I ♥ Boracay

We vowed that this island getaway would be our last beach bumming for the year. OK, no further appeal. I understand that we have to save for our Hongkong Disney tour this February. The Cebu Pac pilot immediately put my sleep to a halt when he told us that the dog bone-shaped island is... taraaaan... Boracay!

 

View from the top: The dog bone-shaped island on the far left is the island paradise. At this point, I could hardly contain my excitement.

      

Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Kalibo (nosebleed)

 

The sign says it's Kalibo Airport, but it's now classified as international airport. Zest Air will start its first regular international flight from Incheon, South Korea to Kalibo on December. Mind you, most of the foreign tourists in Bora hailed from the land of Kimchi. Upon exit from the airport, we immediately saw our name in a makeshift poster indicating that we're bound to ride in Southwest Tours bus. That's part of the Php 1,800-airport transfer we paid to Boracay Holiday Resort. We learned later on that it's pricey indeed. Geez, perstaym. We promised ourselves that we'll do DIY-style of transfer to the island next time.

   

 D' bus

Travel time from Kalibo to Caticlan jetty port was approximately 1 hour and half. A runway mishap had caused the temporary shutdown of Caticlan airport, so all Boracay-bound tourists have no recourse but to land in Kalibo. Almost two months after our unforgettable boat ride to Calauit Safari Park, I still get freakin' nervous about travelling in the sea. It's now an official phobia. Thus, I could barely move, or even let go of my heavy backpack, when we were on the boat. Fear literally paralyzed my body. (laugh) I kept on reminding myself that fear has no shape, that you can't see fear, that you can't taste fear, hence it does not exist... blah-blah. My very own coaxing yet silent voice managed to take away half of my fear, and that's it. The only real thing that somehow calmed my nerves was the life vest. Crazy me.

    

Cagban jetty port

After checking into Boracay Holiday Resort, we headed straight off to Mang Inasal in D' Mall for late lunch. We noticed there are lots of people who were busy gawking at... (we were surprised) the Miss Earth 2009 candidates. They were chit-chatting at Ole Spanish Tapas Bar & Restaurant, right across Mang Inasal. Oh, I suddenly remembered that their coronation night will be staged live in Boracay on November 22, the date we said "Bye, Bora!" My spontaneous reaction was to have a picture with any of them.

  

With towering Miss Greece Triantafyllia Sarantinou (Yep, google.)

   

With Misses Japan (Takada Tomomi) and Guadeloupe (Marie-Ange Seymour)

  

With uber pretty Miss Korea Yeju Park

 

With Miss Japan Takada Tomomi (again! Oh, she's friendly.)

   

Mga paraw sa tag-araw

After our late lunch and brief starstruck moment with the beauty queens, we immediately walked to the white beach which made Boracay famous in the world! True enough, the sand was powdery white, or better yet, sugar-fine.

   

Willy's Rock

OMG, my flabs were never camera-shy! It was drizzling at precisely this moment.

  

I ♥ Mama Mary. Who doesn't?

We sat at the sand bar the whole afternoon. Staring at the horizon and playing with the sands almost deactivated the city-like ticking of our body clocks. If you live in the metro for quite long, you'd usually have this notion that any thing that you do have deadlines, and that you have to beat the rush hour etc. Argh. We relished the time admiring the beach, noticing "this" and "that" and just talking about anything under the sun... and the moon.  Pretty romantic indeed. Geez, cheesy. Oh, yes, I suddenly remembered that New Moon will be showing in theaters the next day (November 20).

   

OK, we're in Bora. 'Nuff said.

 

    

Breakfast buffet at BHR

 

    

Lounge chairs shouting: C'mon, chillax & unwind!

This picture really makes me wanna go back to the island. Resting in the lounge chair with the beach as your main focus, not to mention the powdery white sand and the coco trees, is paradise in itself. More importantly, let your cares drift away to lalala-land. Zzzzz.

       

Laba sa Tide!

Too bad I wasn't able to bring a paperback to the island. The lounge chair would've been a perfect spot to read or soul-search. Dang, where the heck is my soul? With that, GG would probably get mad at me. Yu know (Pacman-ish), we both agreed that our island getaway is an opportunity to bond. Copy.

    

 Simply wow, isn't it?

     

I coaxed him to give me this default pose.

   

And I had to beg him repeatedly to press click for this. Hahaha!

When the sun rays became too strong for strolling and sunbathing, we decided that it's time for coffee break. We bought first GG's peppermint coffee at Starbucks for the sake of filling out the stickers for the 2010 roast planner. Damn promo. Then off we went to Real Coffee & Tea Cafe. It's a small cafe with bamboo interiors, which  will instantly give you a homey feeling. We tried their calamansi muffin, a house specialty. True enough, it was good. We consumed the delicious muffins fast enough to wait for the vanilla french toast, another yummy treat.

   

Calamansi muffins (or what's left of it) and vanilla french toast... and mango shake (so-so)

      

Real Coffee: Where great minds meet (ching!)

     

  

To GG: Peace for this two-piece!

The UV rays became potentially deadly so we headed back to the hotel. It was quite refreshing to take a dip in the pool. At first, we were the only ones in the pool.

 

He wasn't aware that I took this shot. This gives me a good laugh always.

 "I'm here!"

Timer-starts-now look

We hit the beach sometime in the afternoon to witness the lovely Boracay sunset. In fact, lots of shutterbugs, foreign and local, were there to capture the most postcard shot of the sunset. Sunsets could really be a nice subject in photography. Not just any sunset, but sunset in Boracay. Wow.

  

Enjoying the afternoon sea breeze

  

 Here it is... the lovely Boracay sunset!

   

A nationalistic fusion of colors

Have a bite of Bite Club's burgerella!

I wish this burger joint will have a franchise in Manila. The burgerella, with mozzarella-stuffed patty, is just so mouth-watering.

FarmVille goes to Boracay: There's really no stopping him from "harvesting". Bummer.

We woke up early the next day as it was our last full day in the island. But before our walk-a-thon in the beach, GG wanted a warm-up. And what could be the better place for flexing his maskels (duh)? Where else but the gym! A hint of sarcasm on my part. Hahaha! One of the amenities of BHR is its gym. He wasted no time lifting weights as evidenced by the shots below.

  

One...

 

Two...

 

   Three!

  

 Are you done? Are you done? Huh? The beach is waiting. 

  

Welcome to my frontyard!

Warning: Excessive camwhoring on the beach can be dangerous to your health. Really, as in ouch! Burning hot on my back. Maybe because we used SPF 30 only. Must it be higher than that? I dunno. Sunblocks were never an issue to me since time immemorial. I'm happy whenever I get a beach tan minus the migraine, of course. I know it's no good to hit the beach with no sun protection but what the heck? I hate applying greasy liquid to my skin. Besides, SPF lotions smell funny.The sun's rays were not so strong when we started camwhoring but became  seriously strong eventually. Oh, I stand corrected. Substitute "I" for "we". Hahaha! GG hates staying under the sun due to the skin cancer scare.

   

Here comes the sun! As long as I have sunglasses, I'm perfectly fine.

 

Mind you, it's pretty hot at this point.

  

Is the ozone layer really that thin now?

     

Yo, rasta!

   

GG as mortal enemy of UV rays

   

Take it off! Take it off!

Since the sun continued to be a strong threat, we decided to take a coffee break. Of course, the underlying reason was to fill out the S'bucks card with more stickers. Oh well.

   

Goal: 2010 roast planner

We searched for Jonah's shakes, a constant buzz in my mental list, since it's allegedly famous for its yummy shakes. Luckily, it wasn't hard to find Jonah's. It was only stone's throw away from Willy's Rock. We asked the food attendant what their bestseller shakes are, and true enough, her answer matched my previous browsing of Boracay food trips review: choco-banana-peanut and mango.

  

The view outside Jonah's shakes

   

Two thumbs up for this mango crepe!

   

Choco-banana-peanut and mango rhum shakes

 

 

Shake it, shake it!

  

 Last day of glimpsing the Boracay sunset

 Happy feet!

I was having mixed emotions while catching a glimpse of the Boracay sunset. I was happy because I was able to visit the island paradise and yet I was sad because we had to leave the next day. Communing with nature always makes me damn emotional.

   

Kid at heart

 

Another kid at heart

  

The yellowish tinge was due to the last rays of the sunset. Lovely.

  

I asked him to look silly in order to match the silly-looking mound of sand. Silly me.

Espasol legs

Then came dinner time, and we both agreed to treat ourselves to  a buffet Most of the restos offered buffet dinner ranging from PhP 230 to PhP 495 (Zhu Asian Cuisine). Or maybe because it's not peak season. There's one cafe which offered an all-seafood buffet for only PhP 250. The cafe's name escaped me though. For sure, that cafe had less people, a fair indication that the food may not be too delicious, or it had a so-so presentation or location. Anyway, a PhP 250 dinner buffet is sufficient enough, unlike in the metro. We ended up in Bamboo Lounge dinner buffet because of its lechon and bottomless drinks. It was really a wise idea for coming up with lechon as main attraction. Tourists, local or foreign, couldn't help but stop and look at the mouth-watering lechon with patronizing stares.

   

Hmmm... Lechon by the beach! Life's really good!

   

Say Kimchi!

I really thought that Pinoys are the only ones who stuffed their plates with whatever found in the table during buffets. Dang, I was absolutely wrong. The Koreans are  voracious eaters as well.. and noisy too. Hahaha!

  

Apart from the lechon, the dwarf bananas were a major hit.

  

Bye-bye, Bora: The first sunrise that we saw... and it was our last day. Pretty ironic. Hahaha!

We woke up early to give us ample time for travel. Our flight was 10:40 a.m. so we have the luxury of time. My boat ride phobia started to surface the moment I caught sight of Cagban jetty port. Argh. I was left with no choice but to endure the 15-minute torture of a boat ride from Cagban to Caticlan. In my case, yes, it was a torture. The sudden paralysis and parched lips were tell-tale signs of my phobia. I was however comforted by the presence of a pre-school kid who sat across from me. Hahaha!

It took us one hour from Caticlan to Kalibo. Not bad. We ate our packed breakfast on the shuttle bus.  While waiting at the Paliparang Pandaigdog ng Kalibo (nosebleed), our nostrils were suddenly invited by a delicious aroma of coffee, our life's blood. We followed the command of our nostrils and... voila.. hot cafe lattes at Cafe Latte.

  

The stairway to Kalibo's coffee

Coffee na lang, dear.

Cafe lattes and oatmeal cookies kept us company while waiting for our "fun flight" (as  the Cebu Pac cabin crew puts it). I put some ice to my coffee since it's a prevailing fact that I'm no hot coffee lover. Two thumbs up for their coffee... and, of course, to the island paradise that I fell in ♥ with! Till next time, Bora!