We woke up early to catch a sunrise photo of Boracay. But to our dismay, it was a gloomy morning. It did not dampen our mood and wishing that the weather would cooperate for our island hopping today. This is our second day on this beautiful island and we are looking forward to a happy adventure in what has been called, the beach capital of the Philippines.

It’s time-consuming if we will eat our breakfast in a restaurant. To save time, we cooked noodles while our teens brought hot pandesal in a nearby bakery. We were so thankful to Grace (our contact person in the resort) for providing us a thermal pot full of hot water and cups for our coffee and milo session. With cheez whiz as our filling, everyone was satisfied and off we went to our exciting island hopping.

Julius is our contact person in our activity. Boat rate – Php1,500. Our first activity is helmet diving (also called reef walking). It was offered to us for Php1,000 per head but we haggled it to Php350 with pictures and video (burned in a CD).

We were transported to the diving spot through a speed boat. We stayed in the floating cottage where the head suits and compressors were being prepared by the crew. Mama and Shen got scared so they chose to stay in the boat and took care of our little Rion.

An instructor briefed us shortly, telling us not to worry about wearing the 37-kilo head suit for it will weigh one kilo once dip in the water. He gave us the hand signs and things to do in our water activity. He accompanied us one by one in getting down through the ladder until we reached the seafloor. The pressure was painful in the ears. As per instruction, we moved our jaws and pinched our noses to fight the pain.

It was so amazing walking on the seafloor and watched the amazing perspective of the under-the-sea world. The visibility was so clear. We fed the colorful fish with bread. I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting that I could see lots of fish around us.  But it was only a few. Maybe five to ten years ago the abundance of marine life here was so wonderful. Who’s to blame anyway?

ISLAND HOPPING

Crystal Cove Island. The entrance fee applies only to the cave at a rate of Php200 per head. We didn’t go inside instead we immersed ourselves in the water and had a refreshing swim for less than an hour. The sand wasn’t that fine compared to White Beach and had crushed corals everywhere but the water was crystal clear and clean.

There was no store in the area so it’s best to bring food and water. The resort is ideal for a picnic. This is indeed a stress-free day.

Crocodile Island. It’s time for snorkeling. My hubby and I were used for this activity. But every island has its own charm and wonder, it’s a must to explore and see the wonderful marine life. We were so excited just like the rest of our buddies and so we hastily jumped into the water.

The corals were beautiful and so were the zebrafish and the famous and lovable clownfish, Nemo.

I can’t help to compare the abundance of marine life in Coron and Puerto Galera on this island, but those playful Nemo caught much of our attention. But because we were too busy catching them we didn’t notice we have sailed away far from our boat in less than ten minutes.

Gie and I tried to get back to the boat, but we didn’t come close even a bit. A helpful boatman with a small boat came near us and gave us a rope. He advised us not to go far because there was a strong current in the area. We all went back through the rope and snorkel again just beside the boat.

Puka Island. The sand wasn’t that fine but what I like here was the serenity of the island. The green rocky mountains added a scenic view. There were few people here, we felt nature is within us. We swam, we explored, and we walked in the long stretch. Getting tired, we sat on the sand and marveled at the vast expanse of the aqua blue water.  So refreshing!

There were eateries on the island. We chose to eat our lunch at Sea Shore Grill and Restaurant which was owned by a fellow Pinoy.

It’s all our first time to eat a white snapper fish which costs Php700. Half of it was grilled and a half was boiled (sinigang with vegetables). Somewhat pricey, but everyone loves it. We also ordered grilled squid, fried chicken, adobong chicken, adobong kangkong, and chop suey. Our meal costs Php2,665 for the ten of us.

We had these pictures from Puka Island to White Beach.

And this ended our island hopping. We gave Julius Php300 as a tip for his good accommodation.

Souvenir Buy at D’ Talipapa

We took an hour of rest then we headed to D’Talipapa where items are sold at cheaper prices. It was located at the back of the Sands Hotel, in Station 2.  We bought these items: 8 key chains (fixed P100), bracelets with name tag Boracay (P10), a canvas bag with I love Boracay (P130), 8 magnetic fish (fixed P100), big wooden table fish (P130), and Nemo hanging wooden fish (P180).

White t-shirts depending on sizes (P90 to P150) and good quality colored t-shirts (P300 to P400). I was expecting that these items are expensive here at Bora knowing this is a very popular tourist destination, but to our surprise, it was much cheaper compared to other places that we’ve been.

We waited for the sunset at the beachfront. The long stretch was more crowded by this time and just like me; most of the people were holding their cameras/SLR waiting for the spectacular sunset photo.

I got too excited as the sun slowly goes down. The golden hue was wonderful. The paraws were indeed a good backdrop. I was thankful for the good weather; I had now my very good shot of one of Boracay’s pride, the SUNSET.

We ate our dinner in Andok’s restaurant which was a few minutes away from our hotel. We had a long table on the beachfront. It was a fiesta crowd everywhere. After our dinner, we watched again poi dancing in a nearby restaurant.  A ballad singer followed next.

It was Sunday and is not peak season yet so there were few activities on the beachfront.

Since it was our last night on this beautiful island, we walked around and mingled with the crowd. The day was exhausting, but everyone, I say, everyone really had fun!

Good night Bora!