Last Day in Cebu

June 14, 2013-

It's the middle of the night…and Annika just threw up.  Several times.  Poor Annika!  She's obviously not feeling well.  :-(

Ugh!  And she keeps throwing up more and more.  Thank goodness housekeeping is great at responding to requests in the middle of the night!  (we just asked for another blanket for Annika). 

That was a verrrrry looooonnng night.  Please excuse us- we need more sleep!

It's time for breakfast- well, for some of us.  Annika is going to stay sleeping in our room while the rest of us get breakfast at the big buffet under the Main Lobby.  

Wow!  The buffet is CROWDED!!!!  It looks like either we sit outside or we have to wait for about ten minutes to get seated inside.  Hmmmm…..wanna sit outside?  That's what we're going to do.

Darn!  No brie cheese!  Oh well.  Oooo!!!  There are a few Filipino foods that we missed the other day.  One dish reminds me of the Chinese zongzi – rice packets steamed in banana leaves- but these come with a variety of sweet sauces.  Oh, and there's a hot chocolate drink.  Mark said it reminds him of the hot chocolate he used to get while working in the jungles of Colombia (years ago). Yum!

Let's head back to the room and check on Annika.

Ack!  Annika- PLEASE WAKE UP AND OPEN THE DOOR!!!! She is really sleeping hard.  She's not feeling any better – oh boy.  We have to fly home very late tonight.  I *really* hope she gets before we have to fly out!

Annika's not feeling great.

Instead of moping all day long in the hotel room how about we get suited up and hang out on the beach?  There are plenty of shaded lounge chairs for Annika to rest on.

Mark and I are going to go out and snorkel.  Wanna come along and see some of the fish and corals?  (FYI- the photos never really show just how colorful the coral reefs and fish can be.)

It looks like an unusual, alien and colorful underwater garden.

Neon blue starfish (with turquoise colored coral behind it).

Moray eel ….is out & about!

Batfish…just parked..in one spot. What are they looking at?????

Pipefish….it's long and narrow and in the middle of the photo. It's in the same family as seahorses.

humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa (the Hawaiian name)- a type of triggerfish

DSCN1198 from Astrid Breutzman on Vimeo.

Parrotfish….they're DELICIOUS to eat!!!! (and I think one of the prettiest and most colorful fish)

Clownfish! These fish seem to be friendly and play with your fingers if you wave them close enough to them.

These tiny blue fish seemed to float about certain table corals. Whenever we come close to them they immediately swoop in and create a tight network close to the coral.

Different kind of clownfish.

Watch your fingers! This is a GIANT clam. This guy is about one meter long.

It's b-i-g!!!!! (there were several of these giant clams all in one particular spot in the coral reef)

Ava just got some fish food from the Water Sports Desk and she wants to go feed the fish.  Let's go check out what she's up to:

Those are Sergeant Pepper…whoops. I mean Sergeant Major (fish). And lots of them!…..and they all appear to be hungry and ready to devour every last crumb of fish food that Ava is tossing out. There are a few other fish thrown in the mix (like parrotfish) but mostly they are all Sergeant Majors.

So, I know these fish are called Sergeant Majors but for some reason The Beatles song, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" comes to mind EVERY time I hear or read that name!  LOL!!!

Ava and I are off to try out the Fish Spa in the Dive Shop.  I've heard lots of expat friends talking about fish spas – so I really want to give it a try!

eeeeeek! This is ticklish!!!! Although, they aren't the voracious feet nibblers I thought they'd be.  These fish are only so-so interested.  Hmph!

 My thirty minutes is up….it's Ava's turn!  They're washing off her feet with soap (since she has sunscreen on).

 Ava's turn in the Fish Spa:

guess what??? The fish aren't interested at all in nibbling. I wonder what happened???

Since the fish in the feet tank weren't nibbling they're now having Ava dangle her feet in the big tank (these fish were nibbling on her hands just minutes ago): 

Funny…while these fish nibbled on her fingers they want nothing to do with her feet. I wonder if they just don't like stinky feet!?!! We gave up after a few mintues.

Annika is -thankfully- starting to feel better!!!  Whew.  At least well enough to jump in the water every now and then between her resting on the beach lounge chairs:

Mark and I are going to get the same hilot (Filipino) massages again.  The girls said they're just happy watching Netflix movies on our iPad in our room.  Actually, that's probably a lot better and safer than taking them to the Kid Zone (kid play area).  

Ahhhhhh….those were -again – nice massages.  I'm feeling *very* relaxed right now.  :-)

Mark and Ava are going to get ice cream…Annika is still napping in the room.  I really don't want any ice cream either.  

Time for cocktails on the 8th floor!!!!  Hmmmm…I think I need to go easy on the food and drinks tonight.  I honestly don't feel well either!

We've made reservations for 6pm at Cowrie Cove (the fish restaurant on the resort).  Time to head over there – with all four of us.  Annika thinks she might be well enough to try eating a little bit of food.  

Erf.

Suddenly I don't feel so well!!!!!  

I took one bite out of my prawns (I ordered the grilled prawn skewers) and I'm feeling AWFUL.  You know what???  I'm going to head to bed and try and sleep.

Oh, did I mention that our flight is at 1:30AM?!?!? I'm glad we got to play and swim most of the day but these red-eye flights are just hard to deal with! We need to check out of our room at 10pm (we paid for an extra half-day for that 10pm check-out).  The airport shuttle will come get us at 10:30pm.  This seems like the longest, most drawn out wait I've experienced.  This is just excruciating!  I want to leave NOW (okay, I don't want to leave at all.  I love it here!).

Sigh of relief – the shuttle bus is here and we're heading back to the airport.  

Wow!  There seem to be some long lines at the airport just to get in.  Weird.  Oh!  And here's something really bizarre- we have to pay an airport EXIT TAX in order to leave!!! (550 Philippine Pesos) Isn't that the craziest thing you've heard of???  What if you don't have any money on hand?????  Thankfully the hotel mentioned this exit tax to us a few days ago otherwise we wouldn't have had any cash at all! 

The lady at the Korean Airlines counter was sweet enough to give us all access passes to the KAL Lounge.  Super sweet!  Annika is definitely feeling better…but I'm not.  So relaxing in a lounge chair for a tiny bit seems like the right thing to do now.  

So sorry- I'm not going to do any last minute airport souvenir shopping.  I'm just not in the mood for it now!!!!!

Hey- we're boarding!  Yay!!!!  See you in Seoul!!!!