blue water.

This was the first night when it got real crazy on the beach during Holy Week. The beach was covered with foreigners and locals (unlike the 2 nights before so we got lucky) and parties at every hotel. We partied it up and people-watched.

the men aren't holding hands in this picture, it just looks like it!

PI - Day 10

can you see him kite boarding??
We both got burnt pretty badly the day before…we used sun block but we were a little bit closer to the equator than our usual vacationing spots like Mexico and Hawaii. It made me tired and lazy but we had early plans to go horseback riding this morning and I wasn’t about to pass that up for a little sun burn…especially since it was our last real day on Boracay.


Since we’re both rookies when it comes to riding horses, we each had a tour guide (you need a tour guide for everything on this island!). My tour guide was crazy enough to walk around the streets barefoot! It took me a while to be comfortable while riding a horse, especially because my guide kept on hitting the back of my horse with a stick to make it go faster. I wasn’t really having that. But when I finally “became one” with the horse, it was too slow for me and I wanted it to run. But the hot weather and lack of water made it hard for my poor horsey to barely gallop, I felt bad for my little horse.

It was a longer ride to the beach than we thought but we finally made it! The other side of the island didn’t have the green algae but it had the wind. There were a lot of people kite boarding…Eric was tempted to learn but it looked pretty hard…and pricey.



When we got back to the other side of the beach, I was wearing my Havaianas sandals of course. They had a booth set up and were handing out GIANT FLIP FLOPS that FLOAT! I wanted one so bad so we went to the booth to see how I could get one. While I was standing there, a guy asked if he could interview me about my Havaianas flip flops. He asked me all sorts of questions about Boracay and my Havaianas…I raved about them even though I only have one pair J. I haven’t seen it pop up anywhere…but if you see me in an interview talking about my wonderful Havaianas flip flops…let me know!

I finally got my big flip flop floatie...but we still haven't gotten the chance to use it yet. We need to bust it out this summer.

Boracay is known fo their sand castles...they are everywhere and so pretty! they make them daily.

We ended our last night on Boracay with a big bowl of Halo Halo at a restaurant just outside our hotel…I didn’t think it was as awesome as Eric made it out to be, but it was still a pretty grub dessert. Corn and ice cream? Kinda weird…

these are my new best friends! I can't imagine how hot they are in all that...stuff

dinner was satisfying, we ate at a restaurant called Hobbitville. All the servers are, well, very short! our server was even a member so it was fun to chat with her.

PI - Day 11

Our time in Boracay didn’t last as long as we wish it could have. We sadly checked out of our hotel and made our way back to Manila. We met up one of Eric’s first companions, Lennon Go, at a mall in downtown Parañaque (a suburb of Manila) and he let us drop our goods at his house and relax for a bit. We went back to the mall for some last minute shopping and a change of scenery, and even caught a movie at the theater in the mall that afternoon. Lennon came with us and we really had a good time kickin it with him and not having anything planned for the night.

After the movie, shopping, and pizza at Yellowcab in the mall, we headed back to Lennon’s house to get packed and ready to leave. Our trip had gone by so fast! It was really sad that we were getting ready to come back home, but at the same time we were ready to get back to familiar places. I couldn’t wait to brush my teeth with water from the tap rather than bottled water again, and not worrying that every restroom I used may not have toilet paper!

I crashed kinda early while Lennon and Eric chatted, played Rubix Cube, and just caught up on life. I can’t imagine how different our trip would have been had we not had friends in so many different places throughout this country. The fact that Eric speaks the language was such a huge help too; makes me wonder how we’ll get along when we travel to places where neither of us know the language.

Philippines Vacation - Day 12

It’s time to head home. Lennon helped us catch a taxi back to the airport and off we went. The trip home was rather hassle-free, and we escaped unscathed and disease-free (minus the 16 mosquito bites on my left leg alone that I got on our last day there). Our favorite part of the trip was definitely being able to be together 24/7. We don’t get to spend that much time together very often with school and work, so it was so nice to have that time together for 2 whole weeks.

We absolutely loved the Philippines and had such a blast there. It would be so much fun to go back again. We plan to knock a few other countries before we go back, but this trip was definitely an experience of a lifetime!