It was extremely smoggy as we took off from Manila; the air was literally brown. Looking out of the window of the plane, you could see hundreds of fires on the ground. Apparently, they burn everything from vegetation to trash.
The plane was unable to land at Kalibo due to low clouds and we were rerouted to Iliolo, only about 70 south. We sat on the ground there for a little more than an hour before the cloud cover lifted enough to fly back to Kalibo.
We walked out of the Kalibo airport into the middle of a major regilious festival. There were people and bands everywhere.
The hotel on Boracay had sent a minivan to meet us. There were seven of us, another couple, a representative of the hotel and the van driver (11!) all packed in a standard size minivan with our luggage. We drove about an hour and 45 minutes to Catilin to catch a banca to Boracay.
At Catilin, we caught a banca to Boracay. The porters are loading our eleven bags on the top of the boat.
After about 15 minute boat ride, we waded ashore on the beach in front of the Red Coconut where we were staying. We had a great room on the second floor overlooking the pool (just to the right of the tallest palm tree in the picture).
After unpacking, the kids played in the pool and then sat on the beach and watched the sun go down. Sharon, Jack and I had dinner at Hey Judes (Pork Tenderloin, Seafood Gumbo and Pizza). It was one of the few times on the trip that Sharon raved about the food sending her compliments to the chef!
Wow lovely place. I heard something about red coconut hotel, is it good facilities there?
ReplyDeleteTanya Gemarin