I never thought I'd spend a full day getting to Boracay. Our flight left the domestic airport promptly Tuesday morning and we were over Kalibo in less than an hour. But as I eagerly anticipated the land trip to Caticlan, the landing gear retracted and the plane shot up. We were going to Iloilo because of Kalibo's heavily overcast skies.

We waited in the plane at the Iloilo airport for over an hour, receiving weather updates from time to time. The passengers were getting restless and hungry, and getting refunds was unfortunately not an option. Unlike other passengers, I was open to not getting a refund even if I had paid for the trip. I'd rather not risk my life just to get to Kalibo.

The home province of our style editor Gwyn was neighboring Antique, so the group decided to spend the night there, then take the 3am bus to Caticlan. It was like a lesser-scale Amazing Race episode: we wanted to go to Boracay, and yet passed through two other provinces to get there.

Going to Antique reminded me of trips to Baguio, save that the mountain roads were more roundabout. On more than one occassion did the road curve as much as 300 degrees. It took us a couple of hours to get to Gwyn's large home, and I stayed in his room for the night.

The morning bus ride was uneventful. I could hardly sleep because of murderous airconditioning, and the gap in front of my seat wasn't wide enough for my legs. But it was okay. Before I knew it, we were on a boat to Boracay, and my excitement level was up there despite a light rain and grey clouds. Along the way, my attention was directed to the "batuhan," an area along the shore riddled with large rocks and known for being the hot zone for carnal encounters. Fascinating, but didn't interest me.

It was near lunch time when we checked into True Home at Station 1. There weren't a lot of people, thankfully. The foreign visitors consisted mostly of Europeans and Australians. I was told that the Koreans and the Japanese would flock come summer, but I contemplated on returning in June or July when I get my vacation leaves. June is considered lean season.

So after lunch, it was off to work. We photographed a few rooms at a hotel then had our planning session in the early evening. During a mid-afternoon break, I took advantage of the sun and drenched myself with some SPF 4 oil in an attempt for a tan. At night we had dinner at Cyma, a Greek resto near the colorful tsubibo at the center of the D'Mall plaza. I spent the rest of the night alone, people-watching over coffee.

It was a 35th birthday well-spent.

Image from Seaplane Philippines. (We actually stayed in this area of the island.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
belated Happy Birthday!
Dennis Villegas said…
Happy Birthday my friend!Enjoy the sun the fun wymiand the sand!
Anonymous said…
isang napakaligayang kaarawan para sa 'yo Carl :D
Anonymous said…
Nida, midicrux, dennis, zee...Salamat! Masayang maging 26 forever! Heheheh

Paolo... Great to have seen you last Saturday. :-) Though I honestly thought at first..."Hmmm, this high school student looks like Paolo Manalo!" Heheh, sorry. :-P
jactinglim said…
26 pala ha! same age pala tayo heheheh!

Congrats with the play! Panalo ever!

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