Where in the World are V and M?: Island Paradise

It was an adventure getting to our island escape in the Philippines. First we had to decide where we would go... At the top of our list was Palawan, "the last frontier of the Philippines." When you look at a map of the country it's the really long island toward the southwest of the archipelago. It has beautiful beaches, underground rivers, and coastal rock formations that are like a dream. We tried everything we could to go here, but when God closes a door... it's closed. Next on the list was Puerto Galera. This is the closest beach to Manila, just a two hour bus ride and a one hour ferry ride. It was the cheapest option, but also, as many people were telling us, not that great. Well after taking the wrong bus to the ferry we missed the last boat of the day. (another closed door). So we had to go with a beach that wasn't on our list because it has a reputation of being too touristy.... Boracay Island. A ferry was leaving from the dock in the morning so we spent the night at a nearby hotel/motel (after haggling with a tricycle driver for about 20 minutes). In the morning we hopped aboard and claimed our comfortable bunk beds. 12 hours later we arrived... in the middle of a severe storm. We got off the ferry, hopped in a tricycle to another jetty, hopped on a smaller boat and sailed to Boracay island. Then we rode another tricycle to a hotel that we just heard of when we arrived at the small dock and spent the night.

On the ferry to Boracay. Surprise!!!

The next morning we woke up to find that the storm had passed but it was still very windy. We immediately went out looking for another hotel... that first one didn't really float our boat because we came to hate the location ("Would you like to book a tour?" "Jet-ski?" "Helmet Diving?" "Island Hopping?".... NOOOO, get away, get away, get away... ahhhhh.) Too many hawkers there. You will literally be asked 10 times if you want to island hop within 7 minutes of walking outside your hotel. After a few hours of searching, we found a hotel in a secluded area of the island and peace overflowed like a river. I'll let the pics speak for themselves... just know that the weather was perfect and we had a really great time :).