On to Boracay

Tuesday, Dec 30
Our morning began early with my last breakfast of beef tapa from Tio Coco's.  I savored it, enjoying to down to the very last bite.  We did some more scrambling after learning that while they say 7kg is all you can have in your carry on, they don't weigh the carry-ons, nor do they really count them strictly.  So, we rearranged, took out part of our suitcases and put them in the carry ons.  We said sad goodbyes to the family and the Legaspi Suites and family home (a great place to stay in Davao).

The airport was not very busy, so they checked our luggage through, we got our tickets, and boarded our plane, all without anyone ever checking our passports or ID.  We did have some extra time before hand where we explored the food stands.  There was an ube flavored wafer cookie that was so thin but so delicious.  We bought barquiron, which is similar to what we call pirouette cookies (the straw like cookies) but these have a sweet powdery substance - like found up cookie, in the middle of each tube.  They came individually wrapped and so pretty.  I bought something similar to corn nuts, but I was really looking for another one called chichacorn.  I had them at Legaspi, and they were so good.  Small, crunchy, and flavorful.  I like eating small crunchy things because it feeds my addiction to chewing on things (like instead of my nails or gum).

Our flight to Manila was very uneventful and we arrived with plenty of time for Chris to try to arrange our flights to Palawan (another area of the Philippines that we keep hearing is so nice).  We decided to use our free tickets to fly there.  I'm excited to go, but hate the thought of yet two more flights.

As everything else, our arrangements took quite a while in the ticketing office in the airport, even though they were nice and professional.  We met his parents at the Shakey's inside the terminal (this is a very nice terminal - very new) and scarfed down some fried chicken and potato slices, before hurrying to our gate, thinking they might already be boarding.  We found it, and sat down to wait.  It was very full and before long we heard an announcement that the flight was delayed.  We relaxed a bit, and eventually heard that it was raining in Kalibo (our next airport) and was flooded, so they had to wait.  And we waited about three more hours.  In the meantime, we walked around upstairs, but most of the food places were closing at 6pm.  I found a drink called a Schlurp - caramel milk tea with coffee jelly in it.  I love it freshly made, so I decided to try this and it was so good!  A new favorite, but I couldn't figure out where it was made.  We sat eating and trying different things.  Chris' dad bought a "puto" (which in Mexican Spanish is a bad word, so it's not that) which is like a rice based cupcake.  I tried a pandan flavored, which was good.  They were so pretty in their box between the purple (ube), green (panda), and golden (original).

Finally, our gate changed, and we boarded our plane.  The flight was short - less than an hour, but bumpy and noisy.  The seats were not together, either.  I get nervous flying, and this flight I was the most nervous on yet.  Luckily, we landed safely, but the runway had a lot of water, so we walked through a few inches of water to get into the tiny baggage claim area (this is one where you get off the plane on metal steps they bring out to the plane and you walk across.  It was raining, so we hurried inside the one belted baggage claim area.  I noticed while waiting that there were lizards all along the tops of the walls waiting to eat some prey.  Good, they keep away the bugs.  Along the wall was all sorts of tables with transportation options to Boracay. It was very busy, and after we enquired, we discovered they were sold out.

The choice was to go outside and see about getting a van out there.  It was raining on and off, but there was a lot of activity and chaos out there.  We finally arranged to get on a van that was already filling up.  They threw in our bags, and Chris and I sat in the front.  We thought this was a very short ride, so I didn't worry much about the lack of seat belts.  This was not a short ride, nor did it feel a very safe ride.  We drove over an hour sometimes straight through a town, sometimes winding around curvy roads.  We swerved around tricycles or motorcycles, passed jeepneys and busses.  I saw too many signs telling drivers to slow down, or please slow down, or accident prone road.  All the while, our driver had no idea what speed he was going because the speedometer didn't work, and he would take phone calls or looks at texts.  Stray dogs ran along the side of the road, people would be out walking or talking.  I was so wishing I had a seat belt as I imagined myself being catapulted through the window if he even had to put his brakes on somewhat, or tumbling around if we rolled on one of the curves.  The only good thing I can say about being in the front was that I didn't get car sick...I just  kept praying to make it there in one piece.

We made it to the ferry, which was crowded and crazy.  It was raining too.  We paid a terminal fee (everything seems to have terminal fees here), bought tickets and went into the waiting room.  This was the first place we've been to where I've seen a large variety of ethnicities, clearly tourists. Everyone talks about Boracay being the place to go to.  People crowded in (lines don't exist in the way we think of them usually, you need to just move forward and expect people to cut in if they can) trying to get on to a ferry.  We watched as a ferry boat came in, and I noticed it was small, crowded, and had a very small, narrow plank that was very steep.  I wondered how easy that would be in the rain with bags, on a rainy night.  The plank only had one side of a hand railing.  I was very worried about how my mother-in-law would get down that plank.

our tricycle ride

We saw another boat come in and ran toward it, hoping maybe we could get on there especially, because it looked like a much nicer boat and better ramp to walk down.  We moved over and began to ask, but it was all confusion and other people started to crowd over too.  We couldn't get a clear answer from the people there - they said they didn't know because they didn't know what tickets we held.  We didn't know what tickets we held, and had given them to the people as we entered.  A large group passed through (and others).  We gathered that this was not our ticket, although we were willing to pay more, but no one could give us an answer.  We moved back to the chairs, but to our relief within a few minutes they came and told us we could go on that boat.  We hurried down, boarded easily, left our luggage out side in a big pile with everyone else, and moved downstairs to some large rows in the back.  I was very concerned, since I easily get seasick, at being enclosed downstairs, but luckily it was a short trip and not too rocky.  We made it out of the boat on Boracay, but now we had to get to the hotel.  We really didn't know where we were and there were no taxis or jeepneys left.  We decided to take tricycles, so we loaded in three to each, with our bags.  Christine and I sat in front and Chris in back with the luggage.  It was fun to finally be using one of these in a not so busy crowded street, but I thought with all our luggage and body weight, we would make the tricycle more stable, but I noticed how the wheels slipped easily and the driver was being very cautious going down the hills and around corners.  I could tell he was concentrating closely - I'm sure the wet streets and puddles did not help matters.

We made it safely a few minutes later, unloaded our belongings and walked a few buildings down the beachfront to Alla Luna Hotel.  It looked nice enough from the outside, and was right on the beach but a clearly drunk man came up and offered Chris's sister help with her belongings....we didn't know who he was, and though he seemed harmless enough, she declined. While waiting, a very large cockroach crawled across the floor.

 They showed us to the room, which was filled with four beds.  At first inspection it seemed clean enough, but was certainly a let down after our nice accommodations in Davao.  The place really wasn't too bad (I've stayed in worse...a few times), but the material hanging up was mildewing looking and the beds had thin, uncomfortable mattresses.  At least the sheets were clean and we didn't see any bugs.  We dropped off our stuff and walked down to find some food at Andocks, a little fast food joint right on the beachfront.   I wasn't too hungry, since I had eaten one of my protein bars earlier, so I ordered only mais con yelo (corn with ice) thinking it might be refreshing and safer than the meat in this place.  I found a seat and noticed how many flies there were...I walked back to wash my hands, and the overwhelming smell of rotting trash made me feel more sick to my stomach.  I could no longer stay in the building (which had no enclosure on the front), so I sat out on the sand across the walkway until my dessert came out.  I had lost all my appetite by this time, took a few bites of the dessert, but didn't finish.

We walked back to the hotel and readied ourselves for bed.  We expressed our let down, since so far the day had been a bit of a trial and this place brought us no comfort or excitement for this leg of our trip, even though this was the famed Boracay, destination for world travelers of great beach and New Year's Eve celebrations.