Boracay- Powder Sand, Crystal Seas, Parasailing and Other Adventures

Hey guys. Megan here.

The previous blog probably confused you. I live in America but since it’s our summer, I’m here in the Philippines. I’ve been here for a while; let’s say since the first of July? Ever since, I’ve been touring around a little and hanging out with my cousins while visiting my old friends too- in other words, summer is going great for me!

Just recently, I was in the world-famous beach Boracay with all my relatives. They definitely weren’t lying when they said the beach is amazing. Amazing is an understatement. It was freaking fantastic *__* Take a look:

No offense to American beaches but they got nothing on the ones in the Philippines. Especially Boracay. The sand is literally powder. You know those shores where you want to walk barefoot in but decide that it’s not a good idea because it’s rocky and really uncomfortable? Not a problem in Boracay. The airports are pretty tiny there. We landed in Caticlan and headed off to Boracay by boat. It wasn’t a long ride but the waves were rough and I get seasick easily.

After a few minutes, we arrived in Boracay. The place is structured like this: There are several hotels by the shore and beyond that, there are other places to explore in Boracay aside from the beach, so go check them out when you’re there.

Okay so where was I? Once we arrived, we took a shuttle to get to our hotel, Astoria. It was only 8 in the morning when we got there. Yep. Our flight was pretty early. Well, that gave us some extra time to spare and drop by a restaurant for breakfast. There are a ton of restaurants and stores along the shore, most which you may recognize. The local souvenir stores usually have good prices and you can try to bargain for an even lower price. They have all these cool items like tribal necklaces, pearl earrings, shell key chains and even figurines made out of shells.

(We also met a really interesting person at the tribal shop. I swear, I didn't even notice he photobombed this picture of my cousin until Kate and I were looking over the photos in the shuttle going to the airport. I wonder if anyone of you recognize him....?)

Being a popular beach, Boracay offers a wide range of activities such as fly fish, parasailing, banana boat, Jet Ski, horseback riding (I didn’t actually see this though), kite surfing, and riding speedboats. It shouldn’t be too hard to find an activity to do- hawkers are all around and you’ll easily bump into one. Hmm, I guess I should rephrase that. You don’t have to approach them; they’ll approach you. I lost track on how many times they tried to get me to sign up for the activities. Try to haggle and you can get a pretty good price.

Be careful who you buy from, though- one guy tricked us. He said if we paid him P1000, we wouldn’t have to wait in line, contrast to the P800, so we went for the more expensive parasailing. We rode a boat to go to farther into the sea and guess what? We ended up waiting for an hour. Aside from being frustrated, it was all worth it. Parasailing is amazing and surprisingly, I found it relaxing (I have a slight fear of heights). When they lifted us into the air, it’s pretty quick so hold on tight but the moments after that were, like I said, relaxing. Okay, Kate was with me and we were talking the entire time about falling off but trust me, it’s completely safe. Aside from our talking, it was almost completely silent up there. Windy, but relaxing. As we landed, we got to have our legs dipped into the sea (they don’t dip your entire body, not even half body so don’t worry about getting your shorts wet.) There are mixed opinions about parasailing. The people who we shared the boat with didn’t really like it unlike Kate and I. They preferred riding on the fly boat (a vertical jumpy boat ride which you have to hold on to so you don’t fall off), but in all honesty, I think the boat ride back to shore was wild enough. We sat in the front and I might have fallen off if I wasn’t holding on to the random rope that was dangling from the tip of the boat.

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the pool by our resort cause it was raining (I don’t know if that makes any sense but think about it, it wouldn’t be nice if we were at the beach while it was raining so why not swim in a nice pool instead?).

We were pretty exhausted that day and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. Kate actually fell asleep there but was completely energized when she saw people putting on a fire show. I thought what they were wearing was kinda explicit but when you’re playing with flames, I don't think you want to set your clothes on fire.

The next day, we rode a buggy car around the other places, and we also climbed a famous tower there that has 194 stairs. We went zip lining afterwards in the fastest zip line in the Philippines, and I gotta admit it was really fun and I wanted to go again.

Instead of swimming, we decided to walk around the entire area and we got to the end in an hour or so. I’m glad we found a paraw boat to escort us back to our Station. Bumpy ride but it was really fun. We tried walking towards the other end but it was getting too late and I could barely see a thing in the dark so we just went back.

Our final day in Boracay pretty much consisted of us walking towards the other end which was full of rocks, but it was a very nice view.

Boracay was great even though I got seasick most of the time while I was on the boat. The best part? I got to spend time with almost all my relatives. Sure, trips are expensive, but the moments and the memories you make are priceless.

Well, that's our first official blog! Hope you guys like it! :D

Signing out
~Megan