Grand Adventure

We went on a 5-day grand adventure. I did not know what to expect, what to look forward to, what to be scared about or what to be happy about.All I knew was I was going on a 5 day trip to Palawan with my husband, 2 kids, 2 cousins and Aunt.

We left on the 11PM bus trip. I t was a 5 hour trip down to Manila where we were to fly off at 720AM to Busuanga Coron Palawan.

Jet with the 2 boys. The little one eventually sat with me.

We got to Manila a little past 5AM and met my cousin at the bus station. We headed off to the domestic airport and checked in a good 2 hours before our scheduled flight. At this point I was trying to anticipate how Dash would take the flight. Josh on the other hand was all too excited about reaching Palawan. We boarded the plane around 7AM. Dash had no problem with take off but once we were steadily cruising, all he wanted to do was walk around the plane! The 44 seater plane only had 11 passengers, thus:

This sitting down stint of his lasted for a good 20 seconds
The skies were overcast when we arrived. No sign of beach weather was in sight. We travelled 40 minutes by land to get to the port and hopped on a pump boat to get to the island resort we were staying in. We were welcomed by drinks and were assigned a 'tour guide' who would be our constant companion for the next 5 days. We had lunch and were told that we would be going island hopping at 3PM. By 2PM, the skies were heavy with gray clouds but nonetheless, we all went at 3PM. The waters were calm but shortly after leaving the pier, the rains started to pour. We continued on for a few more minutes but decided that the rains were too strong to carry on.

Protecting Dash from the rain and cold sea winds.

A few minutes after turning back, the clouds cleared. Geez. But we still decided to head back and rest for the rest of the afternoon and hoped that the next day would be better. We were fed dinner - yummy yummy food by the way and went to bed early. I woke up around 4AM and could hear the pitter patter of the rain! We woke up around 6, clouds still in the sky but we were still determined to head out and make the most out of the day.

Make the most of the day we did. We trekked under the rain, swam in the lake, kayakked, island hopped, visited the lagoons with beautiful limestone cliffs as its background and swam. The background limestone cliffs reminded me of the shots from Leonardo's TheBeach. We settled in and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

Cayangan Lake

Kayaking in the lagoon

We prayed, oh yes we did. We prayed for sun. And so the next day, I saw the beautiful sun. Can't describe how happy I was. By this time, Dash was getting a bit more comfy with his surroundings, wanting to walk all over the place. All Josh could care about was swimming. We ate breakfast and headed out very early. Our tour guide was very very kind and patient. We went to the hot springs, snorkeling and then back to the lagoon. This is when I realized how high my kids would get with everything happening around. The beach for me equated to the sun, the sand, a book and a cold mango-banana shake. Not for the boys, keeping still is a big no-no. And that's when I told myself to brace myself for what is yet to come in the next few years.

No notion of fear

The next day, our last day, we decided to head out again and go snorkeling in one of the dive sites. It was a shipwreck of one of the Japanese boats bombed during WWII. It was a treat because rarely would you find such a shallow shipwreck (9m). We headed back shortly after lunch to rest as we were travelling back to Baguio the next day.