6 April 2014-
Thank goodness we didn't have to get up early on Sunday morning! We arrived waaaaaaaaaaay late at night in Cebu and spent the night at a hotel next to the airport.
We got to eat a leisurely breakfast in the hotel and then it was time to head to the airport – this time a domestic flight from Cebu to Busuanga Airport on Coron via Cebu Airlines.
This airlines did something I haven't seen before: the airline attendants played games with the customers. I tried to nap for part of the flight but I did listen to one game where the airline attendant called out the name of an object (like "pen") and the first person to find that object and show it won. They even had prizes! Definitely a better way to pass the time than sitting in your seat and twiddling your fingers.
Upon arrival at the *tiny* Busuanga Airport we were picked up by a Club Paradise van and taken on a bumpy ride through a dry, grasslands landscape with a few fires burning. Not at all what I'd expected to see on a tropical island!
The ride was about 45 minutes long – after which we were dropped off at a small boat landing on a river. We loaded up on the Club Paradise boat and they shuttled us off to our final destination (Club Paradise on Dimakya Island).
There it is! Check out the island in front of our boat:
Mark comfy and cozy in his life vest on the boat. We were required to wear them.
Check-in was easy. There was a string trio serenading us as we got off the boat and we were given cold cucumber drinks while we waited for our check-in procedures to finish. Oh…so….nice!
We were given cottage #17 – a beach-front cottage! We found this plate of fairly tasty muffins in our cottage:
We arrived around 4pm – just enough time to get on the swimsuits, lather up with sunscreen and jump in the water! Here's a view of our tiny beach-front cottage:
And here's a view from our cottage looking out over the water. Crystal clear water.
And our cottage came with hammock! Now we're definitely all set!
After an afternoon of splashing in the ocean (we ended up having to walk a ways to find a part of the beach that was all sandy – the beach in front of our cottage had too many rocks and pointy corals. Ouch!) it was time to wind down. We ended up getting sandwiches at the bar. *note for if we should ever come back here: buy the full meals plan! Our stay only included breakfast- not lunch or dinner. That was a mistake. However, we did figure out over the course of the week that one does NOT come to this island for the food…which was meh.
The trees were loaded with squacking and chattering fruit bats! Boy, they're noisy BIG beasts (even when they're supposedly sleeping):
Watching the sunset:
Do you see the black specks in the darkening sky? Those are the fruit bats flying off to the big island. Doesn't it seem strange that these creatures fly so far away from their home?
Ah, so nice to have finally arrived! We weren't sure if we would end up coming to Club Paradise as they asked for all sorts of information from us before our arrival. Like copies of our credit card. ??? That seemed VERY STRANGE and VERY SUSPICIOUS. We nearly canceled our trip here because of it. However, we pushed on through and I'm glad we came.