Did I mention Boracay is a super tiny island and a bit remote? And it doesn't have an airport. The closest one is on an adjacent island--the Caticlan airport. From there, you must take a trike to the ferry, and then a ferry to the island, and then another trike to your final destination. Sound exhausting? It is. Luckily, there is beautiful scenery to enjoy along the way. Like cows & goats, grazing on the grass along the runway. Yup, the airport is one of those tiny airports. Only small planes can land there. And you get to walk up the stairs on the tarmac to board and disembark from the plane.
Just to give a bit of perspective, I started at the blue marker, down to the yellow, then the green, finally the red. Basically, you can't even see Boracay on a map. The Philippines is a collection of islands, somewhere over 7000 islands. I made a closer map to show. There's a starfish on Boracay in the map below :)
This is the plane we boarded at the Manila airport headed towards Caticlan. So small. I had to laugh when after I checked in for the flight, the attendant asked all passengers to head over to the body weight counter. That's right. Not only do they weigh the luggage for this flight, they weigh you. Luckily, you step on a scale and the numbers aren't visible on the passenger side, only the attendant side. Then of course I get seated by this massive guy on the flight. He was joking about the plane being so small, and I mentioned I thought it was funny they weighed everyone. And he looks at me and says Oh, I must have missed that part. He wasn't joking.
The flight takes roughly an hour, over water and tiny islands. It was raining when we landed. Here's a shot of right outside the airport. The airport in Caticlan is so tiny there is not waiting area. You walk through security and then you walk on the plane. No vending machines, no gift shops. All of those are at little shacks outside the airport.
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| One of the Piers (Ashley's photo) |
We used a company to arrange all of our transportation from the airports to our resorts. It was well worth the money to not worry about getting from point A to point B, C, D :) I was too busy enjoying the views to take pictures of the ride to the ferry, and the ferry ride itself. Ashley and I had both packed light--she had a purse and backpack, and I had a purse and small rolling suitcase. I was thinking the ferry would be like a normal ferry--you go out on a pier and then walk on. Not so much. The pier was made of bamboo tied together and very uneven. I was too concerned with not falling in the ocean to take a picture. Then, on the Boracay side, the boat just basically pulls right up to the sandy beach. No pier. They put the little ladder down, and you climb down (in a bit of water/sand) and then walk up the beach with all your life's possessions. Sounds amazing, right? ;) Fortunately for me, there were lots of porters willing to carry my bag up to the "road". That is definitely a loose term. Tipping in the Philippines is expected (unlike China--it was a hard change!) but the standard tip for a bag is 20 pesos (and not Mexican pesos--different currency, same word). 20 pesos is roughly 50 cents. I think I can handle that. From what I saw, there was only one main road on the island. Our transportation company loaded us and a few others onto a vehicle that was basically a golf cart with 4 rows of seats. We drove and drove and drove, dropping passengers off along the way until we finally made it to our resort--Fairways and Blue Water. Yes, we paid for a resort. We learned our lesson over Chinese New Year--that many days in a shared hostel is too much. This resort was gorgeous--2 infinity pools, countless "villas" and a private beach. Here's a couple photos of our room:
I stole the following few pictures from Ashley--she was better at capturing the full beauty of the resort than I. We stayed in one of the rooms in this villa:
The view from our room--it's on a golf course!
The infinity pool overlooking the private beach.
Ashley and I at dinner the first night.
When we finally settled in we were super hungry. Our resort offers shuttles down to the main strip every hour on the hour. We had just missed one of the shuttles, and the resort charges an outrageous fee for "special trips". Little did we know we could get a trike just outside for $1.50... so we ended up eating at the resort restaurant. It sits on a hill overlooking the pool and the ocean. So pretty :)
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