day 7: island hopping

day 7

even though the hostel we were staying at wasn't the greatest, while we were staying there, we had one of our favorite days out of the whole trip.  we went on a private island hopping tour.  it was just me, my husband, and three men who guided the boat around.

island 1:  we went snorkeling.  the water was deep, so we were able to see some really large fish.  (we don't have an underwater camera, so i didn't take any pictures of this.)  at one point, a school of large fish had us surrounded and they were swimming in circles around us.  we got bread to throw at the fish, so ryan liked to throw his bread towards me to make all the fish swim at my face in order to eat the bread.  he did it because i told him i get grossed out thinking about a ton of fish touching me.  after we were finshed snorkeling, we were handed a coconut to snack on.

island 2:  we went snorkeling again, but this time the water was only about 6 feet deep.  we were able to see a lot of coral and smaller, more colorful fish.  i even got stung by a jelly fish four times on my arm.  it's okay though, because it was a baby jellyfish.  at this point on the journey i really had to go to the bathroom.  ryan told me to just pee in the ocean.  i tried and tried, but was unsuccessful, so i asked the three guides, and they pointed me to a toilet on deck that only covered me to my torso.  so that was fun- peeing in front of four men.

island 3:  this was where we had lunch.  it was a smaller island where we could see the ocean on all sides of it, no matter where we stood.  as soon as we set anchor, we walked down the beach and the men set up a table and two chairs for us.  then they walked towards a grill and made us lunch.  ryan and i walked around the island and went swimming while we waited.  when it was ready, they set down all of our food, and then they left us to enjoy.  it was the best bbq i have ever had.  they made us fish, squid, chicken and pork with a side of mangos and beers.

after lunch, we went snorkeling at the island, and ryan got bit by a clown fish.  i saw the whole thing- it was kind of funny.  he's okay; no wounds.

when we left the island, we had a little over an hour of a boat trip to make it back to the main island we were staying on.  during that hour trip, we got caught in a storm.  out of no where, it started to pour rain with lightning and the wind picked up.  we had to set anchor in the middle of the ocean and wait it out.  meanwhile; i see locals in their boats still fishing and going about their day, because they gotta catch fish and make a living.

it was a wonderful day.

day 6: tree house disaster

day 6

our last delicious meal at eden was breakfast.  we had delicious pineapple-mango smoothies, toast, eggs, vegetables and fresh mango.

we departed from eden and took a three hour bus ride back to the city.  we were really excited about the next hostel we stayed in on mactan island.  it had a tex-mex restaurant that was connected to it, and our room was actually a tree house.

as cool as it might have seemed to stay in a tree house, it was actually a disaster.  first of all, the owner of the hostel was really rude to us.  he actually yelled at us in the tex-mex restaurant in front of everyone, because we didn't book an excursion that he recommended we book.  second of all, the tree house didn't have any solid walls, and the hostel is located on a busy street about 5 miles from the airport, so we barely got any rest during our two-night stay there.  other than that, we enjoyed our stay at mactan island.

day 5: motorbikes+ back country trails+ waterfalls= yes!

day 5

we took the motorbikes for a little over 2 hours to two different waterfalls.  the first waterfall was secluded.  it seemed the only way to get to this waterfall was to find a local who knew what narrow roads to take to find a tiny walking trail tucked into a forest that would open up to these pools of rushing water.  and that's just what we did.  two locals who were friends of the owners of the resort took us out to their favorite waterfalls for the day.  the resort packed us a cooler of drinks and snacks, and we were on our way.

the second waterfall was a lot bigger.  it was a 45 minute ride and 15 minute hike away from the first waterfall.  the water was so high and the current was so strong due to monsoon season, so they made us wear life vest for the most part.  at this waterfall, they had bamboo rafts that one could take to go under and behind the waterfall.  there were three nice men at the waterfall that day that maneuvered our raft for us so that we could enjoy the water.

after the waterfalls we went back to the resort, ate lunch and spent the rest of our day at the pool reading and swimming.  we even went back to the pool after dinner.

i know this picture is really blurry, but i loved the colors and the lights from the island across the water in the background.

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.