First week of October 2016 –
The Philippines are AWESOME.
Best. Diving. Ever.
The people here are friendly – from the staff to the guests.
I could live here.
Forever.
Do we have to move back to the USA????
Check out Sangat Island Resort. (we flew into Coron, Philippines and took a bus ride and boat ride to get here. Well worth it!)
Fresh coconuts anyone?
Yes please! I love fresh coconut juice!!!
Our lovely one room with attached bath (the only caveat – the resort requests that you DON"T flush used toilet paper down the toilet; you have to place it in the waste bin. ewww….)
awwwww….how sweet! Check out the towels:
Up on stilts….each of these cabins was lovingly handcrafted by people that seem to really care about their home in the Philippines. While it's a resort it's not a RESORT.
Make a wish! I see a rainbow:
Comfy hammocks under our cabin were made just for lounging and reading. Perfect for getting out of the rain.
The bar area…
View back to the "main land" from the bar area.
Looking up the hill (on the tiny island where the bar is located):
Sting ray! Right next to the beach. Maybe I won't go swimming…. (I'd hate to accidentally step on one of these creatures):
Pool…the girls preferred evening activity (besides reading their books). The played several rounds with each and with new friends (other guests staying at the resort).
Divine clouds.
Most of our week it rained….and rained. Guess what? The water temperature is the same. It feels warmer diving in the ocean than it does on the surface. We actually drank HOT chocolate and HOT coffee after our dives. To warm up. Who knew you could get cold in the Philippines???
The resort was small and unique. It was mostly set up for divers but others filtered through. We met with one family – a former Filipino ambassador's wife and daughter (she regaled us of stories living abroad) – who were interesting and fun. There was a daughter in the same age range as Annika and Ava. They even took the girls on one island-hopping outing while Mark and I went out on my one and only wreck dive. That dive took me to 26 meters deep (that's deep by my standards!). The island resort was the only place for meals and drinks in the area. That means we went out of our comfort zones and started making friends with the other visitors. The girls played rounds of pool with many different visitors. Hey, our dive master was originally from Germany. All in all, this was a comfortable, super duper relaxed place just to hang out.
Here's the bar area island..which is connected to the bigger island with a boardwalk. The bar was only open on nights when it wasn't pouring rain…which was perhaps once or twice during our stay.
And diving. Did I mention diving?
For some reason I've only got one photo from our diving…I do know there are more. Meet Mark:
Our goofy and loving husband and dad.
Our dives here were different than any other diving we've ever done. There are at least ELEVEN wrecks in the local vicinity. Apparently ALL of these ships were sunk on the SAME DAY (World War II; all Japanese sunk by Americans). I'll have to find the other photos from this trip as I've just noticed that I have NO photos from the wreck dives (lots of lion fish – look but don't touch!) AND we also went on a really fun island hopping tour (with some rain) where we visited a beautiful "inland" lake. Where are those photos???
I need to find the other photos!!!
Just between you and me….I KNOW we're going to miss these trips when we move back to the boring ol' US.