Adventures with Jack and Julia

Hello friends and family! Sorry that we haven’t posted in a few weeks. Our past few accommodations haven’t had very good internet connections so we are finally getting caught up on the blog posts now 🙂

Boracay

Getting from Ubud to Boracay was a bit of a journey. We said goodbye to our hotel in Ubud at noon and took a Grab to Canggu to spend the afternoon at a coworking space. We had to check out by 12pm from our place but the flight we’d booked wasn’t until 1:00 am the next day so just hung out in Canggu playing cards, reading, relaxing and eating some yummy food before we caught our first flight to Manila. Once there, we had another layover and took off on our next flight to Caticlan airport just as the sun was rising over the Philippines. Next, we caught a quick ferry ride over to Boracay Island and arrived there at about 10 am where we finally caught an electric tricycle to our hotel. Although relatively delirious from this extended travel day, we decided we had to check out the beach nearby as it’s world-renowned for its white sand and blue water. Boy, did it not disappoint! Add this spot to your list of beach destinations for sure.

Over the course of our time on the island, Julia became particularly fond of the local vegan Filipino dessert “Mama” chain of Mango Mama, Ube Mama, and Coco Mama. We tried all 3, and Julia’s expert opinion concluded Mango Mama was “absolutely the favourite by far” (see photos of desserts below). Each dessert consisted of coconut ice cream, mango chunks and some other unique element. A delicious treat to end a scorching hot December day.

While in Boracay, we spent a lot of time walking the beach, exploring the town, going to the gym, eating delicious food & treats, and relaxing by the water. We met some really nice people from all around the world, in particular a guy our age named Red from New York who we spent quite a long time chatting with and ended up exchanging contact information should we ever find ourselves over there. He had some great suggestions for spots to check out in Boracay that we went to as well. The island is mostly broken up based on the three stations along White Beach: Station 1, Station 2, and Station 3 and are all located on the West side of the island. This is where we spend the vast majority of our time but we did head to the North and the East to spend some time at Ilig Iligan beach, where it just so happened a wedding ceremony was taking place at the same time!

Our final night on Boracay happened to be New Year’s Eve and we celebrated by getting massages, eating a delicious meal on the beach, people watching, listening to music and going to sleep at 10 pm in preparation for another travel day the next day. We heard there’s an incredible fireworks show and there were a ton of beach-front parties being set up that looked like a blast, but Moalboal awaited us early the next morning…

Moalboal

The journey from Boracay to Moalboal involved many transfers but somehow felt much easier than the last as it took much less time. It involved a tricycle from our home stay to the ferry, the ferry back to Caticlan, another tricycle from the ferry terminal to Caticlan airport, then a flight to Cebu International Airport, then a tricycle to the bus stop, then a bus ride to Moalboal, and then finally another trike to our accommodation. Phew! We were certainly glad to be in another tropical paradise after that adventure.

Moalboal is world famous for the sardine run that takes place here every day which sounds like a strange activity if your only exposure to sardines is from a can at the grocery store but take a peek at our photos below to get an idea of what it is. Have a quick Google search as well because it’s truly a must-see. Along with the sardines, the water is so clear and they’re known for sea turtles as well. It’s true across the Philippines that they have some of the most crystal clear water we’ve ever seen and biodiversity in abundance. We couldn’t wait to get out in the water and hopefully see some turtles (Jack’s favourite animal).

On the day we went snorkelling, we got up bright and early to try and beat the crowds – but of course everyone had the same idea as us. The beach was already packed at 7 am! We walked a bit further away from the people to try and found a less crowded spot, though. It was incredible to see the millions of sardines swimming together so close to shore. We also saw so many different kinds of fish, corals, plants, starfish, but unfortunately no luck with the turtles this time. It’s very common to see turtles and even manta rays or reef or whale sharks but we just happened to get unlucky. The weather was also not the best for our time here and we got caught in a couple of pretty heavy rain storms while we were there.

Some highlights food-wise were a really delicious breakfast spot called Smooth Café where Julia had gluten free mochi waffles, and a vegan restaurant next door to our hotel where Jack got some banana bread. Lastly, we ate some outstanding Filipino food while in Moalboal. They always have a “silog” breakfast, which is basically garlic rice and an egg and then you choose your meat. Jack had tapsilog a couple of times which is with marinated beef, he had chicken adobo at Ven’z Kitchen, and Julia also discovered yet another dessert that she loves called halo-halo.

A couple of other little highlights were playing with the mama cat and baby kitten at our accommodation, enjoying coffee by the beach, and watching the sunset every night.

Our next destination was an island called Siquijor, and if you thought it was challenging to get to these places so far, Siquijor turned out to be an even greater challenge. We were so glad that we added it stop to our itinerary, though, and it was a standout of the Philippines for us. The next blog also includes the island of Bohol where we stayed on Panglao and saw the chocolate hills!

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