18. The Philippines: Part 3

So, Boracay… Well, getting there was interesting. We did the 5 hour van ride; which, as previously stated, was wonderful. The ferry ride over to Boracay (or rather, to be more specific, to another island where we caught a short 15 minute ferry to Boracay), however, was um… well, not wonderful. It wasn’t horrible, but, well there were bunks, which we slept on… but on which I saw cockroaches (and then couldn’t sleep anymore). I didn’t tell the other girls, so that they could sleep.
Here’s Anita and Kara asleep on the top bunks
And here’s me and Suzanne on the bottom bunk.

Anyway, we then spent the night sleeping in a ferry station – or rather, Suzanne and Kara slept, Anita tossed and turned and I stayed awake all night. In the morning, we caught the little ferry over to Boracay.
My boat! Heehee. I can’t remember if this is the boat we took to or from Boracay, but I wanted you to notice that in order to get in these boats, you actually have to walk through the water… this one was actually fairly close to dry ground, but many of them are actually fairly far in… you get wet getting onto the boat.

It was early in the morning, and it was kind of flooded, I was exhausted… welcome to paradise! This is us eating breakfast – Kara, me, Anita and Suzanne. Wet, and tired. I believe I’m wrapped in Kara’s blanket. After some discussion and wandering we settled on a hotel.
This was actually an awesome place… great hammock on our own personal balcony. It was really great.

We were in the middle of monsoon season, and we did get a few rainstorms, but for the most part, we had awesome weather!

We managed to get a lot of beach time in…



Now, I’ve discovered I’m a bit of a beach snob… Bermuda beaches have spoiled me, really… but let me say, without reservation, that this beach was gorgeous! (Don’t worry, I still think Bermuda has the best beaches, but this was a close second.) Here are some pictures of the beach for you to peruse and be envious.






And here’s a sight we saw over and over again… there were many Korean tourists in the Philippines, and they were actually easy to spot. Most of the Korean women wore high heels… in the sand, on the dirt road, on the beach! If you look closely you can see her heels as she walks by the water. Weird.

And here are some beautiful sunset pictures that I actually wasn’t there for. While Anita and Kara enjoyed this beautiful sunset, Suzanne and I were off at the Mandaly resort getting pampered. Suzanne got a facial and I had a hot stone massage. It was absolutely amazing! But so are these pictures, so here you go.





Oh, and to end this installment, here is a picture of one of many dogs we saw lying in the sand… this one was on the beach, others were just on the road. Made me a little homesick for San Pedro, actually!

Well, I think I’ll end this section here… man do I have a lot of pictures! More to come…