Cast Away

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We’ve arrived in Manila and spent a night in a small hostel managed by older Japanese couple. The ride to the hostel was quite entertaining and getting there was an adventure in itself – we used public transportation jeep where you hop on/off whenever you want and share the ride with several other people – it was fun! The place we stayed at (Islas 8817 Guesthouse) was conveniently located close the to airport and was run by a nice Japanese couple who told us about good places to dive and snorkel.

On Saturday morning we flew to Busuanga Island to get some rest. The airport is located about 15 km away from Coron and it’s been one hell of a ride through semi-paved road. We did hope to find our reservation processed, unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Luckily for us one guy didn’t like his room as it didn’t have the most important item: yes, you guessed right – TV! Who needs TV while on a Tropical Island?? (well, we sometimes do, but that’s what laptop with movies is for). We quickly snatched the room away and moved in.

We met a nice couple of travelers – Milan & Christina (hello guys! – hope you’re enjoying Oz!) with whom we spent entire day snorkeling around the Cowloon Islands. We shared a lunch on a small beach (#91) and swam in the ocean. Derek got a bit sunburned (as usual) but it was a great, though extremely tiring, day – all for just 750 PHP (~ 15 USD).

Monday started slowly as our muscles ached from the previous day, but it didn’t stop Derek from taking off later that day and spending few hours taking photos. He got surrounded by kids the moment they saw a camera – “Take Picture”, “Photo” and “Hey Mister – Photo of me and my friend?” were the usual reactions. In the meantime Kama was enjoying a massage at the resort.

Tuesday we took off to look for sunken treasure – Derek took two dives to the Tangat and Kogyo Maru wrecks – no chests with gold nor skeletons – just good old bags with cement, plenty of fish and ghosts from the past. The last dive of that day was at the Barracuda Lake. But before the dive – a climb over razor sharp cliffs in full scuba gear (about 50 lbs) – one slip and you’re a goner. The lake itself has an interesting layered structure where water changes from hot 100F at the bottom (salt water) to nice and cooling 85F close to the surface (fresh water).

We are ending our stay on Thursday – wish we could stay longer – hopefully we will be back again – maybe even in a few weeks, who knows?

Now, we’re off to Japan to meet with Nang in Tokyo then explore the Land of the Rising Sun.

PS
Forgot to mention that Kama finally got to try a partially sprouted coconut – with its marshmallow-like consistency – she was craving it for a long time (picture attached ) 🙂