Puerto Princessa

All great things must come to an end, and although I would be happy to retire from sabbatical and stay on the white sand beaches of Boracay forever, we had to move on. To another island.

Island hopping takes commitment: we took a trike to the pier to hop on the riggity out-rigger to the shuttle to the airport. This part took about 2 hours. Then, we took a 45 minute flight to Cebu, where we hopped in a cab to the pier. We practically ran onto the last ferry out for a few days; now that Queenie was cooled off, Ruby decided to make an appearance. We were facing our third typhoon (1 in Japan and now 2 in the Philippines) on the trip. The ferry took 2 hours and was extremely cramped. I managed to fall asleep, because island hopping is strenuous and tiresome. Once we got off the ferry, we found some girls on a long weekend off from classes in Hong Kong and negotiated a van-cab rate to our little cottage. Another 45 minute ride later, we arrived at our quaint little home on Alona Beach in Bohol. That’s about 6ish hours of travel to go about 250km as the crow flies. Woof.

Alona beach isn’t quite as nice as White Beach on Boracay, but the water was clear and cool and food tasty. Our days here were similar to the previous beach spot: get up, coffee, design, breakfast of meat, eggs, and rice, walk the beach, get some sun, grab lunch, sip a cocktail, find some dinner, eat coconut-milk ice cream, watch the sunset, design, fall asleep, repeat.

Will made friends with some local cuties and played for most of the evening until I called him in for supper. We noticed the children were very well behaved. The more we thought about it the more it made sense: we would see kids alone almost all day. Never a designated adult to scold, comfort, or guard their heirs. No one to enforce good behavior or caution. The kids entertained themselves on the beaches or in back alleys, teased with tourists and travelers, and played very well with one another. No child strayed into the street, they always stayed safely on the sidewalk or knew how to very safely cross the busy streets without their hands held. Why? Because if they weren’t careful, good kids, they wouldn't survive. Simple as that. It’s a little sad, but also eye opening. Kids are smart. Smarter than adults give them credit for sometimes.

One morning, we rented a motorbike and cruised all over the island. We stopped to see the worlds teeniest primates at Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary. Tarsiers looks quite like Yoda and can turn their tiny little head 360 degrees. We walked into the main building, paid for our tickets, walked out a back door, took a few steps and were face to face with the little guys. The Sanctuary currently has 5 of these peanuts living in their natural jungle environment. They are territorial little creatures and like their private space, and the Sanctuary strives to preserve their habitat and natural tendencies while helping them thrive.

We continued our ride onward to the Chocolate Hills, but opted out of riding up when we saw them; basically just symmetrical humps of earth, they aren’t as cool as the hype. We had stone-fired pizza at a little brick-oven spot (enough meat and rice is enough…) and drove through a man made forest. The highlight of the trip, besides our lower bodies going totally numb, was a stop at the Bohol Bee Farm. The Farm makes the tasty coconut milk ice cream we ate almost every night. Our favorite flavors were pandan, a tropical leafy plant, and ube, a purple yam. The ice cream is sweetened with their homemade honey and the end result is a rich and creamy treat. Unfortunately, the bees were severely injured during a storm a few years ago and the hive is still healing. Local farmers supply their honey to help support the larger Bohol Bee Farm as their colony grows. It was a super cute little place, with a waterfront restaurant and gift shop stocked with honey-themed snacks and Sinatra Christmas tunes playing over the speakers. We just HAD to get some more ice cream, so each got a cone as we let the blood flow back to our legs.

Unfortunately, Ruby kept us grounded on Alona beach a little longer than planned, and although it was pretty, I have a list of other beach spots I would recommend before suggesting Alona. To help pass the time, we fiercely negotiated smoking good deals for beach massages, and accidentally got them twice in the week we were there. For about $11, we each got a wonderful 1 hour oil massage from the sweetest women on the beach. I marched back and forth between two different groups 4 times negotiating, but it was well worth it.

We were finally able to leave the island (what a terrible place to get stuck!) after Ruby blew over, missing the brunt of the storm yet again, and headed to Puerto Princessa on Palawan. Again, we took a trike to the pier to take a boat to the airport. Unfortunately, island hopping means smaller planes. And smaller planes mean lighter luggage. Our packs are very light and were still too heavy for the 7kg carry on weight limit, about 15 lbs. Our only option was to pay to check our bags, which cost as much as the flight itself. We told the women guarding our access to the terminal that we would condense our packs down and only check one. We said “BRB” and ran off.

It didn’t even take 5 minutes to decide what we were going to do. We went our separate ways to our respective restrooms, put on all of our clothes, and marched through the other checkpoint, our bags magically weighing under the appropriate amount. No one batted an eye at us with al of our layers and jackets in the 80+ degree weather. At the gate, we had lunch and Dunkin Donuts coffee, took off all our extra layers, repacked our bags, and flew away to another island.

We spent a few nights in Puerto Princessa, exploring the Spanish-influenced city and eating tasty fusion food. We took a tour to the Underground River, the main draw to the city, and although neat, it was fairly underwhelming. The best part was the 3 hour long jungle hike to access the river. Miss Typhoon Ruby made the water too high and treacherous to navigate in the old boats, so the 30 minute boat ride turned into a full blown trek. I’m talking steep, muddy, thick, viney jungle. Tarzan jungle. It was long and a dirty hike, but very beautiful and fun.

The river itself was ok. Caves are cool (except every single cave we enter I hear “I AM THE BATMAN” and “WHERE ARE YOU TAKING THE DRUGS.” Every. Single. Cave. Every time. Multiple times. 50% of us REALLY likes caves), and the river tour was neat, but I wouldn’t do it again.

Once we made it back to our room at Dallas Pension (odd name for the Philippines, right?!), we packed up, grabbed dinner with a new friend, and slept super well after a tiring and sweaty day. We had big plans the next day.

I bet you didn’t know you could take a bus to paradise. Well, you can. And we did.

From Puerto Princessa, with love,

Sara + Will