I know I've already done a blog post about Boracay a long time ago but some close friends and I visited recently and we had loads of fun! I can't resist sharing stories about a very good trip. So here it is, things we did at Boracay!

Parasailing

The last time I went parasailing, it was done by pairs so I was a bit worried that one of us might have to go solo (I had two friends with me). Lucky for us, it was possible for three to go at a time!

I wonder where the boat is here in this photo

Once at the top, you get to take in an aerial view of the island and man, is it beautiful! Sure, we screamed our lungs out every time the wind threaten to unchain us from our harness but it was worth it. Our parasailing experience was incredible (and not to mention, safe). Definitely enjoyed our 15 minutes up in the sky.

I would have loved to upload our videos but I fear that your ears will come off from all the high-pitched screaming

Hell yeah we had a great time!

Helmet Diving 

Since I've already done this before, the magic was no longer there for me. But it absolutely wasn't for my two companions who braved the deep waters for a glimpse of the schools of fish who have long forgotten what the normal food chain is and have depended on us humans for their daily sustenance.

Yes fish, get in that photo

Most people change their mind and don't go through with this unique experience because of how the pressure in the ears suddenly changes. For any first timers out there, this is quite normal. It is explained, after all, during the orientation before you dip in the water. But I do understand that the pressure could be quite shocking.

What shocked me though was how handsy our attendant was. I wanted to feed his fingers to the fishes

Snorkeling

If you avail any island hopping packages, snorkeling at a certain area is one of the activities that will be included. If you've been to places like Palawan or Puerto Galera, I'm afraid the snorkeling experience here will not measure up. The area in which we swam in was all floating bread pieces and little to no marine life at all. I didn't even get to explore much because of the time limit.

The two girls didn't accompany me underwater

Where all the fishes at?

Puka Beach

Puka Beach was also another item on our list during our Island Hopping activity and it was beautiful! The sand is fine and the water is very clear. The waves could get a bit strong though. My friend and I were getting massacred by the waves at the shore when her GoPro escaped her grip. Her life flashed before her eyes and I quickly grabbed her action camera before the waves took ownership of it.

Look at those GoPro-murdering waves

Too bad we could only stay for 45 minutes. That's the disadvantage of going Island Hopping with a big group. It's cheaper but you only get to stay on the islands for an allotted time.

You can chill on those mats for free if you buy some beverages, which is a little bit expensive btw

That's it, my little duckling, walk towards that beautiful body of water

Breaks my heart that we could only stay for a couple of minutes

Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove is this one developed island that you can explore for an entrance fee of 200php. It's pretty big and there are coves, a bird park and a tower from where you can enjoy a view of the ocean.

The Baywatch tower

We were given an hour by our boat guide which was so not enough. By the time we got down from the Baywatch tower, we were running as fast as we could back to the beach because we could see our boat with all our fellow passengers in it, ready to get going.

It's a long walk between the islands attractions

They have coves that you can visit

in between land and water

huts everywhere

ATV

We got to try the ATV and drove to the Ocean Tower. It was a 15-minute ATV ride to the tower.

Driving the ATV was easy enough. Also, you'll be driving on concrete so that makes it easier. You'll just have to be careful when driving through populated areas.

The area, BTW, is a bit far off from the beach. So you'll have to ride a vehicle to get to the ATV spot. Allot maybe around 20 minutes for that.

Ocean Tower

The view is amazing

Beach Bumming

If none of these activities interest you for some reason or if your budget is not as cooperative as you would like for it to be, you are very much welcome to spend your trip lounging about in the powdery white sands of Boracay.

Enjoying the sunset from Station 3

Basking in the morning sunlight at Station 1

If you want your beach algae-free and with a relatively small crowd, go for stations 3 and 4. If you like your water chock full of algae, hang out around stations 1 and 2. The algae flocks Boracay around the summer season and melts away during the rainy season. We've been told that the seaweeds melt and turn into sand. I have yet to verify the validity of that information.

Visited the grotto at Station 1

Thought we'd be one of the first at the Grotto because of how early we left the hotel. Turns out we're not early enough

I don't know about you but I think this is the true measure of friendship #friendshipgoals

Totally not faking this candid shot

If I've known my friends won't actually use the zoom on the zoom lens I've just attached to the SLR, maybe I wouldn't have walked that far into the water.

Okay, that's a little better

Same with what we did on my first Boracay trip, neither of this was prepared beforehand. We found ourselves an agent roaming around at the beach area and went with whatever offers were available.

Sun Garden Hilltop Hotel

For accommodations, we  booked ourselves a room at the Sun Garden Hilltop Hotel. They weren't kidding about the Hilltop part. The hotel was a 10-15 minute walk from the beach and there were these stairs, these stairs that drained a quarter of our soul every time we had to return to the hotel.Well, I exaggerate but the reason it felt like that was because we were so exhausted from all the activities and are eager to take a much deserved break. So having that flight of stairs between us and our hotel room is a total nightmare.

Oh the horror

If you are going to go somewhere other than the beach, it would be wiser to take a tricycle to some places (like D-Talipapa and Station 1) then walk. Trust me on this. My friends and I have since then regretted our decision to sacrifice our feet and rumbling tummies in order to skimp on some tricycle fare. The hotel is a 3-minute walk away from the highway anyway.

The hotel itself is good and clean. The rooms and its toilets are spacey and spotless. I wish the outlets weren't placed on the back of the beds, though. It was difficult to reach.

Our room

Bat ako nag-eemote dito?

Breakfast is served around 7 in the morning. But you can request to have it earlier like we did

But what makes this place truly special is the amount of cats roaming around the area! They should rename their hotel to Cat Garden Hilltop Hotel.

I simply cannot resist the cuteness

They lingered during breakfast

Some were friendly and some were shy

Southwest Tours

For land transfer from and to Kalibo, we availed a package from Southwest Tours. Some of the hotel staff said that Southwest Tours was expensive but my friends and I found it to be very convenient. Our trip was smooth from when we landed in Kalibo up to our Hotel doorstep. They even operate 24/7 so you don't have to worry if you booked a flight too late in the night or too early in the morning.

So that's it. A run-over of our trip to Boracay. I have a travel itinerary here that I made some time ago if you're interested. You can check out my old Boracay blog posts from there as well.

Hope you enjoyed this post!


Photo credits : Abi Minto, Alis Alcain

This is one of the rare trips where we had the luxury of a car and a friend who actually lived in Bicol. This friend's father drove us from Baao to Pasacao Port. We left at around 4 in the morning because we were aiming on getting on the 7AM trip (as stated in this blog post) but when we got there, we found out that the earliest ferry ride was rented out by some corporate employees for a team building so we had no choice but to wait for the next ferry. We boarded the ferry around 8:30 and departed at 9AM.

Registration area

Waiting area

Once it was boarding time, una-unahan na sa seats

You can't miss it. It's the first thing you see when you get off the boat

We were hoping to rent a room at one of the islands but unfortunately, everything was booked. If we had our own tents, we could've still stayed  the night at one of the islands. We didn't have any though and there weren't any for rent either. We rented out a room at one of the budget inns at San Pascual Port (which was kindly provided by us by the staff at the Tourism Office) at 250php per pax/night.

These are the faces of people who didn't prepare enough.

We also opted to visit the last island the next day instead of visiting all three islands that same afternoon. That was an additional 500php because the boat will have to go on two round trips instead of one.

We rented the 1-5 pax capacity boat for three islands. So it was a total of 3000php plus additonal 500

After dropping our things at the inn and having lunch, we began our excursion.

I think the trip was a good 45 minutes before the first island

Sombrero Island

When the boat docked by the shore, the white sand and the clear water astounded us all. It was the time to shed the shirts and take some photos!

No time to waste! Get those GoPros and SLRs ready!

The water is absolutely crystal clear

The sand around these parts were more of the small corally kind. It exfoliated the hell out of my feet

we later found out that other areas of the beach had the find kind of sand and we would've discovered it sooner if we weren't so excited to get our photos taken right away haha

You're not brought to the island that is actually shaped as a sombrero

Not complaining though. I mean the this area is way prettier

This island is where the hotel is at. You can also camp if you have your own tents.

The guy in the group instantly went missing from our photo ops. Minutes later, we received a text message from him that there was a beautiful view at the other end of the island.

On our way to more photo ops

The view didn't disappoint (or I would've kicked the guy in the group for wasting my time)

ahh there are my friends, swimming and taking pictures

When we asked our boat guide where to go to to pay the 20php entrance fee, they told us that someone will approach us for it. But no one came and we totally forgot about it when we left for the next island.

Tinalisayan Island

It was a 20-minute boat ride to the next island on the list, Tinalisayan Island.

You can camp at this island too with your own tent

The oldest member guy in the group decides to nap for a bit. Got tired of all his exploring, I think

We didn't swim much because for some reason, the water had this really fishy smell

I asked a friend about the fishy smell but he said it wasn't the case when they visited

The sand bar (not the one above) was the highlight for this island and although we were able to experience it, the sand bar didn't fully appear for us that day. We had to enjoy the narrow plot of sand the ocean decided to share with us that afternoon.

Good thing we were the only ones there

I got to snorkel a bit at the area by the sand bar

Time to make like a hipster and do the L-O-V-E thingy

After enjoying the sand bar, we headed back to San Pascual port and went straight to our quarters to rest for the night.

Animasola Island

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast at the port and headed out in the water on our boat as early as 5:30AM.

we got to witness the beautiful sunrise from the boat! It's such a challenge to take a shot from a moving boat

Crawling up that rock in a bikini was not easy

but so definitely worth it!

The unbroken horizon

This here's our hardworking photographer who got pissed at us for not being able to take decent photo of her. We tried sooo hard

The beautiful rock formations make for a good backdrop

Preeetty

We accidentally stumbled upon the Mermaid's lair, thanks to the guy of the group!

We were supposed to get back before 9am but we enjoyed so much we returned to our boat a lot later. We paid the entrance fee, had a quick snack (there's a small store there), and headed back to the port.

Goodbye Masbate! We had fun!

We got to ride the ferry back home at around 12. We arrived at Pasacao Port two and half hours later and took a quick break before walking to the terminal. We even ran a bit because the jeep to Naga (which was empty) just left the terminal and our friend who happens to be a local didn't want to ride the next jeep in line lest we'd be waiting for hours for passengers. Good thing the jeep stopped and waited for us while we ran for dear life with our massive backpacks chaffing on our sunburnt shoulders. We took a break at SM Naga, had early dinner and Pili Ice-cream at 1st Colonial Grill (which is delish!!) before riding a bus to our friend's home to get the car. We drove home that night and almost drove to a ditch due to our driver's exhaustion. Huwag niyo kami tularan please. That concludes our trip to Burias Island, Masbate!

Reminders

• I don't think the schedule of the ferry rides are definite. We kept asking the people in charge about the times of the ferry rides arrival/departure and it felt like it depends on whether the boat gets a lot of passengers right away. 
• Each island has an entrance fee. Our boat guide informed us that a person will simply approach us for payment of the fee but it didn't happen at Sombrero and Tinalisayan Island for some reason.
• Bring your own tent just in case all the rooms are booked. 
• Please clean your own mess before you leave. When we visited Sombrero Island, the beach was teeming with bottles and garbage. Come on, guys. Have a little respect for mother nature.

Photo credits: Wenz Fraginal, Tina Salo, Pao Quilala