Malapascua

It was hard to do... but we did finally left Boracay. To ease the pain we went to another great spot ~ Malapascua. A small island north of Cebu island. We came here with one goal... to do some more diving and more than anything get view of the incredibly rare/elusive Thresher shark that can really only be found in one other spot in the world.

To start things off though I thought I would try my hand a tree climbing and see if I could get my hands on a coconut.Made it to the top... but could get those bloody coconuts to break loose. They're really one there until they're ripe and ready to eat
One of our dive boats... the dive company we selected had a couple, but they were both identical. A really nice/comfortable boat to dive off of.
Jillene enjoying a REALLY BIG beer...
One of the many dive sites we visited...
Our second day saw some cloudy weather and a bit of rain... but it was still plenty hot out and we still got in 3 dives.
AND SUCCESS! It took until the very last day ~ the morning we were going to leave actually, but we finally saw a Thresher. This guy was pretty big, and apparently their tails are equal to their body length. This one was about 6-7ft long, and thus had a tail of equal length. So cool to see. Again as usual (we've been plagued with terrible visibility on this trip so far), so the picture sucks, but trust me it was cool down there when this thing swims right by you. You pretty much have to run into them to seem them vis was so bad, but this guy passed by us nearly a dozen times on our last dive, so he was good and close! Pretty much rubbed against Jillene! :)
Sadly we had to leave Malapascua, as all good things must come to an end... We're in Cebu at the moment but tomorrow we fly to Legaspi where we'll head to Donsol in search of Whale Sharks! Then once we've knocked those creatures off the list we're heading to Pili and will check out a wakeboard park! Can hardly wait...

Boracay

After north Pandan we rewarded ourselves with some time at Boracay. This is easily the larges tourist destination in the Philippines. It would be equivalent to Phuket in Thailand, except it is manage ten times better. Despite being a tourist trap, it actually has plenty to offer, still is backpacker friendly, and was a really great place that I think I could safely say we all really loved ~ I fully expected my personal feelings to have gone the other direction.

It's easy to see why all the development. Without a doubt, it's a beautiful beach...A day at the beach...
Going for a walk... in search of food I have little doubt!
HEY GUNNAR... THIS RED HORSE IS FOR YOU! :)
Clearly after a few too many... not sure the full story behind it, but Jillene apparently gave Mouck a bit of a sand face wash...
The next day... and the main reason for coming to Boracay, Kite boarding! Mouck and I spent an afternoon in the water getting trained to handle a kite, then getting the kite to drag is in the water. Finally putting it all together with a wake board of sorts, and boarding... a truly challenging sport, but a freaking fun one!
My instructor launching a training kite...
Me at the end with a bigger kite and a board...
And the second best thing about Boracay (after kite boarding), the food! Thanks to some advice of travellers we met along the way, we visited a local fish market where you could purchase pretty much any kind of sea food you wanted (for unreal low prices), and then take it to a nearby restaurant and have them prepare it for you for just a few dollars... We went a bit seafood crazy here! Below was a great dish of Chili crab...
And a plate of over 1kg of jumbo prawns prepared in Mango sauce as recommended by the restaurant, a very good suggestion! So good...
Pure enjoyment...
Trying on some hats, we are soooo cool.
Another tough day at the beach...
And then another dinner... having a look at the seafood.
We decided on some scallops...
Some sweet and sour Lapu Lapu... we also did some steamed lemon grass Lapu Lapu, but it was so good we didn't have time to take a picture before it was all eaten!
Sizzling squid...
Yeah, we were really roughing it in Boracay. I could have spent our entire 2 months in the Philippines there, kite boarding during the day and eating seafood at a night. Just too good, a great place I really would recommend to anyone.

North Pandad Island & Apo Reef

After 6 days it was time to leave PG, and we were off to do what we'd heard was some great diving. Tough to get to we were told, but hopefully worth it. First we needed to charter a boat to get around the corner of Mindoro, because there were no roads...Then we needed to charter a couple motorbikes with side cars (tricycles they call them here). This is Mouck and Lynn in front of us with their bags tied to the back. We had to go 45km to the next town where we needed to catch a 3hrs bus to another town, Samblayan...
And once we reached Samblayan, we needed to charter yet another boat to take us out to North Pandan Island (below). This is where we would stay... however we were here to dive Apo National Reef, another small island that you can't stay on, but is another further 2 hours away by boat...

Now North Pandan is a privately owned island with only 1 resort. There is no fresh water (except drinking water that is brought over from the mainland), and only 12v power provided by batteries at night that are recharged by solar panels during the day...
Sunset on North Pandan Island...
The beach...
Jillene and Lynn on the pathway from our little Bungalow leading to the restaurant and dive shop.
The patio of our little 2 room bungalow.
From a distance...
You can barely see us, but this is Jillene taking a picture of Mouck and I as we took off to do some snorkeling at the north side of the Island. There was some great coral right off the beach...
And this was Apo Nations Reef, or the island where above ground anyway. We did 3 dives that day, and we saw lots of big fish, sharks, and I saw my first hammer head shark. It certainly is a great dive site, however visibility really wasn't that great. If the visibility was better, the dives wouldn't have been just 'really good', they would have been 'bloody fantastic'. I would love to come back one day and try again with 30m visibility. Unfortunately because the vis was so bad, you just can't take any decent pictures. Not enough light gets down there to allow for a decent photo...
We had an interesting ride to Apo, and an even more interesting ride back. We saw dolphins on the way back that we played with for about 30mins, but the highlight was a massive storm/waves that we encountered. Those who got sea sick may not have enjoyed it, however the rest of us had some fun. Getting soaked and riding on bow that was bouncing with the waves and occasionally getting submerged under the huge swekks... I should have taken a video!

Puerta Guilera

Enough of the 'non-beach' activities... that's not why we came to the Philippines, land of 8000 islands... We left Banaue by bus back to Manila, and 2 hours later were on our way to Puerta Guilera where we wanted to give our 'dive' on... Mouck and Lynn were keen to get their Open Water and we figured with would be the place to do it. In the end I think we made the right decision. Below is the 'floating bar' that greeted us, and where we did spend some time! Mouck and Lynn in the pool with their super cool 70 year old Dive instructor. Bob was about 95% deaf, had a bad case of Parkinsons, but that didn't stop him. He was a true character, made our stay in PG all the more interesting, and has made a great life for himself there.
Dinner on the BBQ!
My BBQ squid that they actually stuffed full of veggies...
Some jumbo prawns...
And a fish, I can't remember what kinds this one was...
The group suffering through it all...
The view from our dive shop...
Down the beach...
Jillene getting ready to join Mouck and Lynn on their first 'fun dive' after completing their Open Water.
Mouck and Lynn with crazy ol' Bob...
Lynn under the water... needless to say you can tell here that Lynn isn't yet fully comfortable under the water. Still a bit nervous, she chooses to dive in the 'attack position'. She's ready to strike/box any fish that gets out of line. I just kept my distance... :)
Jillene apparently forgot that we needed to swim and chose the less common method of running under water...
An afternoon at the floating bar. Jumping off the top of the bar into the water. Mouck taught me this move... a 'peanut' apparently it's called!
FOOT LONG... WHO WANTS A FOOT LONG?

Baguio, Bontoc, Banaue, & Batad

So we had to unfortunately leave the beach... but there were some sights in North Luzon that we wanted to take in. This meant a little bit of bus travel over some interesting roads into the mountains, but it ended up being worth while in the end.

Below is Baguio, a town we needed to transit through to catch a bus up to Bontoc. This picture does little justice, but we were pretty impressed with the number of homes built in the hills, as seen below.


A few kids having a good time with an old tire which offered a photo opportunity during a bus break...
Our limo/bus...
Just an interesting sign... they must have been having a problem!
Had to spend the night in Bontoc, and this was the interesting bed we were stuck with. Please note that my head is rested on the wall, and my feet our on the wall on the other side. There wasn't anywhere near 6' of length on the bed. Not a problem for the Filipinos, however not too comfortable for myself. Needless to say I wasn't able to stretch out, and didn't get a ton of sleep that night!
A view up the hill, and of our hotel in Banaue. This was our ultimate destination and reason for coming up north. We were in search of the famed rice terraces that were a 'must see' in any visit to North Luzon...
A traditional home for the villagers whom live and work in the rice terraces... Basically small thatch hut on stilts, with a good sized roof!
A little journey we took ourselves on throughout the rice terraces of Banaue... without the recommended guide! Needless to say we got a bit lost, but the locals were very helpful when it came to steering us in the right direction whenever we needed their assistance.
Some pretty lush vegetation... I don't think there would be anything you couldn't grow here. it was pretty humid.
And now we're on our way to Batad... the king of all rice terraces that are over 2000 years old. But just along the way there are a few photo opportunities.
Please take note of the town within the rice terraces of Batad... it will give you a bit of scope/scale to how huge they really are (as seen in the picture behind Jillene and I). No wonder they're 2000 years old, to build all of his by hand you would think it would take 2000 years!
The Batad rice terraces, pretty impressive stuff...
Walking along the terraces... just a 18" pathway at most, and a 8-12ft drop off just to your side... You wouldn't hurt yourself though, just get a little wet/muddy in the rice paddies!

Another view, from a different angle. No matter how you take the picture, I don't think you could do it any justice.
Some kids playing in the mud, happy as could be...
We walked down into the Batad ride terraces, around the hill, and were treated to a nice little waterfall. Mouck and I went for a swim in the pool, and climbed on the rocks behind the falls... it was pretty crazy!
Mouck not missing any opportunity to get into a photo... :)