Philippines - Fun Boracay + cliff diving + crazy category 1 typhoon!

We flew on Airasia to Caticlan airport the closest airport to Boracay. Boracay is a small island south east of Manila. 


The island is kinda far, however the airline was selling a full transportation service that included: Transportation from the airport to the port, boat from the port to boracay island and also a taxi ride from the port to the hotel. It was worth every penny!


We stayed in a really local and small hotel with a big name "Seabird International Resort and country club" haha, nothing like the name but the location was great, only few meters away from the beach. 


Boracay is a really cool beach town full of restaurants that offer cuisine from all over the world and tons of little beach bars and shops.



The beach has completely white and powdery sand.
(We paid some kids to make a full birthday sand sculpture for my dad's birthday)



The water is really clear and shallow and the sunset is espectacular! 



Also, if you walk just a little bit into the town, you can find local houses, schools..

And of course basketball courts! 

These guys were extra happy to have David play with them for a bit!

We really relaxed in Boracay as there were also tons of very inexpensive massage places too!! After that people wanted to get a pictures with David, just like in any other Asian country! Haha

Ha! I thought About leaving David here, so I could do some extra shopping! (Husband day care center)



Of course, we got to see the surroundings as we decided to take a day tour to "Ariel's Point". 


This place, only 30 minutes away by boat, has cliff diving, paddling, kayaking, snorkeling, BBQ buffet lunch, snacks and... unlimited Drinks!! (Including beer and mixed drinks!) 


You might be thinking - the combination of  Cliff diving + unlimited drinks = Dangerous FUN! Ha!

There were 3 different spots to jump from; 3 meters, 8 meters and 15 meters high!


I jumped from the 3 and 8 mts ...David of course,  jumped from the 15 meters high multiple times!!


It was in fact a really good time, meeting people from all over the world with great attitudes, eating, drinking and just having fun!


Everything was good and fun in Boracay until the time to leave arrived. Our plan was to leave Boracay to Manila, to then catch our flight from Manila to Honolulu, Hawaii at 11 PM that same day.

Well, there was a typhoon category 1 the night before we left Boracay so that make it pretty crazy to be leave the island. 


First we had to take a ride to the port. The port was packed! As no boats could leave because the tide was too low, so they couldn't even dock. We had to wait for few hours there, all the sudden people started going to a different port in the island, where boats were able to leave. 


Everybody was trying to get on a boat, it was nuts! Thankfully David paid one of the guys to get our bags on a boat, so we had an excuse to get into one! (I have an smart husband)


By the time we arrived to the airport, we had already missed our flight. As expected, all other flights were being cancelled. Well, there was a flight to Manila at 4 pm, BUT from an airport 2 hours away! Again, everyone was trying to get a seat on that flight. We managed to get 2 and jumped in a van to get to the far away airport (kalibu) that was going to get us to Manila!

Funny picture - no bomb jokes or 5 years in jail! Ha!

We finally got to Manila terminal 4 around 8 pm. Well, as you might remember, Manila airport doesn't have internal transportation between terminals, so we had to get out, to find a taxi to get to Terminal 1.

There was a line of about 100 people to get a taxi! (Again we had to offer a little bit of more money and walk far from the line to get one) 

The Typhoon had also affected Manila that day, so some streets were completely flooded and it was still raining pretty hard!  the traffic was unreal!

We were stuck in traffic, it was already 9:30 pm, we started contemplating the option of walking there as the driver told us that we were about 1.5 miles away.. So ... We did! 


Got off, David put the big bag on his shoulder and we started crossing the "river" ahead! 

The water height was over my knees! We were not able to walk fast, my sandal broke and I was a mess!  All the sudden, 4 kids (little angels with no shoes and dirty clothes) showed up on a metal cart tied to the side of a bikecycle! They offered to help us. We thew the bags on the cart, I jumped on the cart too while David and the kids pushed the cart. 

(Not our picture, but exactly how it looked like)

People in the cars, buses and the street started chearing for us!! Like it was something super cool!

After crossing the 3 flooded blocks, we had to jump into a tricycle taxi as we were still a bit far! David was getting ready to run as just the bags and I would fit in there haha! (My Athletic husband) thankfully he jumped on the back of the bike with the driver and we left! 


YES! We made it!! We fInally arrived to the terminal which doesn't allow tricycles, so we had to run to the entrance and there it was...  the United check-in counter willing to check us in even though it was about 30 mins before departure!


It was another amazing race!! We couldn't believe what we had done that day as we were socked sitting on our airplane seats!! All we could think of was HOW GREATFULL WE WERE for every single person that helped us out! And how happy we were to go to Hawaii!!

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