Day 4: excursion day at eden

day 4

this was taken from our balcony.

we slept in with the sliding glass door open and listened to the waves.  after a leisurely morning, we went to breakfast and ate our usual.

after breakfast we met our roommate.  we named him "judge."

we decided to spend the morning kayaking in the clear waters.  we got to see some beautiful fish and brightly colored starfish.

this is the resort from the water.  our villa is on the right.

after kayaking, one of the staff approached me and said, "mom, would you like to take our dirt bikes out for the day?"   i replied, "um, yes!"  we couldn't believe that the resort was going to let us take their dirt bikes out even when we had no experience driving them.  i refused to drive mine, and i made ryan refuse to drive his after they had told us the story of a previous attendee who broke their leg trying to drive it without experience.  

so, instead, one staff member and his friend took us out for a two hour ride up one of the mountains.  it was an amazing ride full of pigs crossing the road, goats eating weeds, clouds hugging the mountains in the distance, and the ocean below us.  towards the end of the ride, one of the guys driving let ryan take the bike into his own hands.  it was quite funny to watch ryan put the bike into gear and pop his front wheel off the ground and speed off into the distance.  locals were laughing.  

when we got back to the resort, we ate lunch and went snorkeling.  

as you can imagine, we were pretty tired, so we spent the rest of the day swimming, eating, playing cards and drinking wine on our balcony.  

day 3: a resort for two

day 3

after we flew to cebu island, we took a 3 hour bus ride to the southern most tip and stayed at an amazing all-inclusive resort called "eden," and rightfully so.  after we left a loud and busy city, took a loud and busy bus ride, we got off the bus, bags in hand, and as the bus pulled away we were left in silence.  only the sounds of gentle wind chatter and ocean waves prancing on the beach.  we kept wondering if we were at the right place.  we figured that since it was a resort, we would hear children playing in the pool and people talking loudly. we walked down a narrow path lined with flowers towards the beach and knew that we had arrived.  eden is a small resort that only has 8 villas in the whole place, so even if there were people staying there, it would still be quiet.  to our luck, we were, in fact, the only two people staying at the resort.    this meant that for the next four days, all staff would wait on us hand and foot and cater to our every needs.  meanwhile, all meals, drinks and excursions are included.

this is from our three hour bus ride.  during the ride, if ever the bus slowed down to make a sharp turn, locals would take that chance to jump onto the bus and try to sell anything they could.  usually they sold food and drinks, but sometimes they sold little trinkets as well.  and when the bus would slow down again, they would jump off and wait for the next passer-byers.

these are more pictures from the bus ride.  above is a picture of the common taxi available in the philippines.  we really enjoyed riding in them.

this is when we arrived at the resort and walked down the narrow path lined with flowers. note the ocean in the background.

this was our amazing room.  we had slate-tiled floors, a king-size bed, and a balcony with the most breath-taking view of another island.

the only all-inclusive i have known has either been in mexico or on a cruise.  these all-inclusive meals usually mean that there are scheduled times when food is put out on a row of tables so that all guest can enjoy a buffet-style meal full of frozen or pre-cooked foods.  this is what we expected from this resort.  to the contrary, everyday we would wake up when we wanted and go to the dinning room and they would begin to make us the breakfast that we wanted.  they would always pair our request with a side dish of local fruits and fruit smoothie.  after breakfast, they would ask, "mom, what time will you want lunch today?"  and by mom, they meant m'am.  lunch was 3 courses which always ended in dessert, and dinner came with a bottle of wine and any other beverage we wanted.  we would say our request, and they would bring a salad, mixed vegetables, appetizers, our requested meal, and, of course, dessert.  all was made fresh in their kitchen which was visible from the dinning room.

we ate every meal with the dinning room to ourselves.  the dinning room had a great view of the infinity pool and ocean.

above is a picture of a mango and grahm-cracker layered custard.  enough said.

day 1 and 2 of our trip to the philippines

sorry i haven't posted on here in a long time.  this site wasn't working properly and wasn't allowing me to post pictures for a while.  but today is a good day, because i was able to upload photos.

ryan and i decided to have a real honeymoon/anniversary trip/ birthday trip all-in-one this year.   we decided to go to the philippines and thailand to have a huge celebration of our life together.  and since the first year anniversary gift has to deal with paper, we chose our plane tickets to act as that "paper" gift.

day 1 and 2 of the trip was full of plane rides, taxi rides and hostels.  this is the first hostel we stayed in.  it was in manila and only cost about 6 bucks a night.  we stayed one night and then caught another plane to cebu island.

 our hostel in cebu city was a definite upgrade.  it only cost about 13 dollars a night.  it included breakfast in the morning.  we had filippino sausage and garlic rice.  notice the nice floors and flat screen tv.

we spent a rainy day in the city and saw a lot of people selling anything they could on the side of the streets.  we even saw 3 little boys running naked in the rain and sliding on the slippery concrete.  it looked fun.

back in this little cove were several restaurants each with their own karaoke system, and each with a woman lounging in her chair with her drink and food singing great tunes such as celine dion and whitney housten.

more pictures to come (with less rain.)

i play favorites

these are some of my favorite students making faces of emotions that we have learned- happy, angry and love.

a new sister

we went back to the states for ryan's brother's wedding.  it was a beautiful wedding, and we had the best time hanging out with family.

nami island life

as soon as we arrived off the zip-line, there was a live columbian band playing, families picnicking, children playing badminton, couples taking naps in the grass behind trees, people enjoying water sports, and lot of people riding around on bikes.

below is a picture of the tower we zip-lined from.

nami island is kind of a romantic place where you can spend the night in log cabins that are beautifully furnished with rustic hardwood floors.