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Published: March 16th 2017
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Cabalao island is somewhere we'd read about the last time we were in The Philippines but had never been to. The only places to stay are dive resorts, which tend to be quite pricey, and as there are only a few options, you need to book ahead, never our forte in the past. This time we are spending much more on accommodation as we are getting air conditioning, and we are pre-booking a lot more. Hence, it made sense to try Cabilao this time around.
Primarily a dive island, Cabilao is not known for its beaches so we definitely wanted to book a place with a pool. As we got off the boat and walked onto Polaris Dive Resort, I anxiously looked around for their pool. Given our recent luck with pools, I was half expecting it not to exist. Thankfully, the pool was there and it was fantastic. It was an irregular shape with a cute bridge going across the middle and lots of steps to play on. The kids loved it. After a welcome drink, we were taken on a walking tour by Melinda, the friendly manager. The kids were quick to spot a playground! Could
this place get any better?! Well, after dark we found another fun thing. There were fireflies in the trees of the resort! Every night after dinner we'd go looking for them. One night a firefly flew right into the restaurant and the staff caught it for Kyla and Jake. We put it into a glass for a few minutes before releasing it. It's something Kyla had been wanting to do (although she wanted to keep it in our room all night as a night light!)
Scott and I took turns diving while the other one watched the kids. The coral walls all around the island were gorgeous and in great shape with soft and hard corals and huge gorgonian fans. It was a great place to get us back into diving after an almost four-year break! We also did some snorkeling with the kids. Kyla loved it, but Jake still refused to look under (but did put his mask on). I'm hoping he'll try soon!
By the time our seven day booking was up, we decided we were not ready to leave. Luckily they were able to move us to another room for an
extra five nights. It was a bit cheaper, but nowhere near as nice, and we constantly got invaded by mosquitoes as it wasn't at the front of the resort near the breeze. Oh, and wifi didn't reach this room, which was a bummer at night after the kids were asleep. Still, it was a nice stay as the kids were still obsessed with the pool and playground, and had their little routines of catching hermit crabs by day and watching fireflies by night. There were no other kids staying so Jake and Kyla got lots of attention from the staff and would regularly run to them with hugs!
On my final dive at Cabilao I got a real treat. After spending an hour looking at mostly tiny crabs, shrimp, and nudibranches (a typical dive here) we were at only five meters looking at a school of squid during the safety stop. The dive master, Lito, motioned to continue on and I had a last look at the squid before turning to find Lito. I couldn't believe it. There, right behind him, was a whale shark, the biggest fish in the ocean. He was completely unaware! I pointed
and screamed down my regulator as loudly as I could. He turned around and was obviously surprised. We all watched as it sailed by us, effortlessly, following the edge of the drop off . Within about twenty seconds it was gone! I had no idea there were any "big" things left in this area, and Lito indeed said that the last time he'd seen one was three years ago. This is from someone who dives twice a day virtually every day! We got so incredibly lucky!
On that high, and running low on cash, we decided it was time to move on to the next spot. Anda, here we come!
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