This morning we woke up a little earlier than for our other flight because this time the maximum baggage allowed is only 10 kgs! I don't know how anyone can pack that lightly, but I think it’s because the planes they take to Caticlan are smaller than the others. Anyways, we needed to go to their cargo to send a bag full of our extra kilos, the cheaper option. We took a taxi, paid the 200, and weighed and reweighed our overweight bags until we had only 10 kilos each, sent the cargo, and walked to the terminal. The flight was very fast and didn’t even take an hour. They are in the process of building the airport building, so when we got off the tarmac we just waited by the side for our bags before ... read more

Today we rolled out of bed around 11 or 12, had a wonderfully overpriced pizza at our place, and took a leisurely stroll along the beach with Emma and Rosie. It wasn't warm enough to go kayaking and kept sprinkling off and on, so we decided to just relax. We actually found some cool ruins at the top of the hill that seemed to once be a resort...it had paved walkways and steps with smoothed stones inset and what was once a public bathroom with two or three holes in between sky blue tiles where sinks used to be next to small partitions where the toilets once were. After seeing this bit and some of the local's houses, we bought a bottle of Superior rum for 258 (it was 200 in Cebu) and went to our ... read more

So today was somewhat of an adventure. We walked to hand back in the beer bottle, got back our 10 pesos, and got a trike for 30 pesos to the bus terminal. There we got a bus for 50 pesos each to take us to the Chocolate HIlls, a 2-hour journey. The bus was absolutely packed -- three to a seat, some hanging out the sides, and a couple on the roof. We went through some pretty scenery and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride there. We were dropped off on the side of the road and started walking up a hill. There we had to pay for tickets to enter, then kept walking up to find a little restaurant, souvenir shop, and a couple lookout points. We walked up to the top, snapped a couple of ... read more

This morning at 7 am we left our big backpacks at the hostel and checked out. We ended up having to pay double what we thought we would because it turns out they charge per 12 hours, not per night. So we left, slightly enraged, to find a bus/jeepney to the pier. We first took one to Colon and then had to switch and pay again to get to the pier. 7 the first time, 7.50 the second...boo. When we walked to the pier we noticed another company, Wessam, and they had cheaper prices. Boo again. It would have been cheaper to come down to the dock to research. Walking into the pier you have to put your bags through an x-ray machine, then you go through and get a pat-down, then a dog sniffs your ... read more

Today we had four things on our agenda: 1. buy a ferry ticket to Bohol 2. find out about SCUBA opportunities here 3. do laundry 4. buy a SIM card for Ronald's 3G We succeeded only in the last two. Laundry was 30 pesos per kilo and she counted out the items and put them in a basket before giving us our receipt (you could pay before or after) with instructions to come back tomorrow at 18:00 to pick them up. We then went to the Robinson's Cybergate mall to find that it was basically full of only restaurants -- there were only 3 places that sold electronics. After playing around for a while, Ronald got the SIM working at one of the shops, the only one that had them available actually. After this we went ... read more