Philippines by www.born2travel.it

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09.03.2012 Cebu (PHILIPPINES)

After a night in the Budget Terminal of Singapore airport, in three hours and 20 minutes of flight, with Tiger Airways, we reach Cebu: we are in the Philippines. This stop, decided along the way, excited me so much precisely because it was unexpected and not planned back in Italy.

All the people we met during our long journey advised us not to trust anyone and to be careful of taxi drivers, kids in the street, pickpockets, the various areas of the city… and we, in response, after the ride into the centre with Siarika, a girl we met at the airport, and after finding a squalid little hotel (Cebu Guesthouse), immediately take a “jeepney” (the typical local bus), heading for S.Toninho and Pier 1 to buy tomorrow's ferry ticket to Tagbilaran.

Everywhere you look you see armed men, vans with bulletproof windows and security men with big rifles at the entrances of almost all the shops, even the fast food places! Where have we ended up?

We walk back to the hotel, just to savour this new reality a little more closely and then, as you know, that's when things happen…

Indeed: a few hundred metres from Fort San Pedro we come across a stadium-sized crowd ready to attend the celebration of holy mass. Impressive! The scene is suggestive, a little less so are the things we see: dirt, shady characters, tramps, the homeless even though, in the midst of it all, there are the glances and smiles of the many beautiful people we crossed along our path.

10.03.2012 Panglao (PHILIPPINES)

Finally in paradise! After a troubled night spent sleepless fighting cockroaches and rats, in two hours by ferry we land in Tagbilaran, on the island of Bohol.

[Stefania]: “From the port of Tagbilaran, in 35 minutes by taxi we reach our little paradise where we will spend 6 days in complete relaxation. We couldn't have found a better place to end this wonderful journey. Our hut is looked after down to the smallest detail and just 200 metres from Alona beach.

We walk along a dirt path lined with the typical cottages of woven straw on stilts, a small group of children follows us curiously… A few metres and we find ourselves wrapped in the greenest palms; under our feet: white sand, fine as flour.

We stop to eat at an inn on the beach where for a few pesos we enjoy excellent fish! The sun is warm, the sea crystal clear, a gentle breeze, the hermit crabs, the coconut, the fish stalls… Us! Back at the hotel we go for a dip in the pool: yes, we have a pool too, and after a little dinner in a typical Filipino restaurant we end the evening playing billiards on the patio of our guest house!”

11.03.2012 Panglao (PHILIPPINES)

“When it pours with rain - I was taught at SCOUTS - put on your swimming costume to avoid getting all your clothes wet!” No sooner said than done… not content, when it started pouring, while everyone ran off the beach, we dived into that paradise sea to live one of the dearest moments of the whole trip!

[Stefania]: “We built a little sand figure with shell eyes, coral ears and mouth and green seaweed hair!”

12.03.2012 Panglao (PHILIPPINES)

We leave at 05.30 in the morning on board a typical Filipino boat heading for an area right in the middle of the Bohol Sea, known to the fishermen, where at dawn the dolphins gather to feed…

As we sail we are lucky enough to witness yet another spectacle that Mother Nature gives us every day: a golden ball that slowly and solemnly rises upwards illuminating everything it meets!

Suddenly we see a huge pod of dolphins leaping and happily diving back into those clear waters! What great animals! I always liken them to birds because of that sense of freedom that only they can convey.

With our eyes and hearts full we set sail again towards Balicasag Island. As we approached the coast I was more and more struck by the transparency of the water! We go snorkelling simply by leaning out from our boat.

Once ashore, on a beach made only of little pieces of coral, we board again, armed with masks and snorkels, on a wooden rowing canoe to snorkel offshore!

When we dive into those tropical waters we almost feel as if we are inside a documentary about life at the bottom of the sea or even in an aquarium. Fish of every size, colour and shape swim blissfully among great corals and colourful algae when suddenly everything turns midnight blue: the immense begins!

What an unforgettable experience to caress this such intriguing world, swimming hand in hand and communicating, with gestures, at every exciting encounter.

Virgin Island… the name already says it all. We stay for a few minutes literally open-mouthed admiring this spectacle so beautiful it seems artificial! The islet is made up of a strip of white sand 200 metres long that emerged for just a few hours a day depending on the tides. Never seen anything like it!

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