Our moms’ have been in town for the past few weeks and we’ve had so many adventures – time to catch up and blog about them! We began with an adventurous trip to Boracay! In the Philippines – and really I think anywhere outside what you define as “normal” – the adventure begins with stepping outside your door.
To get to Boracay, first we go to the airport and catch a plane – a little propeller plane – down to Caticlan. Then we take a tricycle (very common in the provinces and in parts of Manila) to the ferry, take a ferry boat across to the Boracay island, and then take another tricycle to the white beach. Finally, we trek on the sand for a bit to get to our hotel. While I had explained this process to both of our moms, in this case seeing is believing, or better yet, doing is understanding. Both were amazed at the tiny tricycles (though spacious inside!) and the outrigger-esque ferry boats!
After we reached our hotel, we grabbed lunch and a celebratory welcome mango shake. The mangos of the Philippines are unlike any other and absolutely to die for – and they make a correspondingly delicious mango shake. You can get them at most restaurants in the Philippines, or at least in Manila, but there’s something about a paradise beach view that makes it especially tasty. I had three during our 48 hour stay!!
The first night we had the most amazing sunset. Literally. I’ve seen a lot of sunsets in my days and specifically many amazing sun setting over the paradisiacal white beach in crazy international locations kind of sunsets in the past year or two. And this was one for the record books. Sailboats were out sailing around and the sky just kept getting more and more brilliant. The second shot below looks especially photoshopped, but I assure you, this is straight from my camera to this blog… It was gorgeous, if unbelievable and sort of out of control.
Then we saw some fire dancer/throwers on the beach while we walked to dinner! Wow!
Unfortunately, the old sailor’s adage about the sunset, “red sky at night, sailor’s delight…”, didn’t hold true for us. The next morning was somewhat cloudy and by late afternoon, it started to rain. Then the raining turned into pouring and it poured all evening. At midmorning, however, it was still quite nice and we went out for a boat ride.
The water was a little choppy so we decided to snorkel more than jet around and while this picture below is from a previous Boracay snorkeling trip, it holds true for the types of fish we saw this time too. The water wasn’t quite as turquoise clear, but it was still beautiful.
It was a great trip, if quick, and before we knew it, we were back in Manila continuing our adventures there!
More Than Postcards 