So I’ve spent five weeks in Baguio and I needed some sunshine. There’s two ways off the mountain – back down that scary road or take a plane. There’s only one flight out of Baguio and that’s to the province of Cebu so that’s where I headed.

The Baguio Airport is the cutest airport I’ve ever seen

That being said, it’s the tiniest airport I’ve ever seen. I got there early because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well I got through security, and checked my bag in about a minute. Didn’t have to empty my water bottle, take out my laptop or even take off my shoes (they made a face when I asked like ‘ew’ which, same). Then they told me ‘You’re at Gate 1’ – as if there was any other gate!

More people did eventually show up, including a couple of nuns, so I’ll be perfectly safe

Eventually, my ride arrived

The flight was an hour and they served us packets of peas and mango. It was actually pretty tasty

The Cebu airport is actually in the city of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island . Since I still have no idea what’s going on, I confined my lodging searches to that area and decided on the Costabella Hotel mostly because it was close and cheap.

For once, my ill-informed choices didn’t not bite me in the butt. The property is beautiful! I’ll shut up here and let the pictures do the talking:

This drink is called ‘Heaven and Hell’. They serve it to you on fire

One of the activities here is called ‘Island Hopping’. As always, I have no idea what I’m in for, but I’m in! (To be fair, it’s on me for just not understanding. They alway try to explain but I can tell when I’m just not getting it when their ‘ma’am’s’ become ‘ma’am 🙄s’)

To begin with, I get a boat and a crew. We load up in a rowboat and head out to the ‘cruising boat’

The cruising boat:

We transfer from the rowboat and head out

Our first stop is Caohagan Island. We anchor a bit off the beach and have to wade through the low tide to get there.

The island’s sole industry is tourism holy cow these guys! Shouts of ‘ma’am, ma’am, I give you discount’ ring out as soon as I step foot on the beach.

Our first task is choosing our lunch

I chose shrimp, prawns, and crab (and regret passing up the scallops). While they prepared our seafood, my captain, Raji, gave me a tour of the island. The main theme is colors and chickens and dogs. Dogs wandering around everywhere but they aren’t aggressive at all and don’t even come up to sniff you.

This is a preschool. The kids were adorable

A basketball court

And the local Catholic Church

This path leads to the elementary school

The school hosts children from several islands – they have to come by boat every day! The high school is on a different island

Raji: Do you need to use the turlet?

Me: What?

Raji: The comfort room

Me: What?

Raji: *sigh* gestures –

‘What’s with all the chickens?’ I ask. ‘Cocks!’ Raji says, ‘Cock fighting!’

Oh.

I have to say, this was my absolute favorite part of the day

After the tour, we collected our seafood, grabbed some beers and headed to the next destination

I think this is the Below Deck yacht of the Cebu Straight

And this one is the Captain Sandy yacht with all the toys out

Our next destination – snorkeling!

I didn’t take any underwater pictures but it was amazing! Zebra fish, and bright blue fish and real life rainbow fish. Kind of like this:

After swimming it was lunch time. Remember the shrimp, the crab, and the prawn? (The lesser-known of the Narnia chronicles)

Our last stop was swimming with sardines. Again I didn’t take any pictures but at one point I was in a sardine tornado.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel

Back in the kayak, so he can drag my ass to the beach

And end the afternoon with a nap