Boracay Baby!

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First stop - Boracay

Money down: P9750 for 4D/3N stay in Escondido Resort via PAL, airport transfer from Kalibo-Caticlan-Boracay and back, free daily breakfast

I arrived at the Centennial 2 airport at around 11:30am of May 8 after much ado with all the traffic in Libis area. I've been in Centennial 1 and it was world class, pero CT2 was better. Ang ganda ng airport. Anyway, my flight was at 12:30 so medyo nagmamadali ako to check in kasi medyo 'tight' kuno ang security ngayon sa airports. As it had always been the case, pansin ko lang na parati na lang akong running late on my flights. Never had I been not hurrying in any of my trips. Babagal bagal kasi eh. We were already in kalibo at 1:30 and took the bus going to caticlan for 1.5hrs. We were transferring to a boat that would bring us to Boracay at around 3:30pm and touched down at the holy sands of Boracay at 4:00pm. It was heavenly, white, fine sands and crystal clear waters.

We checked in at our hotel, and it was a good 1 minute walk from the beachfront. What escondido lacked with view since it wasn’t in a beachfront, it made up with the really nice ammenities. We have 1 single bed and 1 twin bed in the aircon room, with cable TV, landline, really nice toilet and bath and a ref and mini bar. Sarap no? Mura lang ng binayaran namin and so far so good. After settling, we went out as we were all hungry already. No one of us had taken our lunch, and we started walking by the beach. We ate at Red coconut which is an open restaurant fronting the beach. Hehe they never needed a restroom kasi kung nawiwiwi ka, go to the beach and take a leak (yeeech!). After eating (I had a nice seafood teriyaki meal!), we went swimming already and the water was soothingly warm. While I'm writing right now, I could still imagine the water and the smell of my sunblock :D Between swimming, we ordered the popular boracay shakes (I had mango milk shake) from Jonah's, we ate hotdogs and isaw, bought trinkets and beads, picture taking and ate barbecue. I was never full even if I ate a lot already. So at around 8, we headed back to our hotel and washed and changed then went to Pier 1 for some, err, I don't know. Basta hang out and go clubbing. So at pier 1, disco galore kami! We started at 11 and siguro mga 2am na kami tumigil. "Go shawty it's ur birthday! We're gonna party like it's ur birthday, we're gonna sip bacardi like it's ur bday!" But I never had any alcoholic drinks there, I was too darn excited with boracay just to go drunked and get a lousy hangover the next day. And then we headed back to camp…

Day 2. We were scheduled for an all-day island hopping boat treat today so after taking our breakfast, we walked to boat station 2 where we were supposed to meet our "pilot" and our "yacht" (hehe feeling). It was a good 20minute walk, taking pics along the way and eating the usual ihaw ihaws. We were aboard at around 10am, and then there goes our first snorkling for the day. I was so scared at first because it was my first time to snorkle on open sea, at sa sobrang gitna pa ng dagat at that. But I got over my fright. I enjoyed the snorkling and saw different fishes for the first time! Ang cute ng mga isda, and I really get scared kapag paparating na yung jelly fish. That probably took around 30 minutes then we went to the crystal cave. I didn’t enjoy it there kasi medyo claustrophobic ako. I just went in to see the place inside then went out while nagswimming yung mga kasama ko inside. I decided to just take the time to get really nice panoramic shots of boracay. That part of boracay seemed virgin, and that is where I took the picture above. No boats, no swimmers, no whatsoever. Isolated kasi eh, nasa gitna ng dagat. After the crystal cave, we went to the crocodile island and went snorkling again. Same view as the first one, but it was fun nevertheless. Then we headed to this island, for lunch. Di ko na alam kung nasan na kami pero it was still very nice! We had the normal pinoy food for lunch, pero kain galore because we were all so tired from all the swimming and climbing at the boat. Then we headed for puca beach, called so because of the puca shells sprawled on the shores. Di daw pwede manguha ng shells, so we contented ourselves with playing with the shells and taking pictures at the same time. We have halo-halo there too, sige masarap pa rin! Puca beach was very peaceful, in contrast to the main boracay white beach. At around 4pm, we were back again in the middle of the sea for another round of snorkling. This time, mas maganda yung site. Bigger and more colorful fishes. This was the best so far, and I'm just starting to get warmed up with the snorkling thingy because in the morning, I was still hesitant to swim far from the boat. This time, malakas na loob ko. After an hour, the manong was circling the entire boracay island, passing by the upper class resorts - Fairways and bluewaters, Club panoly and others. But even if those were more expensive, I don’t think I would have the same fun as I'm having in the white beach. I love the noise, the crowd. And manong told us that white beach has the nicest beachfront in boracay. The classier resorts are located at the other side of boracay, intended for more intimate occassions and not for swimming-beach-ing (if there is such a word :D) They even pointed to us the villa where the germans were murdered. It was up in the hills and even if they shouted for help, no one would hear them. After our island hopping spree, we were back in the white beach. We had shakes again (this time I had banana milk shake) and I had hotdogs again. I was telling myself…this is the life! 😊 So we setup our tripod and had fun with the picture taking. Ang saya when we time the camera, everyone is running to be included in the picture! At around 8pm, we went back to the hotel with the intention of just washing and freshening up, but we all fell asleep. Too tired of the fun-packed day.

And annie was calling us at our phone. It was already 8am day 3. How time flies! So I got up for breakfast and then we went to boracay regency for our banana boat ride. I was too scared because it was my first time riding the banana boat and they even contracted the manong driver of the jetski pulling the banana boat to make us fall in the boat. Sobrang takot ko, hehe I felt like having cramps. It was a 30-minute banana boat ride and in the middle of the sea, the manong made a sharp turn making the banana boat overturn. Sobrang nahagis ako! Anlayo ng inabot ko from the boat, I had probably swallowed a cupful of sea water and I had water on my nose. Pero sobrang saya! When we were all afloat in the sea, all of us were laughing and kumukuha pa rin kami ng picture. We fell thrice from the banana boat, enjoy na enjoy kasi yung manong samin kasi sobrang maingay kami. And we were always daring him with "isa pang hulog manong!" After the banana boat ride, my body was terribly aching that I wanted to go back to the hotel anymore, but I didn't. Sayang naman! Afterwards, we went to the Talipapa for lunch of fresh seafoods and then went to shop for some more. I only bought shirts for my brother and father, and a lantern for my mom. I can only buy as much, I havent seen any establishment there accepting credit cards. And I cannot withdraw because I left my ATM card in the hotel, for fear of getting it wet. There was only one BPI atm there, which is a good 30minute walk from our hotel. It was already 3pm, and we headed back for our area. We went back to get some shakes and this time, I got milk shake. And we went swimming, endlessly until it got dark. All this time taking really nice pictures, may iba pa nga na pang-FHM! It was so fun! We did the usual, eating hotdogs and street foods. At around 8pm, we took a tricycle and went to this popular mongolian grill. Eat all u can for 175 pesos! I was so hungry that I ate a lot! Parang ngayon lang naging sulit yung eat all you can for me. The place was Villa de Oro and it was also fronting the beach. I had fun during dinner, and it was the best meal in boracay so far. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and slept for our last day…

Day 4. It was raining hard when I woke up and our hopes of going swimming again was in vain. We were supposed to leave boracay at 9am for caticlan, our flight in Kalibo going back to manila was at 1pm. So we just had our breakfast and took a last walk at the beach then packed our stuff, checked out of the hotel and went for our boat ride going back to caticlan. I took video of the shoreline and saw two dogs frolicking in the sands while it was raining. Sobrang natuwa ako sa dogs!

At around 10am, it was already reality…we were out of paradise already. We were in caticlan where the shore is too black, stony and lousy. Then we went for the bus, arrived in Kalibo at 12nn, ate lunch and took our plane ride going back to Manila. And we're back at Centennial 2 at 2pm.

And I'm back home.

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Photos

FHM Pose
Move over girls. Hehe.