Cebu Adventures: Boracay Island & Touring Moalboal


Welcome!

Here we are with yet another travel post. This time, I’m telling you about my trip to Cebu.

If there’s one word I would use to describe this Cebu trip- spontaneous. 

I told my aunts, Tita Beng and Tita Darl, I wanted to go to Cebu and they made it happen. My cousins, Kristine and Jennel, came along with us. We booked round trips ticket to Cebu and nothing else. We had no prior schedule for touring and no place to stay overnight. The plan was this: on Thursday evening we had a flight out Kalibo for a layover and then another flight to Cebu city. Our flight to Cebu was at 12pm. At 1am on Friday, we spontaneously decided to take a detour. We made plans to go to Boracay. So we went. We woke up after two hours of sleep, threw on our swimsuits, and headed to Caticlan (the top of the island) at 4am to take a boat to Boracay Island (ask me the details about what happened during this morning, and maybe, I’ll tell you the crazy parts).

After seeing it with my own eyes, I now understand the allure of Boracay. The palm trees, the seating and umbrella arrangements, and the shops and restaurants, they are all by the ocean. Since we arrived right after sunrise it wasn't as packed as I initially expected it to be. Our Boracay detour had us moving on our feet the entire time to catch our flight to Cebu at 12pm. After an early and crazy morning, we made it.

Fast forward to being in Cebu and taking a four hour bus ride southwest of the island to Moalboal, and we luckily find a place to stay for the weekend. We got lucky… very lucky. The place we hoped to stay at was fully booked so our tricycle driver took us to another building that had one available room. It had a backyard facing towards the ocean. We told our driver we wanted to tour Moalboal and he tells us that he knows someone with a boat and people to tour us. We made plans for him to take us the following morning.

Saturday: we woke up at 4:30am, put on our swimsuits, and then met our tricycle driver outside. He drove us to the dock where we met three young boys who would be taking us around for a tour. We headed towards our first stop- Pescador Island. As we sailed towards our destination, we saw dolphins swim by us. At Pescador Island, we swam with fishes. SO. MANY. FISHES. They surrounded you everywhere. I felt like I was in a fish tank.

After swimming with fishes, we headed towards our next stop where we swam with sardines. Looking down from the boat, you think you see corals at first. However, once you get off the boat and dive into the ocean, you’re surrounded by sardines. SO. MANY. SARDINES. When everyone was busy taking photos, I would sink down into the water and just stay still to watch the sardines swim in a pack. Our tour guide captured this moment for me and I’m so grateful he did. 

The last stop for this tour was to swim with turtles. I chased after turtles! None of my aunts and cousins can swim so our tour guides took me for a wild swim to chase after turtles. I’m not going to lie- it was tiring. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to swim with turtles yet here I was, doing another activity on my bucket list. In Coron, I met Nemo and Dory. In Cebu, I met Crush. I know I’m making a lot of Finding Nemo references with all my island adventures, but what can I say? I love the ocean.

After this tour we went back to our room to rest a bit. For our next adventure, I put away my mermaid tail and used my feet, but that story is for my next post. Here are the photos from the beginning of our Cebu trip.

Coron Photo Diary: CYC Island, Twin Lagoon, & Maquinit Hot Spring


This is it. This is the last and final post of my Coron Photo Diary. After a full itinerary of island hopping and activities, we ended our Coron trip with three activities: visiting CYC Island, swimming at Twin Lagoon, and relaxing at Maquinit Hot Spring.

CYC Island

CYC Island is right by Banol Beach and as I described in my previous most, the water is breathtaking. The water so clear you can see the bottom of your body that's submerged in water. CYC Island stands for Coron Youth Club Beach because it is the island Coron's youth's fancies most since it has no entrance fee, or at least that's what our tour guide told us. When our boat docked, our tour guide allowed us 40 minutes of fun on the island. My uncles decided to stay by the boat while my aunts, mom, and I took a bunch of photos by the beach.


Twin Lagoon

There are two parts to Twin Lagoon. The outer lagoon where all the boats dock has turquoise water, while the inner lagoon is deep blue and can only be seen by either walking on a ladder, or choosing to swim or raft under a cave like barrier. When it is high tide, most people use the ladder to pass the cave or dive down. Fortunately during our visit, it was low tide, so we got to swim underneath the cave. The inner lagoon is surrounded by rocks and trees.When you're in the middle of the inner lagoon, once you look up and spin around, it can get overwhelming. The rocks are so high you feel trapped inside the lagoon. Just relax.

Before I talk more about swimming in Twin Lagoon, I want to talk about showers. Have you ever taken a shower at a house where the water is warm but someone uses the toilet or the sink then suddenly your shower goes from warm and cozy to being cold? I learned at my last job that it's because the thermostatic mixing valves has a fault or a plumber didn't do the piping correctly so showers sometimes goes from warm to cold when the same water pipe is shared for different parts of the house. Now remember that unusual change of water temperature while showering, but instead of it being in the shower, you're swimming in a pool the size of a football field where the water changed from warm to cold. Swimming through Twin Lagoon feels like that. Twin Lagoon is a mixture of fresh water and salt water, therefore, the change of water temperatures. When you are swimming in the inner lagoon, one moment you will be in cold water, but in a few seconds you'll be swimming in warm water. It's unusual. It's strange. It's a mixture of hot and cold (literally). It's mother nature showing us her beautiful doing and God giving us an opportunity to experience and witness His creation.


Maquinit Hot Spring

To end our Coron activities, we visited Maquinit Hot Spring. The walk from the entrance to the hot spring pool is welcoming. There are trees surrounding the area and picnic tables and benches are built for families to set their belongings. We got to the Maquinit Hot Spring around four pm. It was perfect for us since the sun was beginning to set we didn't have to endure the sun burning our faces at the same time as our bodies were in a pool of hot water.

Maquinit Hot Spring is rare because it's a natural hot spring that is made of saltwater. I suggest going into the hot spring slowly because it is very hot, and the bottom of the pool is covered in stones. Where the hot spring ends, the beach to the ocean begins There is a bridge that's connected so people can walk on the dock. While my family took pictures in the pool, I took the opportunity to walk along the dock. Unfortunately, the ocean water isn't so clean on this end of the island so they put up barriers to prohibit anyone from going into the water. I ended up going back for another dip in the hot pool and sweat a good amount before riding a tricycle back to our home for the weekend.


I know this post is a lengthy one, but it's also the last one. Thanks for keeping up with my Coron Photo Diary. Thank you for taking the time to read through them or look through the photos if that's all you wanted to see. If you decide to go to the Philippines, Coron is an island you must visit if you're here. It's stunning! I recommend you to see the places I talked about and see how beautiful they are in person. Thanks for reading!

"Veni, Vini, Amavi." 

Coron Photo Diary: B- Floating House & Banol Beach



I met Nemo and Dory!

Hi everyone,

I was initially going to release this post and the last post of my Coron Photo Diary last week, but I had to put it on hold because I had to pack a bag to backpack across another island (those stories will be written later this week so watch out for them). This is #3 of my Coron Photo Diary. Let me tell you what happened after Kayangan Lake (read about #2 of my Coron Photo Diary here).

After visiting my Kayangan Lake, we hopped back on the boat and sailed through the ocean. We stopped in the middle of the ocean, at a place called the B-Floating House, to snorkel once more. Under the house, I saw so many fishes I didn't want to come up for air. I now understand why people love scuba diving. You don't have to come up for air with an oxygen tank behind your back (but scuba diving is one activity I have yet to cross off my bucket list). At the B-Floating house, my uncles, aunts, and mom opted out of snorkeling. The tour guide led me around the coral reef. It was just me, the tour guide, and the deep blue sea. It was then and there I met Nemo and Dory. Pretty cool seeing things in real life that I once watched in a movie. "Fish are friends, not..."

After snorkeling, we headed towards Banol Beach. I had no idea how Banol Beach looked liked prior to coming here, but let me be one to tell you that there are places that have white beaches and crystal clear blue water, and Banol beach is one of them. With a growling stomach, I had to put my hunger on a really quick hold so I could stand in the water and take it all in. Words can't even describe how gorgeous this place is and pictures definitely don't do it justice, so I'll let you see it for yourself.


 
 

Banol Beach


I know I've been posting a lot of underwater photos. Are you tired of them yet? Ha. I have so many photos and you're only getting a handful of them. Banol Beach is a sight for sore eyes. I couldn't stop looking around. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to stay there very long. It was only a pit stop for lunch so people aren't allowed to wander off for very long.

What I appreciate most about this tour is how cautious all the tour guides were. They want to preserve Coron's culture so you see everything in it's natural habitat and the indigenous people who live there in their true setting. Untouched. Natural. Beautiful.

"Every time I stand before a beautiful beach, its waves seem to whisper to me: If you choose the simple things and find joy in nature's simple treasures, life and living need not be so hard."

 
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