Philippines archipelago

After Thailand we flew to the Philippines to meet Vera and Oli, so that Steffen (and I) could enjoy again the pleasures of one of his (our) favorite sport! I was enthusiastic of living a second experience of travel in this continent, completely new for me… We thought discovering a bit of this archipelago (composed by more than 7 000 islands) might be very exciting, as we will use boats as main way of transportation! I did not know at that time what was awaiting us…

Our first destination was Cuyo island, chosen for its windy conditions and not so touristy yet (because the way to get there is REALLY long!)

In the background a little overview of the beds where we were supposed to travel, rest, sleep, eat, throw up and watch the TV (on 24h) for almost one full day instead of the 16h scheduled. Fortunately,  we were with another finnish guy only non-Filippinos on the boat, we could make really nice encounters.

FINALLY arriving after 23h ferry ride to there, we could appreciate the panorama as the island is something close of a beach paradise, and the conditions were quite good…

As the sun set on the water, we had great moments of natural marvel.

One of the nicest thing I appreciated on this island was looking at the beautiful kids playing and laughing a lot between the boats.

After a week discovering the island, swimming, kite surfing and tasting filipino food (and german pizzas! ), we joined Natalie and her mother at Union beach:

Here are the two chics in a tricycle – the local taxi ;)

In the early morning, when the water was at its lowest, we could discover some quirky specimens from the underwater world. We were lucky because due to the practice of loads of dynamite fishing in the country, there is almost no corals anymore in the Philippines… Just above, the chocolate chip starfish, used as inspiration for some famous cookies (actually, it does not look so appealing…)

Our blue winner, the Blue starfish- that looked, at first stand, as a plastic toy!

some families of sea urchins, and way more interesting stuff…

Obviously we continued getting quite lucky with the wind…

And also took advantage of being so close of a very special island: Boracay (one out of the 50 most popular island in the world, according to cnn travel classification). Boracay island, and specially the white beach in the last years received more and more visitors from Japan, Corea, China, Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia…

To get there, we took some strange little boats with stabilizers on both sides to not flip over.

Eventually seeking for some replacement clothing pieces, we found some stylish fancy accessories (that might have been designed for japanese people ;) )

It was also the scenery for wonderful sunset times…

and a few drinks in good company (Vera, Oliver and Natalie)!

And a bit of posing with the smiliest model ever!

Our third destination in Philippines brought us to Bantayan to visit two more germans (Yes, again!…) Here we go for another super scary boat ride- I have not been allowed to take pictures of Steffen’s face turning green.

Some very cute constructions on the way…

The weather was unfortunately not ideal, but the rain did not stop Steffen to pump his kite and jump in the water!

Bantayan was a good destination to discover how the people live in Philippines, and specially how the kids manage to pedal on bikes two times bigger than them…

and admire again the character of their fishing boats.

The welcoming from our “local” germans friends has been lovely, and when we had to leave… the sun was shinning again!

Adios The Philippines and its wonderful coconut trees!