Day 5: Spiders and Nemos!

This morning started with Aaron telling me I had to get up and come look at the huge spider in his bathroom! What a way to wake up!

He wasn't kidding! That thing was huge and we now know why this place is called "Spider House!" Aaron said if he saw that thing in his room he'd probably flail himself to death! Sadly I don't doubt that! Haha

After the spider fiasco, we ordered some breakfast and spent the morning and afternoon swimming out in front of our place! The water was warmer today than the past couple days, and felt a bit like a bath!

This is the BEST way to sunbathe!

We snorkeled a little....

...and were getting into some deeper darker waters! I always like to grab Aaron's hand and swim alongside him, just in case a fish tries to get me! As we were swimming I heard him yell through his snorkel mask, "Eel! Eel!" pointing right under me! I flailed all around, terrified I'd be bit by the scary creature! Come to find out he was saying, "Nemo! Nemo!"   Aaahhhhh....

We played on the boat, as usual!  But, today, Aaron decided to give me a show and do some tricks!

The swan dive / aka: belly flop!

Love this guy!

Aaron snapped this photo of me sitting on the boat from his room!

All that snorkeling really took it out of me, so I crashed for a little afternoon nap in my room!

The sunset was gorgeous tonight so the Spider House bar and restaurant were packed with 20 somethings!

There was nowhere to sit at the restaurant downstairs, so we decided to take a walk over to White Beach (40 mins) along the beach for dinner.  We found a delicious Mexican restaurant on the sand!  (Sorry, we didn't bring the camera!)  After dinner, we shared some of our leftovers with a stray kitten who was hanging around our table.  She seemed nice, so I gently picked her up and set her on my lap!  She quickly settled in and slept there while I pet her and chatted with Aaron!  I love moments like that and REALLY miss having an animal around the house! 

We did a bit of shopping and walking around and ordered some coffee before heading back and calling it a night!  Another fantastic day!

Day 4: Pukas, swimming, food, and fun!

Apparently we lucked out with the weather, because the last 5 days before we arrived in Boracay it was stormy!  Not today though!  We had blue skies and gorgeous palm trees above!

We had some breakfast on the deck and then took a tuk tuk to Puka Beach on the far north end of the island!  It's was named after its "large amount of Puka shells" but apparently it was named a long time ago, because about 99.9% of them have been collected over the years! 
We walked the whole beach (which is really long) and only found one Puka!

Call me a baby, but I'm not a fan of swimming at beaches with big waves,
so I sat this one out and got comfy on the white sand instead!

Aaron came back and woke me up to show me this heart coral he had found for my shell collection.  :)

While there weren't many shells to be found on the shoreline, there were plenty for sale at the beachside shops... that is, if painted shells are your style!

After hanging at Puka beach for a couple hours, we decided to head back to Spider House for some lunch.  We walked about 10 minutes, through the beachside town, before hailing a tuk tuk. 
I found these schmooches along our walk. :)

Look, a Jesus tuk tuk for hire!

Our place is a bit secluded, so the tuk tuk drops us off at the beach and we have to walk about 5 minutes along the shore, through this cave, and up some hillside stairs before making it there! 

I love this about Spider House!

Today's lunch choice was vegetable spring rolls and a diet coke!  YUM!

We layed out on the deck for a while and Aaron read from his kindle while I read from my good old fashioned book!  Remember those?

After our lunch settled in our tummies and our eyes needed a break from reading, we jumped off the deck and did some swimming!  Spider House is there in the background!

Spider House owns their own sailboat, which is docked about 100 feet off the shoreline.  We like to hang onto the side and do flips from the rails!

BTW: This is the bathing suit I bought in North Carolina when DELTA lost my bags! 

Thanks for the new suit Delta!

After the sun went down, we took a tuk tuk over to White Beach for dinner. 

We literally walked from one side, all the way to the other, in search of some fresh seafood!

We landed here at this beachside restraurant where Aaron hand selected 2 prawns and a red snapper!  I don't know much about chosing fish, so I always leave this to him!

... and these two boys cooked it up for us!

The place was on the sand with soft cushiony pillows to lay on, which we thought was perfect... but then the music got cranked up (higher than the speakers wanted to play it), we waited almost an hour for our food to come out and it was so dark we couldn't see what we were eating! 

Have you ever tried de-boning a small fish in the dark?
 Well, I'm a bit of a pro at de-boning fish after living in Korea and being served whole fish on a regular basis, but last night wasn't pretty!  I was spitting out bones right and left! 

We made the best of it, as we usually do, laughing it off and calling it a lesson learned!

We walked the beach for a bit and came across this fire dancing show!  They were amazing and had drawn in a nice little crowd.  I'm pretty sure every one of them was a ladyboy...

(except the guy actually dressed like a guy in the front row)!

 We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back to Diniwid beach.  The tuk tuk drops us off around here and Spider House is on the far left of this picture!  It's such a gorgeous and romantic walk back home everynight!

Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be filled with good food, lots of relaxation, swimming, and fun!

Day 3: Long walks on the beach!

Aaron woke up early, while I stayed in bed until 9:30am!  Ahhhh, the joys of being able to sleep in!  When I woke up, I walked out to my balcony to see this... (my attempt at a panorama... in 4 pics)

Aaron and I both headed down to the restaurant deck for some breakfast!

There's nothing better, in my mind, than a huge plate of fruit!  YUM!!

After breakfast, we threw on our bathing suits, packed a little bag and walked down Diniwid Beach over to White Beach.  (This picture is of Diniwid Beach and our resort is at the far end of that peninsula!)  The end of White Beach is about a 10-15 minute walk from Spider House.  We walked from our place to the middle of White Beach (about an hour long walk!)

When we got to the center of White Beach we did some shopping (I bought $4 sunglasses and Aaron bought 2 pairs of $6 boardshorts), ate lunch on the beach, and swam in the clear turquoise waters!  (Sorry no pictures... we'll be back there sometime soon and will take some!)   We spent most of the afternoon at White Beach, then took a tuk tuk back over to our resort!  We dropped our bag and walked the path back over to Diniwid Beach, eased into the water (it's a little cold) and snorkeled over to our place!  There are not a lot of fish here, but the ones that swim around our resort are gorgeous... mostly yellow and black stripped like these Moorish Idol fish...

When we got back to Spider House, we met some really nice guys from Holland, Denmark, Lichtenstein, and Germany and spent most of the early evening hanging with them on the deck!  I love being able to meet people from all over the world when traveling! :)

We took another walk down the beach after the sun had gone down and attempted to take some night photos of the area.  It's gorgeous here at all times... morning, noon, and night!  We're sitting on the deck now, overlooking the sparkly water, with soft reggae music in the background, waiting for our night snack - a big plate of fresh ruit for muah and some potato wedges for the guy! :) After snacktime, we're gonna watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy on my laptop and then call it a night!  I'd say it's the perfect way to end a great day!

Day 2: We made it to Boracay!!

Neither of us slept a wink on those cold airport tiles!  At 5:00am, we were up and ordering breakfast at Le Bisto before catching our morning flight! 

We had originally booked a 7:30am flight to Caticlan, but it got re-routed to Kalibo, which meant we would be taking a 2 hour shuttle from the airport in Kalibo to Caticlan to catch the boat to Boracay. We were a little annoyed about our re-routing at first, but then ended up really enjoying the drive!

I swear we walk up and down the stairs of airplanes outside 75% more than we walk straight onto and off the plane from the airport!  Here we are with the front of our plane!

Driving from Kalibo to Caticlan... in the front seat! :)

 

We made it to Caticlan and paid a couple dollars for the ferry across to Boracay Island... then paid about $3.00 to ride a tuk tuk to the other side of the island to our resort/ guest house!

 

YAY, yay yay!!  We finally made it to Spider House!

 

This is an actual home that was converted into a guesthouse a couple years ago!   There are bamboo shaped spiderwebs all over!  I'm hoping not to have any run ins with spiders! :)

We each checked into our room!  Mine is up these pink steps and to the left!  It's RIGHT above the restaurant and bar, so I hear lots of music and conv all day, which I love!

 

Oh, and did I mention that my room's balcony looks out to the water!  As you can see, Aaron's a fan and was already making himself comfy out there!

And THIS IS MY VIEW!!!  (No photoshop needed!)  I know, right?!

We were both exhausted, so we ordered some lunch, hung out in the restaurant for a little bit, and then both went to sleep around 4:30pm!   I woke back up around 7pm or so, flipped on the lights and stood out on my balcony for a bit, enjoying the ocean breeze, starry sky and ocean water below!  I'm telling you... this place is about as magical as it gets! 

 

With that said, I'll have 11 more nights to enjoy it's magic in full... but for today, this girl is calling it a night now, at 8:00pm!  haha...

 

Goodnight from Paradise!

Lov, Jill

Day 1: Up, up and away!

As per our airport tradition, I leave you with the infamous "ticket photo!"

We flew on Asiana, our favorite airline, from Busan straight to Manila!  We were given hot towels, earplugs, headphones, sleeping masks, dinner (at 9:30pm!), drinks, and overall excellent service!  It was a great start to our trip!

.... and then we arrived in Manila and had 7 hours to waste before our flight to Caticlan!  We decided not to mess with leaving the airport and finding an overpriced hotel to sleep in for 5 hours and opted to sleep here, in this little cubby hole area of the check-in-ticket-counter area!  Not our best decision!  We were dressed for the warm Philippine sunshine, but were sleeping on freezing cold tiles in an air conditioned airport!   Good thing we "borrowed" the airline blankets.... Lesson learned! 



Tomorrow we'll be in Boracay, and will have 12 days to catch up on our sleep! :)