Last hurrah for the summer!

Listening to: Foals - The Orient (2010 Total Life Forever)

Right now, I feel: Sleepy

Baby Boy invades Boracay!

Finally a new blog post! After 3 months of on a hiatus, I am finally back.

I will blog what happened as why I took a long LOA from blogging. For now I am all excited to share our trip to Boracay.

It is our first time to be in Boracay. We stayed from May 20 to 24. We stayed in Azul Boracay in station 1 which is near Holy Rosary Church and just across Willy's Beach Club. It was pure beach fun for 5 days! Here is how things go day by day.

The planning stage: We always wanted to go there a couple of years back. It started when we went to Vistamar in Anilao, Batangas last 2007. My girlfriend Ayann and I made it to a point to be out of town every year. In 2008 we went to Morong, Bataan and Baguio. Then in 2009 we went to Anangawin cove in Zambales. So we planned to be in Boracay by 2010. It became a plan when February came. Ayann decided to take a plan to Iloilo and ride a bus to Caticlan. Since the airfare is cheaper going there and it will be a road trip as well, I agreed to that route. We had everything ready. We bought stuff from clothes to the basic things that we need to bring.

A day before our flight, we did a last minute shopping for our beach sandals since our old ones are already in bad shape. We just had a nap and met up the same night since our flight will be 4:45 am. We have to be a couple of hours before our flight in NAIA Terminal 3. The airport was too big for domestic flights and for Cebu Pacific to use it. I wish it will be the place for international flights. It will be better.

Day 1: As I have said earlier, we opted for the longer route in getting to Boracay. We choose the Iloilo-Kalibo-Caticlan route. Besides the fact that it is cheaper, it is also an opportunity for me to get a glimpse of the Iloilo and other places I can see while en route to Boracay. We landed in Iloilo airport at 5:20 am and went to Jaro to get to Tagbac terminal where we rode a Ceres bus going to Caticlan. I saw the SM Iloilo there and was surprised at how small the mall is. It's almost half the size of Ali Mall in Cubao. We arrived in Boracay around 2:40 pm. Walked around till we reached D'Mall. We choose to have our lunch in Mang Inasal since we're starving and didn't have enough time to look for a cheaper resto. Slept the whole day and walked from Station 1 till Station 3 at night. We took some pictures of the sand castles along the way. We took pictures of anything that are interesting thus giving me this "real" tourist vibe. Ate at Andok's in Station 3 and called it a night.

Day 2: We got up around 5 am after sleeping at around 2:30 am. We walked from Station 1 to Diniwid where we able to see Nami beach. We almost got lost walking around since we thought getting to the main road was easy. Luckily we got a trike and decided to meet up Ayann's cousin. Dropped in Ecoville and went to Ate Gee Ann's (Ayann's cousin) apartment. After that we went to my sister's room in Boracay Tropics to see them. Walked around D'Mall and bought my pasalubong already. We had lunch at Jonah's as per the recommendation of Ate Gee Ann. The fruit shakes and food are great! Went to Smoke resto for our dinner and saw some fire dancers in Sand Bar. Met Ate Gee Ann and her family while there and we chilled in Pat’s Creek Bar. Walked back to our room and saw another batch of fire dancers. We called it a night and slept at around 1 am.

Day 3: Got up around 6 am and had our breakfast in our room. We walked in Station 2 where we stayed at our usual spot near Gasthof since the people who sell and rent skimboards are there. I was advised to be back there by 8 am so he can teach me the basics of skimboarding. I really want to have one but he was selling me an expensive one. The skimboard people didn’t show up. Instead, a local guide offered us for some boat riding and other activities. I told him we’ll take a look since we already asked someone to be our guide. After a few minutes another man approached us telling that his cousin who we talked to previously referred us to him. He offered us a better deal and cheaper rates too. Ayann and I agreed to have Marlon be our guide for the rest of our stay in Boracay. My sister has been inviting us to go parasailing so when I found out that Marlon is offering me a better rate, I called her to meet up. We also saw Gian since he called me on our 2nd night telling me that he’ll be going to Boracay too. We did the parasailing and helmet diving. The view while in parasailing was great! It made me dizzy though since I was looking down the beach too much. The dizziness got worst when we waited for our turn in helmet diving. But it was a fun for us. Starving, we ate somewhere (we forgot the name though) but didn’t like the service and food. We decided to spend the whole day in White beach instead of going back to our room and rest while waiting for our ATV session. I tried to rent a skimboard for an hour but I was advised that I can’t skim that much since it was high tide. But still, I was taught the basics. It was really hard to do skimboarding. But I really wanted to learn that. Went to Bulabog beach and had our ATV ride there. We went to Puca beach, the butterfly garden with a fruit bat in Fairways Bluewater and at the Tanawin apartment for a view of the whole Island. We weren’t able to go to Mt. Luho since there has been rumors that the owner of the ATV had a conflict with the owner of the park inside Mt. Luho. On our way back we saw the skimboard being sold for 2,000 pesos only. I have been thinking about buying it since the other day and I decided to get it. I had my skimboard finally! We had dinner in Big Mama’s and had our usual fix of coffee at Starbucks. We called it a night after checking the net in D’Mall.

Day 4: Got up around 6 am. Went to our usual spot in Station 2 and tried to kill time while waiting for Marlon for our Jet Ski session. Ayann swam for a while and I tried to skimboard. It was still difficult, I find it hard to balance and time my landing at the board. I really need to loose weight this time but skimboarding will be my new sport. We met Marlon and went to the Jet Ski spot. I thought it was hard to ride it but it was easy to learn it as it only has an accelerator and it will stop if you release it. It was scary a bit especially when it slams at the waves. But I really love it when it goes fast and I learned to maneuver it when it hits the waves. I extended for another 30 minutes and it was worth it. I learned to ride the Jet Ski while standing. The Jet Ski I rented was fast. I even had the accelerator only at its half of its potential. Marlon said I got a Jet Ski with a 1000 cc while Ayann had a 700 cc type. I love it and I really want to do it again. It was just a pain in the legs afterwards. It was costly to rent it (1,800 pesos per person for 30 minutes). But at 7,200 pesos for the 2 of us for an hour, it was all worth it. I will be back wanting for more. Jet ski is my new water sport, even though it's expensive. After that, Marlon invited us to have lunch by the beach since it was his daughter’s birthday, we had pancit and chicken. Marlon invited me to have a beer session and met his cousin Homer (the previous person who offered us to be our guide) and the rest of his family. It was the first time I had a Gold Eagle beer. The breeze was cool enough for me to drink the beer even without the ice. We had 2 cases of it while watching people do kite boarding and windsurfing. Ayann had her hair braided while we’re planning where to go for dinner. Marlon told us that we can just buy food at the Talipapa and they’ll just cook it for us. We had dinner in their place, even though I have a hang over from the afternoon’s beer session the food was great. Inihaw na pusit, talakitok and liempo were on the menu. We also had buttered prawns and sinigang na ulo ng lapu-lapu. After the dinner we walked around D’Mall and met Gian and took some pictures with him. We stayed in Starbucks for our coffee and headed to Margarita Rock lounge to have some Vodka. I liked the place for its chill out and beach music it is less crowded than the ones in Guilly’s or Club Paraw. We called it a night afterwards.

Day 5: We got up around 7 am, still tired from yesterday’s activities. I don’t want to get up as it was already our last day. I just feel like I wanna doze off the rest of the day and extend for another day or two. Ayann got up first and started to pack her things and set the food for our breakfast. As I got up, I ate and pack my things too. The care taker of the hotel we stayed in told us that we can stay up until 3 pm. So we decided to have our lunch at Big Mama’s and met Gian to exchange stories as to how thing go during our stay. After the lunch and the last minute pasalubong shopping at D’Mall, we decided to leave at 2 pm. Our route this time was Caticlan then to Kalibo. We got to Kalibo around 5 pm but our flight got delayed. We saw Gian there too and he told me that they were supposed to have a 5 pm flight in Caticlan but the wind was too strong and the bigger planes find it hard to land on the short runway of Caticlan airport. So almost all of the flights from Caticlan got transferred to Kalibo thus making the runway be congested like EDSA. We got to our flight around 7 pm and arrived in Manila by 8:20 pm. I got home around 9:40 pm and I called it a night.

Post-Boracay: Ayann got his tan while I got burned up. I really want to be a dark as a chocolate and I really do enjoy being under the sun. 5 days doesn’t seem to be enough for me and Ayann. We decided to be back by December but we opted to choose March next year so we can have more time to prepare and more time to save money for the next trip.

I can’t wait to be back there. I already miss the food and the nice people I met there. I suddenly feel in love with the place. I appreciate its beauty and flaws. Our local guide Marlon told me to let him know when we’ll be back and he’ll accommodate us again. He was really a nice fella. As of now my girlfriend and I always talk about our stay in that island paradise and how we long for it. Boracay, we’ll be back and it will be a BLAST!!!

For the rest of the pictures, you can check out the albums I made in facebook here. You can also check part 2 and 3 from my facebook here and here.

Here are some sample pics of our stay in Boracay.

My girl Ayann and I enjoying the beach.

Our favorite drinks and cakes.

Marlon, our local guide in Boracay.

Riding a Jet ski was addicting!

The grotto in Station 1 during sunset. Shot by Ayann.

During our ATV tour.

The most relaxing place during the night time.

My new skimboard!

Parasailing time!

Our favorite place to kill time or unwind.