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I made it to Cebu with no problems. Not that I thought there would be problems but I was quite nervous about traveling alone in Asia. It was great to see the guy with my name on his sign at the airport and to have a safe ride to the resort. Although once there they said that the taxis are all safe too. That’s OK, I felt better having a car waiting for me. I got settled and around 10:30 headed to bed. Soon I discovered the pack of dogs next to the resort barking like crazy. I must have been tired because they didn’t keep me up too long and it is good that I got some sleep because there are several very early rising roosters next to the building. Not only did they wake me up at 4 AM but they woke up the barking dogs. I was downstairs having some coffee at 6:30 and then took a tour of the resort. It is nice to be out early before the hot sun and people. I walked out to a restaurant in the resort lagoon to take some pictures and had a chat with the guard out there. He
had some bread and we fed the fish. Then I headed to the lounge chairs to do some reading and then to breakfast a while later. So it was 11:45 am and I felt like I had been up for two days. I decided to book a massage to fill up some of the afternoon and then had just enough time to get ready for my cousin, Misti, and the others to arrive.
The massage was great and the others arrived right on schedule. We had a wonderful dinner of Tapas and “Happy Hour” drinks at Manny O’s out in the lagoon and then all were ready for a good night sleep before the next day.
We had the AC on pretty low so the fan kept the noisy roosters at bay in the morning and they did not wake us too early. The resort has nice outdoor seating and we had a long relaxing breakfast each morning before heading out for the day. Our first day together was Sunday and we decided to stay at the resort. It was wonderful relaxing, reading and enjoying the sunny weather but we all seemed to get a little too much
sun. So much for good sun screen skills. Strange white hand prints on all of us. Not too sure what happened there. For dinner, the resort had a buffet dinner featuring foods from all of the Asian countries. It was pretty tasty and gave us time to plan our adventure for the next day.
On Monday we took a boat to two islands to snorkel and enjoy the scenery. We were only stopping at the first island to snorkel and not go onto the island. After being in the water for only a minute or two we saw a ton of jellyfish. We quickly jumped back in the boat to avoid being stung and headed to the next island. I think we were concerned this would be the problem for the day but the second stop was perfect. There had to thousands of fish everywhere. I completely forgot about picking up an underwater camera so I missed having any pictures but it was incredible. You felt like you were part of the school of fish. There were too many kinds to remember them all. The best were the blue/green fish and the huge bright blue starfish. One of the
Boats
These are the tour boats that go to the various islands guides brought a starfish up from the bottom so we could hold it. What a great time it was. We snorkeled for about an hour and then walked up the dock to the island for lunch and a rest. Afterwards we snorkeled for an hour more before heading back to the resort. After cleaning up we had dinner on the beach of the resort and watched a cultural dance performance from the different Philippine Islands.
Tuesday was another day relaxing at the resort. A little further from the beach today though. We had our lounge chairs and umbrellas on the grass overlooking the beach and under the palm trees. We did some reading, a little internet surfing (it is the 21st century) and just enjoyed the day. For dinner we walked into the local village as they were celebrating the Kadaugan Sa Mactan. This is a weeklong festival commemorating the historic battle of Mactan (the island of Cebu we were on) between the Spanish Conquistador Fernando Magellan and Mactan Chieftain Lapu-Lapu in which Magellan was defeated and killed. There were several vendors selling food from the various restaurants and hotels so we had a bite to eat, wondered around
End of Island
view from our room the square for a while and headed back to the resort.
Wednesday we relaxed at the resort in the morning and then took an afternoon tour in Cebu City about an hour away. It was really hot away from the sea breeze but nice to see some of the historic sites. Once back at the resort it was time for a nap to recover from the heat and then we walked back towards the village to have dinner at a restaurant we had passed the night before. Great western food at great prices. We headed back to the resort and I had to back to the trip home.
I had a morning flight out so after another leisurely breakfast we said our goodbyes and I headed to the airport. It was another wonderful vacation and nice to spend it with Misti and some new friends.
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