Day 2: SEAIR and Microtel’s Boracay Bloggers’ Tour 2010

Holy Rosary Parish in Boracay

I woke up at around 7:30AM to attend the 8AM mass. (What!?Hurry up!Blame it on the chiropractic bed. I had a very good sleep.) Sir Leo even knocked at my room. I freshened up and quickly proceed to the shuttle. Only five of us were able to make it. Some preferred to have their early breakfast and enjoyed the beach while some was still enjoying their sleep. The mass was celebrated in their dialect, while the homily is in taglish so that everybody can understand. It’s nice to know that tourists are not forgetting their religious obligations even during their vacation. After the mass, of course we had again our picture taken outside the Holy Rosary Parish. I even saw a statue of our national hero and a “Be Honest” sign.

Buggies and ATV rockin’ the road…

On our way to the hotel, I’ve seen a line of ATV/Bug car rockin the road. How I wish to ride one. When? That I don’t know. Then we took our American breakfast at Mama’s Fish House. I ready myself for the next adventure. We went to Fish Bar in D’ Mall for our lunch (and “food pictorial”!??). The food was great. I don’t know how they call some of those, but I love the garlic rice with dark violet sauce around. It’s a squid for sure. Burger and fries were also served.

Fish Bar!!!

After lunch, the group were separated into two. It was Gael, Mica, Ed and I in the group and the others went island hopping. They also spent the time buying some pasalubong. It was raining that time so I opted not to go with island hopping and Gael greatly influenced me to do reefwalking. I find it very interesting though for I havent tried any underwater activities before. Mica didn’t join us for she already tried that. She decided to walk around the station. The two were the ones negotiating for the reefwalk. After haggling, yeah! this is it! We rode the speed boat and went to the reefwalking site. I was nervous a bit because of the man who experienced something bad under water. He complained that his ear was aching. While waiting for our turn, Ed decided to dive and swim. Gael and I were both envious so we asked for a lifevest then swim too..wootwooo!

Came our turn, they gave us some intructions and hand signals to be used when underwater. According to the instructor, the helmet is about 24 kgs, but underwater it will only weigh 2-3kgs. I was worried what if the water goes inside my helmet, but it will never happen because of the air pressure connected in our helmet. They assured us of our safety because there are 2 divers to assist us. I enjoyed the experience a lot. I felt like an astronaut submerged under water for bouyancy or weightlessness test. I ran, jumped around. We played with the fishes and fed them. I was able to touch a clownfish swimming in anemones. Anemone serves as the clownfish home. Lucky me, I wasnt get stung by anemone’s tentacles. I forgot about it. I enjoyed every moment under water. We had our pictures and videos taken for souvenier.

Reefwalking with Gael and Edcel

After the exciting activity, we looked for Mica who was in Jony’s that time. Ed proceeded but Gael and I decided to swim first. We were always left behind because we always took pictures or stopped whenever we see something interesting (ending? lagi kaming iwan at naghahanap kung nasan na sila.lol). We found them at Jony’s. The store is fronting the white beach and famous for some delighful fruit shakes. I found out that the shake is quite expensive when take out or when you sit in the bench they provided near the shore. We ordered different flavors, then compared each one by tasting every shake we ordered. Share! Share! They loved avocado, I liked mango!

Semplang! Photo courtesy of Gael, thepinaysolobackpacker.com

Leogen and the Korean skim boarder

After resting a lil bit, I saw a kid sandboarding! Skimboarding pala!haha! A cheap sport that is very popular along the white sand. Thanks Gael for correcting me. I asked the kid if I can borrow it but he said it’s for rent. P150/hour. Edcel to the rescue. He haggled for a lower price. Ed is really good in haggling or he just abused the kid’s innocence? =)Na-pressure ata si bata and he gave it for only 50 or 75php. Ed is good, I stumbled. I tried again, I failed. Its fun and easy to learn? but takes time and practice to master. I wasnt able to perfect the right position though, but I had a great time together with my trainor and the owner of the skimboard, a 10-year-old kid, who was very kind and patient. His name is Leogen. Good thing Leogen saw his playmate with surfboard, he asked me to look after his board for a moment. Sure! why not. More time for me to practice my skimboarding skill?.=) How come I cant do what that Korean skimboarder is doing? I dont wanna quit, but I felt so tired already.

We had our pictures taken in the surfboard, but if sank loading the 5 of us.=). We decided to swim and play. Sand throwing this time (ok, lets name it, Sand War!). We’re like kids playing in the beach while raining. And we had so much fun. Then Haagen Dazs incident, just ask Ed about it. We also did Mica’s pictorial and videoshoot? for the Haagen Dazs contest.

We went to the hotel to freshen up and rest. I watched TV, then waited at the lobby. I prepared a coffee and went online. (Microtel is providing free wifi and coffee.). At that moment, I just realized I’m so lucky for being part of this bloggers’ tour. I called my friends in Manila and shared what’s happening.

Bloggers @ Zuzuni, Boracay

Its dinner time at Zuzuni. The place has a nice interior. A good ambience where you can see a lot of reflection, literally! because there are mirrors around you. We had the chance to meet and talk to the manager, Ms. Aileen. She talked about the food that they served us. And again, its food pictorial. Its my first time to taste that Greek specialties. When I heard the word greek, God in those mythology popped out my head. If taking so much of chocolate sin is a sin, then I am willing to be with Heides of Hell as long as there are more chocolate sin.

Zuzuni’s famous “chocolate sin”

Guess the “Travel Henyo” word!

After the dinner, the second part of the game continued. The game required our mental skills, t’was called “Travel Henyo”, the bloggers version of that famous TV game show. Of course, we won by 3-1, plus the last game’s points 1-2. And we were hailed as the overall champion. After the exciting game, we had our group picture taken. Party time. tgsh! tgsh! tgsh!

We were again separated into two groups, Van, Gracee, Gervic and Brenna went bar hopping. While the four of us were encouraged to go to Sand Bar by Bamboo Lounge, famous for their amazing firedancers. They never failed to throw a great show. Firedance is truely engaging and luckily I had the chance to try it (sample!sample!sample!). I had so much fun.

The Treasure Tracker “firedancing” in Sand Bar by Bamboo Lounge in Boracay

“new career?” No! Im just having fun…

the treasure tracker with the star firedancer, Carla

We had the chance to meet some of the firedancers. Carla, the most gracious and jolly (the star firedancer) joined us after their show and he (she?) told her interesting life story. We also met Gael’s apple of the eye, Roland. We also crossed elbows with other guests like Geli, Jenny, Arnie and James.After the Sand bar experience, we moved on to the Guillys Island as a big group, the bloggers, the firedancers and the new found friends.

Party!Party!

Indeed, it was a crazy and fun night. We arrived at the hotel at around 3AM. We decided not to sleep to enjoy the night. Gervic and I went online at the the lobby, had a chance to talk, but we were all dead tired so we head off to their room where I saw Ed and others sleeping. I fell asleep too. Bloggers slept in one room. Sweet!

Thanks to our Boracay party peeps Arnie, Geli, James and Jenny for the “PARTY!PARTY! photo, Thank you also to Mica and Edcel for some pics used in this post