Reasons Why We Love TO GO to Boracay!

As some of you might not know, we never really celebrated Valentine’s day in the entire almost one decade before we got married and more than a year after it.  So, this year, we decided to finally do things differently. J If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you know where we’ve been 😉 We stumbled upon Eco & Bestie’s videos and we were so envious we and since we were beach-deprived last year no thanks to my injury, we chose to spend a weekend in Boracay (one of the 7,107 islands of the Philippines!)

Boracay is just a town away from my dad’s hometown.  I first visited this place back in the year-oh- nevermind before some of you were born.  Decades ago, this island didn’t have electricity and the hotels were nipa huts. *Ooh..That totally gives away my age! Haha.*  Anyway, I really wanted Ponggo to get to know the place I’ve been visiting all throughout my growing up years.   We were here briefly after we got married but it rained a lot last time so we didn’t really get to explore the place as much.

We decided that we wanted to go to Boracay on the 12^th of February for the Valentine’s weekend. If we wanted to fly, the costs would be exorbitant since it is only a few days prior to the trip (Yeah I know, I am a crammer and cramming is not something you should do when you want to catch a flight). In this case, the rates were very affordable. You can opt to go to Boracay for as low as Php 700 or roughly US$ 17 for a one-way trip! Now that’s fun!

So, on the afternoon of the 14th, we drove to Batangas sailed the night away to Caticlan!   As city dwellers, we didn’t really realize how much fresh air we’ve been missing until we hopped on the ship and stayed on the upper deck listening to (and singing along with) the band.  No, I wasn’t singing with the band onstage, I was singing as I was seated.  I even requested for a song. Hihi. For a change, the sky was clear and we had the stars as our backdrop! ( Too bad, the only thing I could identify are the Orion’s belt and the broken dipper ;P)  They also had a cute photo booth inside the boat that night with lovey-dovey props for couples and cutesy self-aware and downright frank signs like “Looking for love!” and “Single & ready to mingle!”

People have a bunch of misconceptions about domestic travel in a commuter ship. We had some too… and all of these were debunked after trying it out.  It was a comfortable trip to Boracay.  The rooms were clean. The food at the restaurant made you like you were just home.  There is a convenience store inside the vessel… which made midnight snacking for me a lot easier 😉 When it was time to catch some zzzzz’s, the bunk was comfortable, the pillows were soft and the blanket gave the right amount of warmth. It was just enough space for me to rest and relax before I hit the beach.

We were also relieved that our trip allowed us to carry as much as 75 kilos.  Woohoo! You see, the last time we traveled, we were charged for extra baggage because we have two separate camera bags…Gahh… Well, aside from our gear, we also had to carry our Googly plushies (which were of course just a few grams, you silly) and boxes of props because I’m such a masochist I wanted to bring tiny paper umbrellas to the beach and miniature lounge chairs which must never be squished during the entire trip.  I also brought some paper straws, origami paper, clay and washi tape.  (Yes, you read it right, we’re going to the beach—not to a craft party of sorts).  Going back (before I rudely interrupted myself), Ponggo and I were just happy we can carry along all the stuff we wanted together with our goggles, board shorts and my summer dresses. 🙂

Years ago, my cousins went on a road trip and tried the RORO system (Roll-On-Roll-Off) where you get to drive around the country and get to bring your vehicle to the ship.  I thought it was fun until I discovered last week that you didn’t really have to do that when there are actually trips straight to your destination which can cut the trip by anywhere from six to eight hours! Whew! I’m just glad to be riding the right ship!

We arrived in Boracay the next morning we took a jetty to Station 1.

The tricky thing with jetties is that when you get off, you have to walk in this narrow plank.  No, it’s not the balancing part that gets me.  It’s the fact that I easily get distracted by the super clear seafoam green water.  Finally!  You don’t have asphalt or concrete beneath your feet but a live aquarium stretching to as far as your eyes can see!

We decided to take it slow during our first day so we took the opportunity to shoot the Googly plushies.  Ye-heeesss! The umbrellas are intact and so are the straws, tiny wooden lounges and the stuffed paper pillows and tiny clay figures. Fine, fine, I wasn’t really too careful with the clay figures I slightly deformed my tiny starfish no thanks to my poor packing skills and letting the pair of scissors move freely inside the box (Seriously, who brings a pair of scissors to the beach??) 😛

After shooting and checking in our hotel, we returned to the beach in the afternoon to watch the sun set.  Ponggo’s such a thing for sunsets he snaps the afternoon away and I usually follow him.  In each trip, we usually have that quintessential purple to yellow sunset shot (if the weather permits) and we try to annoy each other with our mini who-gets-to-snap-the-best-sunset game but since the sun was so prettehhh I just sat there and savored the moment instead.

This was shot pre-sunset.  Please forgive me for my lack of clay skills.  There’s more to burgers (with ginormous sesame seeds in this case) and hotdog buns.  Nope. Those are not the types of food you should enjoy in Boracay.  Hihi *I can already feel tiny sweat beads rolling down my temples as I hear comments of meticulous readers in my mind.*

Wait, what? I wrote 1,159 words already?? Woops! I know that by now the left and right side of this blog is practically empty and literally blue. (We’ll fix that soon!) Fine, fine, I’ll update you soon about the rest of our 2GO Travel trip in another blog post! J

P.S. Something new & special from the Googly Gooeys is coming up in the next post about Boracay!!! Can you guess what it is? Stay tuned!!! 🙂