Basak

We spent the first two nights in Mactan, which is an island that the airport is on and is  joined to Cebu by a bridge. Our main aim was to relax and recuperate as Simon arrived very alternative at night, I have had long days and little sleep recently and Marla has been working hard. So we had a big lie in and took a slow start to the day.

Mactan mainly provides resorts for tourists, but we wanted to get out of ours (resort being a generous term for our hotel complex) and explores little. So we took a taxi to one of the monuments, which was rather disappointing because the Amin stature was closed for access. But from there we took a walk to find a beach. We passed lots of kids playing basketball on dirt courts and shanty style houses with a backdrop of glass condos. I wasn't expecting to see such evident poverty in this area and was surprised by the contrast in building structures. The kids were all happy to see us,because they could ask for money-obviously an important English phrase they have learnt.

We found a beach, but it was man made and had entrance fees. We took a look and decided not to stay because it wasn't nearly as attractive as we know beaches can get here. By now we were getting hungry so we briefly visiteda fancy resort, with its own beach, but we weren't allowed to the beach until after 6pm and the food was expensive. Sow we ended up at a trendy bar build on top of the sea. It was happy hour, so we enjoyed some drinks and ate there.

The next day we had a days outing booked and this is when it became exciting and the beauty of the Philippines was shown to us. We took a boat trip out to Nalusuan Island and here we went diving. The water was beautiful, if a little cold. 26 degrees is lovely for a swim, but can get chilly when diving for long time. The visibility was great and the corals were beautiful. We did three dives here and saw some rare fish, some huge schools of small fish and a sea turtle-to name a few. We saw lots of Nudibranch, which are colourful sea slugs, Orangutan Crab, which is a tiny orange furry looking crab with long orangutan like legs and a Mantis Shrimp, which is a shrimp that was break through tempered glass with a punch of its claw. Every time I go down is see something new or a new interaction of fish behaviour. There were some really friendly big bag fish that kept swimming up to us and along with us, which was great.

The staff on the boat were all lovely and made it an ever better day, with their bubbly personalities. They provided a great spread of food and were very professional with the diving. The whole day was fantastic and made me excited for the boat we will be living on next week.

We stayed for beers with the staff afterwards and then got a taxi to Allegra, a small town on the south coast of Cebu, about 2.5 hours away. We enjoyed the journey with stops to replenish our beer supply and get snacks and by the time we arrived I was ready for bed.Read more