Becoming Beach People in Boracay

If you haven't already had the chance, you should check out the post about our adventurous journey from Seoul to Boracay…after all, Getting There is Half the Fun!  Now, for the rest of our spring break vacation in the Philippines.

Growing up just an hour's drive from the Oregon Coast one would surmise that I would be a certified beach lover.  That's not quite the case.  In fact, I think I can count on both hands the number of times I've been to the coast in my lifetime.  Okay, perhaps that's an exaggeration--but certainly I could count those trips on my fingers and toes.  I like a good trip to the beach, but it's not my first love.  That, as you all know, is Europe, but after this Spring Break trip, it is quite possible that my mind is changing.  I think the chilly, windy Oregon Coast weather (year round mind you), grainy beach sand, and frigid water is enough to make even the most hard core beach bum think twice about a trip to the coast.  This trip, however, was blissful.  

After the rather eventful travel day, on Monday Daniel and I played things low key and walked down the beach toward boat station 2.  We found the D*Mall and wandered through the stores while scoping out a place for dinner that night.  We ran into some of my colleagues from school and learned quickly about the intensity of the sun.  Just an hour long walk in the heat of the day=sunburn.  Yep, we both burned, but not badly or painfully, thank goodness.  Just a little pink!  We stopped at Starbucks on our way back for a beverage and had our first taste of lounge chair time in front of the Sea Wind.  Life was good.  We discovered the magic of Jonah's smoothies at lunchtime and made it a daily ritual.  We also learned about the beauty of a daily nap:).  I took my camera out quite a lot--once in the early morning and daily in the late afternoon to catch the incredible sunsets.

Gorgeous water and foreboding skies.

A very happy camper after a trip to Starbucks and some time in a lounge chair.

My first of many mango smoothies from Jonah's.  YUM!

First night sunset--I took the camera out every evening from then on!

Amazing sandcastles built on the beach as we walked toward Station 2 for dinner each night!  Too bad the tide destroyed them:(.

Willy's Rock at sunset.

Station 2 was just starting to get the party vibe as the sun went down.

The sunset just got better and better as we walked down the beach.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning we hung out on the beach with our SFS friends.  The ocean water was beautifully clear and wonderfully warm (unlike the Oregon Coast).  I read on a lounge chair while Daniel built sand castles with the kids (still a kid at heart that one as evidenced by a certain crab poking incident which I'll leave to Daniel to recount at a later time).  There were more mango smoothies from Jonah's (they claim to be the best on the island and we don't disagree), and time to just relax.  For dinner we had Thai, Italian, and American fare.  We passed up snorkeling, island hopping, and shopping for the opportunity to just relax.  It was a great decision.  What was not a great decision was too much time in the sun and not enough water, which meant Thursday was spent indoors for me.  I think I got a bit of heat exhaustion so I was pretty under the weather for most of our last day:(.  Good thing I had a Kindle Reader full of great books!  I finished two and started a third during those not so pleasant hours spent in the hotel room.  I read Allison Vesterfelt's "Packing Light", Cameron Wright's "The Rent Collector" and I've made good progress on "The Book Thief", which I begun before the trip.  I've missed reading terribly because I've been so busy with school work so, it was great to catch up a bit and the books I finished were wonderful.

The sunrise sky around 6am

Sunrise sky

Willy's Rock at sunrise

Close up of mother Mary on Willy's Rock

The horn which was down the beach to the left of our hotel.

I loved the reflections in the tide pools.

 Another day, another sunset.

Daniel became a kid again and enjoyed playing in the sand with our SFS friends.

Palm tree shot!

Our final sunset

I taught Daniel how to light paint with the camera:)

On our way back from dinner we stopped to watch some fire dancers!

Friday morning came far too quickly and before we knew it we were back in the van, on the "ferry" (our own private boat this time), and hitting the road for that lovely two hour scenic journey to the airport.  As it was daylight during this trans-island trek, I made it a point to keep my eyes open and take in the scenery.  I hadn't realized on our first trip that we followed the coastline for part of the journey.  We saw farmers working in their fields using oxen to plow, goats and cows wandering along the roadside, and lush, jungle-like vegetation.  It reminded me quite a lot of the landscape of Indonesia I had witnessed on a similar ride to the airport.  Unfortunately our "uneventful" airport transfer came to an abrupt halt when a large hauler truck with a dozen or so men riding in the back clipped the guard rail and nearly toppled over in the oncoming lane.  Luckily the truck remained upright, but one of the men sitting on the edge tumbled out headfirst landing in front of our van and was badly injured.  Our driver and his colleague stopped and rushed out to see if they could help, but I think the best thing anyone could do was scrape him off the road and rush him to the nearest medical facility.  As we drove off, I realized how different life is for people in developing nations.  I looked over at Daniel and thought about the holiday we just had, how fortunate we are, and how much we take for granted.  We are so blessed and we live so extravagantly compared to most of the rest of the world.  It was a sobering experience and I think Daniel and I both silently prayed for that man for the remainder of our trip to the airport.

Our final morning on the beach.

Brother/sister shot!  Can you believe this is my "little brother"?

I'm going to miss these patio chairs!

We loved the Sea Wind!

Thatched roofs of our hotel.

Hotel pool

Heading for Caticlan Jetty

Not quite what I'd call a "ferry boat", how about you?

Security at Kalibo airport was interesting because it was incredibly relaxed.  I made it through without removing a single article of clothing OR throwing away my opened and half consumed water bottle!  Apparently they don't have problems with terrorists, just lots of tourists bringing home dried mango:).  Miraculously, our flight left 45 minutes early.  I suppose they were trying to clear us out of one of those three precious parking spots.  We essentially had the back of the plane to ourselves and everything was going great until…the bone rattling turbulence hit!  I never used to be a timid flyer until I experienced the death drop on a flight back from Venice to Seoul, you know where the plane suddenly feels like it's falling out of the sky and you think "This is it, I'm going to die!".  Well, we had a wee bit of turbulence on the way back from Boracay too and what I'd call a mini death drop.  When the captain tells the flight attendants to sit down you know it's bad!  I felt my face go pale and I just prayed my way through it.  Within ten minutes or so the air was smoother again, but those things always seem to feel like an eternity when you are in the midst of them and every bump after that had me feeling a bit shaky.  When the pilot put that plane down at Incheon Airport, I couldn't have been happier to be on solid ground.  A taxi ride later and the spring break adventure was officially over.  This year Daniel didn't have to rush straight back to Portland for the start of the spring term, so we had a few more sightseeing plans in Seoul before his departure on Wednesday and I'm hoping to write about those and post photos soon!