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Ahhhh…. So where was I, Boracay I believe. Well, Boracay is the most popular tourist destination in all of the Philippines; to me that makes it so much less desirable but I had to go. My primary reason of going was to go to the immigration department there, which turned out to be a desk in the tourist information center, for a quick and easy visa extension. Yes the beaches were beautiful, white sand and clean water (in some areas), but completely overpopulated with tourists. I’d say Koreans and Pilipino were the majority of the population coming for a quick activity filled vacation with the whole family. There were many things to do from Para sailing to diving and everything in between, now if you could afford to do all these things it would be a different experience. The beach strip is lined with vendors, sales people and masseuses’ harassing you “mam, buy this” and “mam buy that”, really enough to drive a person into insanity, but you just need to say no thanks then ignore. I stayed at Trafalgar hotel off the main strip behind a little market; it was the cheapest there600P, compared to the average rate of
1,500P. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden and the room was quite nice with just a fan, but very clean. If not for the construction out side my window starting at 6am it would have been a very nice place to stay. On the boat over I met a couple of old school backpackers from New Zealand, and had dinner and drinks with them on a few occasions. After 3 days just hanging out at the beach, swimming and walking the strip (over and over) I was happy to pack up my things and get out of there.
Next stop Sibuyan…
While in Boracay I decided my next stop would be back to Sibuyan (where Mt. Guiting- Guiting was) and see a little more of the islands natural beauties. This little journey turned out to be not so easy. Reading there was a ferry from Caticlan (where you take the boat to Boracay) straight to San Fernando, Sibuyan I though it was perfect. Well once in Caticlan I asked around and got a whole lotta “no boat the Sibuyan”, and seeing as this was my only plan I had to find a way. Kalibo just a
Sibuyan
These guys were spying on me :) 2 hour van ride away had to have a boat there…. well guess not. I spent the night there and went to the pier in the early morning to find out again no boat to Sibuyan, well unless you wait till Monday. It being Thursday there was no way I wanted to wait around. Any ways to make it short this is what I had to do: Van back to Caticlan, stay the night there, pump boat to Looke (4Hours) on Tablas Island Romblon, Jeepney to San Augustine, pump boat to Romblon Romblon, stay the night and pump boat to Sibuyan. The system here gets you there but man is it a journey every time. Once I got to Romblon and seen my friends again I decided to stay an extra day, it was Gideon’s birthday, how could I not. So we went to Tibuyan Beach and grilled fish, and ate and drank all night. And the next day I was, off to Sibuyan finally. I met with my old guide Toto and he took me around to waterfalls, we went boating, checked out the park office, and grilled fish on the beach.
While I was there I also
met the Mayor of Madgiwang(had to tell this), total perv; he asked me if I wanted to have “relations” with him. In the Philippines Mayors and political figures are well liked and almost hero like, I think it gets to there heads and they think they're like rock stars or something. The old fart was disgusting and I think they think westerners just sleep with anyone and everyone or something. He really though his thinking was global and that he knew a lot about our way of life but if so he would have never approached me as he did, and I tried to explain that to him. So I’m not sure about where they get there information about the outside world but a lot of it is inaccurate, though they will stand by it because they have a friend in Canada or wherever and they said. I don’t know but this guy just got to me, oh well, done with, he knew I was not impressed.
My stay in Sibuyan was what I could describe as almost too relaxing; there is nothing to do if you’re not on a trek or checking something out. I think I needed
Romblon
Chuck rockin out it though maybe after Boracay, but I could never live that kind of life everyday. Now I had to figure out how to get out of here. LOL
Mission, getting to Donsol to go swimming with the whale sharks, the world’s largest fish. This trip went very smoothly just a couple boats and a Jeepney. The locals know the whale sharks as Butanding and they can grow to 18m in length weighing up to 40 tons and living for 100 years. I went with an amazing Filipina lady, Flora, I met on the boat over who owns a resort in Palawan and ended up becoming a very good friend especially after experiencing this together. It was such an amazing experience swimming along side these majestic creatures watching the way the move calmly through the waters concentration only on feeding in the plankton filled sea barley acknowledging our presence. Our boat had 7 people 3 guys and 1 gal from Spain, 1 gal from Hong Kong and us and 4 others(guide/boatmen/spotter). After the first sighting we all jumped in and swam towards the whale shark, a lot of contact is made between everyone and it makes it a little
frustrating until you see the shark then all is calm and you can just marvel over this massive creature swaying about in its natural habitat. We were all cheers and smiles after each swim and the aura of everyones excitement made the experience even that much better. So yes I highly recommend this to anyone traveling the Philippines and maybe the #1 thing to do here if you have a short stay. We ended up seeing 7 sharks in all ranging from 3 to 11meters and spent about 3 hours out on the water.
I had planned on sticking around the area for a few days and checking out Mt. Mayon the world’s most perfect cone volcano. On the way to Legazpi I got an amazing view and seeings I wasn’t planning on climbing it I decided to head out that night and jump on the overnight bus to Manila with Flora. So that is where I am now. Its better this time because I am in a much nicer area and its nice being here because there’s access to everything, like internet for instance and book stores. So I bought some new hiking shoes because I lost
Sibuyan
Too hot one of my shoes somewhere(???) and did a little shopping. Until next time……
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