Boracay 2012 - Arrival

11 November 2012

For our post-anniversary celebration, we went to Boracay with our friends. We encountered a few bumps for this trip but it was all worth it seeing the smile of my daughter.

We arrived at Caticlan airport around 7:30 am. As with the usual domestic airports here in the Philippines, a bunch of people will offer you transportation to your hotel. One lady quoted us a price of P400 each for the transportation. That was too much for us and since the route and transfers is basically the same when you get it from them or purchase tickets on your own, we opted to buy our own tickets. Just across the street from airport is a small booth (looks like a small sari-sari store) where you can buy your tricycle ticket and boat ticket. One tricycle costs P100 while the boat ticket will cost you P25 per adult. I'm not sure what the age limit is but our 11year old god daughter is already considered for adult fare. So for our group we paid P225 in all. When you get to the ferry, you need to pay for the terminal fee and environmental fee. Okay this is were we had our confusion. For the environmental fee we only paid for 4 adults - P75 each. For the terminal fee, we had to pay for the 4 adults and the 11yo girl - P100 each. But we intially only paid for 4 since we thought it would be the same count as in the environmental fee. When we got to the gate to board the boat, Joema was held off because he didn't have a terminal fee ticket. Ay sus! So for future basis, when you pay the boat fare, you need to pay for the terminal fee as well. Again I'm not sure what the age limit is for the environmental fee but all 3 kids were free. When you get to Caticlan, there is a long line of tricycle which will take you to your resort. There is also a booth there for tickets so we initially went there only to find out that it was for the multicabs - rate is P250 per person. The tricycle fare is P20 per person but since our group can't fit into one tricycle, we opted to get 2 separate tricycles. I think this was considered as special trip because again we had to pay for P100 for each tricycle. Are you still with me? hehehe. Just want to get this over with as a guide to future Boracay travellers. It's not so hard to commute from the airport to your Boracay resort, you just need to be careful and ask before you ride any vehicle how much is the fare.

We finally arrived at La Carmela at around 8:30am I think. Our room wasn't ready yet so after checking in, we left our luggages at their concierge and the receptionist told us that they will just text us when the rooms are available. Joy suggested we go to mass first. So we hied off to another tricycle ride going to the church. After mass, we crossed the street and an establishment which led us to Jonah's and tadaaa....the beach!

Well hello there grotto!

When I tried putting Miya down on her feet (I was carrying her then), she didn't want to plant her feet on the sand at first. But the moment she felt that the sand was smooth and the water was nice, we couldn't ask her to leave the beach. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, this is sans bathing suits. We were all in our travel clothes. But this didn't hinder us one bit in enjoying the beach. Keber na sa mga nag-isip na ang weird namin - Bora tapos hindi naka two piece hahaha! Good thing we had with us Miya's baby bag and I packed it with a couple of her change clothes.

Look at how happy she was!

It was drizzling when we got to Boracay. It turned out there was an LPA in VisMin area when we got there. But again, nothing can hold us back in enjoying the beach.

Look at Miya looking longingly at the sand and water. Kala mo pinagkaitan ng mundo haha!

Dark clouds

Wet baby. See I had to change her clothes only by this time we didn't have any dry clothes left.

After our merienda at Jonah's we headed on back to La Carmela. We opted to walk along the beach to enjoy it all the more. I thinks this was already around 11am. Before we reached our hotel, they called us to let us know our rooms are ready - just in time! On our way back we passed by Astoria Boracay. Mek was offered lunch buffet for free for all of us, we only had to pay for one. And it only costs P210 so after washing up and changing our clothes (Miya didn't want to take a nap), we headed out back for lunch.

On our way back to the hotel

With a view of the beach. I miss Boracay just looking at our beach photos. Look at that! Even with the dark clouds, the beach is awesome!

To be continued...