Philippines: Cebu
April 3: Packed my bags, ate lunch with Clovis (sweet name, right? Cool dude from San Fran), and went to the airport to catch a flight to Cebu; delayed due to weather. Womp womp. Seems many flights to/from Caticlan airport were either delayed or cancelled for at least 24 hours due to heavy winds and rain. Twas unexpected.
Landed in pouring rain around 5:30pm. Had the most harrowing cab ride to Moalboal: thank goodness so many people use signals and horns and high beams as signals. I would never drive here. Cebu is a metropolis and it took us 2 hours to get out of it. I arrived at my hostel in Moalboal at 9:30, because of speed demon taxi driver who definitely overcharged me significantly. For some reason I was exhausted, and was asleep by 10. Technically, I'm not in Moalboal because it has no hostels ... I'm at Pangasema Beach, about 20 min outside of the town of Moalboal.
April 4: Woke up, at breakfast, and went canyoneering. Really not sure why they refer to it as such... we jumped off huge rocks into water, and played in the water. The 10m jump destroyed my ears .... they were still popping at night. I guess I didn't plug my nose well enough, or maybe I jumped poorly as well, because so much water went up my nose and through my head. Yikes. I was too uncomfortable and nervous to go off the 15m (turned out to only be a 12m jump).
Getting to a hostel was definitely important. It's rained the entire time, so that kind of sucks, but I really like having a space in which to chill where it's okay to talk to anyone. I get along well with most and I like that it's okay if you want to stay up and party or go to sleep. It is definitely not as nice as my hotel in Boracay
Chicken adobo, a Filipino staple, is absolutely delicious. And they really use the entire chicken. So yummy.
April 5: The breakfast at Chief Mau Hostel is always fantastic; likely because it caters to travelers - most of whom are from Europe and US/Canada.
8 of us rented scooters and took a drive 2 hours south to Samboan to check out some incredible waterfalls at Aguinid Falls. We literally climbed up rocks with water cascading down them. It was absolutely beautiful! Highly recommend wearing water shoes; I think my movements were hampered by all of the sharp rocks.
Our plan was to head to hot springs after climbing the falls, but we came across a colourful festival and people lining up for a parade, so we stopped to watch. In true Filipino fashion, we were invited to join the family feast across the street from where we were standing to watch the parade. There was a whole pig on the table, surrounded by various pork dishes and rice dishes. They were so welcoming, kind, and caring. They were hell bent on feeding us, getting us drunk, and laughing with us. I was so shocked by the hospitality; all they wanted were photos and conversations. And we weren't the only passersby to be invited; almost everyone who walked by this house was invited to join. It was absolutely mind boggling and made me fall in love with this country.
We started up the mountain to see Ozmena Peak, but halfway up decided that we wouldn't make it before sunset so turned back. All around, it was an incredible day. So glad I got to spend it with this amazing group: 2 Canadians, 2 Danes, a Dutch, an Aussie, a German, and a Swiss... and a whole bunch of unexpected Filipinos!
April 6: Today a group of 10 got on scooters at noon, with the plan of getting to Ozmena Peak and hot springs. It was a longer drive than we thought to get to the peak, and the bottom of the hill to walk up is super muddy and slippery. Honestly, I wonder if they do that on purpose so tourists rent boots and hire a guide, because as soon as we start climbing up the rocks, there was no more mud.
I felt like a mountain goat, and it was totally worth it to see that view. Absolutely incredible.
[photos to come as soon as I've got them!]
And, of course, just as we got to the bottom, it started pouring rain. By then, it was 4pm, and sunset is 630. We got fuel, waited for the rain to die down, and decided to go back to the hostel so that we weren't driving on strange roads in the dark. No hot spring, womp womp.
We saw the ocean and got excited until we realized that we went to the wrong side of Cebu, so we stopped for dinner and made a new plan of how to get back along good roads. The drive was absolutely beautiful; some of us even stopped in a few places to take photos. Then, it got tricky.
1) It was dark.
2) There was a lot of construction.
3) We had some speed demons who left the rest of us behind.
4) It had rained, so there was mud.
5) We ran out of fuel, so had to ask every house until we could find some.
We made it back to the hostel by 8, and all of us needed a beer. I am so grateful that Patrick lent me his neck pillow to sit on, otherwise I would have been SO sore after two days on a bike. It's surprisingly hard work.
Dinner was delicious at CocoNutz, and then we went to Chili Bar for drinks and dancing. I definitely had too much and was barely a person until 3pm the next day.
April 7: hangover day. Did VERY little, and was super okay with it.
April 8: Travel day! Onward.
Landed in pouring rain around 5:30pm. Had the most harrowing cab ride to Moalboal: thank goodness so many people use signals and horns and high beams as signals. I would never drive here. Cebu is a metropolis and it took us 2 hours to get out of it. I arrived at my hostel in Moalboal at 9:30, because of speed demon taxi driver who definitely overcharged me significantly. For some reason I was exhausted, and was asleep by 10. Technically, I'm not in Moalboal because it has no hostels ... I'm at Pangasema Beach, about 20 min outside of the town of Moalboal.
April 4: Woke up, at breakfast, and went canyoneering. Really not sure why they refer to it as such... we jumped off huge rocks into water, and played in the water. The 10m jump destroyed my ears .... they were still popping at night. I guess I didn't plug my nose well enough, or maybe I jumped poorly as well, because so much water went up my nose and through my head. Yikes. I was too uncomfortable and nervous to go off the 15m (turned out to only be a 12m jump).
Getting to a hostel was definitely important. It's rained the entire time, so that kind of sucks, but I really like having a space in which to chill where it's okay to talk to anyone. I get along well with most and I like that it's okay if you want to stay up and party or go to sleep. It is definitely not as nice as my hotel in Boracay
Chicken adobo, a Filipino staple, is absolutely delicious. And they really use the entire chicken. So yummy.
April 5: The breakfast at Chief Mau Hostel is always fantastic; likely because it caters to travelers - most of whom are from Europe and US/Canada.
8 of us rented scooters and took a drive 2 hours south to Samboan to check out some incredible waterfalls at Aguinid Falls. We literally climbed up rocks with water cascading down them. It was absolutely beautiful! Highly recommend wearing water shoes; I think my movements were hampered by all of the sharp rocks.
Our plan was to head to hot springs after climbing the falls, but we came across a colourful festival and people lining up for a parade, so we stopped to watch. In true Filipino fashion, we were invited to join the family feast across the street from where we were standing to watch the parade. There was a whole pig on the table, surrounded by various pork dishes and rice dishes. They were so welcoming, kind, and caring. They were hell bent on feeding us, getting us drunk, and laughing with us. I was so shocked by the hospitality; all they wanted were photos and conversations. And we weren't the only passersby to be invited; almost everyone who walked by this house was invited to join. It was absolutely mind boggling and made me fall in love with this country.
We started up the mountain to see Ozmena Peak, but halfway up decided that we wouldn't make it before sunset so turned back. All around, it was an incredible day. So glad I got to spend it with this amazing group: 2 Canadians, 2 Danes, a Dutch, an Aussie, a German, and a Swiss... and a whole bunch of unexpected Filipinos!
April 6: Today a group of 10 got on scooters at noon, with the plan of getting to Ozmena Peak and hot springs. It was a longer drive than we thought to get to the peak, and the bottom of the hill to walk up is super muddy and slippery. Honestly, I wonder if they do that on purpose so tourists rent boots and hire a guide, because as soon as we start climbing up the rocks, there was no more mud.
I felt like a mountain goat, and it was totally worth it to see that view. Absolutely incredible.
[photos to come as soon as I've got them!]
And, of course, just as we got to the bottom, it started pouring rain. By then, it was 4pm, and sunset is 630. We got fuel, waited for the rain to die down, and decided to go back to the hostel so that we weren't driving on strange roads in the dark. No hot spring, womp womp.
We saw the ocean and got excited until we realized that we went to the wrong side of Cebu, so we stopped for dinner and made a new plan of how to get back along good roads. The drive was absolutely beautiful; some of us even stopped in a few places to take photos. Then, it got tricky.
1) It was dark.
2) There was a lot of construction.
3) We had some speed demons who left the rest of us behind.
4) It had rained, so there was mud.
5) We ran out of fuel, so had to ask every house until we could find some.
We made it back to the hostel by 8, and all of us needed a beer. I am so grateful that Patrick lent me his neck pillow to sit on, otherwise I would have been SO sore after two days on a bike. It's surprisingly hard work.
Dinner was delicious at CocoNutz, and then we went to Chili Bar for drinks and dancing. I definitely had too much and was barely a person until 3pm the next day.
April 7: hangover day. Did VERY little, and was super okay with it.
April 8: Travel day! Onward.
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