Boracay Island, Philippines - February 12

Low 30s, humid, breezy

It seems like forever since we’ve had to set the alarm on the boat – I guess it has been.

This morning we are anchored off of Boracay Island in the Philippines. This is a super touristy place with high end to budget hotels, endless bars, restaurants and shops and tons of water activities. Water activities is on our agenda for the day.

Our excursion for the day takes us by boat to 2 snorkelling spots and 2 beaches. I was iffy on the snorkeling and in the end didn’t. Chris got in and said there wasn’t much to see, so I didn’t bother. I hate to commit to getting wet for no reason!! It was fun just watching him swim around from the dryness of the 

boat. 

Next we stopped at a small beach for about 20 minutes. Apparently the boats don’t actually make it all the way to the beach, so we had to wade in. This would have been fine had I realized BEFORE I was headed for the water and couldn’t turn back. I was carrying a bag and wearing shoes AND clothes!! The shoes (just flip-flops) came off in a hurry, I held the bag above my head and my skirt got wet  – I tried hiking the skirt, but no luck. I expected to get wet today, but just not RIGHT THEN! The water was only waist deep and was totally no big deal, but it was just unexpected.

Our last stop was where a ton of action was…bars, shops, restaurants, hotels. There was even a TGI Fridays, a Starbucks and a McDonald's. I’m never looking for a taste of North America on vacation, but I always like to check out prices of items I’m familiar with…a Starbucks latte was about the same price as I’d pay at home.  Other than the occasional KFC and even less occasional McDonald’s, I don’t think we’ve seen any of these types of places on this trip at all.

After wandering around a bit we exchanged 20.00 and sat for a beer and some snacks. Although it was just after noon, we hit happy hour (half price beer) which put each of them at about $1.30 – a latte for 5.00, but a beer for 1.30!! The place we stopped at was right in the middle of the action and right on the beach - beautiful.

We took the boat back to the pier where we were to meet the tender and get back to the ship. We hoped to be able to sit for another beer, but after wandering for a bit, realized we were out of luck.