Holy Week Escapade, 2011

I was supposed to do an entry after the holy week holidays, kept on staring at the monitor but, somehow, I couldn't make up my mind on how to start my latest blog entry.

Well, here it is, after much deliberation.

This year, at the spur of the moment, our family decided to visit Surigao del Sur. We stayed with our host, apparently my twin sons' godparents, in Barobo, Surigao del Sur.

Cherry, my sister, and I, just at the spur of the moment, a week before the holy week holidays, decided that we go back to Turtle Island, and so, the planning began. Cars were arranged 3 days before we left for Barobo.

Here are photos of the places we visited during the holidays.

I woke up at 3 am, even if we went drinking a couple of beer the night before, to do some last minute preparation for the trip.

The kids woke up 30 minutes after I woke up.

Along the road, we saw breathtaking sights plus the fog.

Look at what we saw during the road trip to Surigao. This one is called a skylab, a local term for a motorcycle with extended passenger seat. It's normally found in provinces where there's little to no public transport.

We arrived Barobo 4 hours after we left Davao. Rested for a few minutes at our host's area and left off for Boslon after.

I really love the mangroves and it doesn't connect with the age (my sister kept on teasing me that the more you get old, the more you get to appreciate plants).. they're just super amazing..

Distant view of Boslon Island, apparently, Naked Island is also near Boslon. They're also known as Britannia Islands. We have to travel for 30 minutes to an hour from Barobo just to reach the dock.

Boat ride from the dock to Boslon Island is 15 to 30 minutes. Not too far and the water is so clear and really tempting.

Boslon isn't really developed yet. When we reached the island, there were no tables, chairs and other facilities. Basically, one has to bring their stuff to this island, including the food. What's more fun is that we have to sit on the sand while we eat.

Here are a few photos that we took around Boslon plus some shots of us while enjoying the place.

This is a panoramic view of what's in front of Boslon, well, the other half of Boslon.

The next day, before leaving for Tinuy-an Falls, we visited the nearby Cave where our host resided. I really love going there to wash off the excess sand on my body. People who lived nearby used to wash clothes and take a bath there before. That was the time when the water connection still hasn't reached their area yet and the last time that we went to Barobo for a visit was in the year 2000.

Plus, since it was Holy Week, we had the privilege to enjoy fresh seafoods at Surigao and it was cheap. Assorted fishes which include Lapu Lapu costs us at about Php 180.00 per kilogram only.

This type of fish below, the brown one with spots, is very rare. From what I've heard from my uncle, it costs Php 3,000 in Davao while Surigao is selling it at Php 2,000 max, still expensive.

Next stop was the Tinuy-an Falls, also known as the Little Niagara Falls, Philippine version. From where we stayed the night, we had to travel 2 hours to reach Tinuy-an Falls. From the highway, one has to travel 13 kilometers more to reach the area. It was raining hard throughout our travel and we had the chance to enjoy the rain will we were seated outside the pick-up. My sister and brother who decided not to swim at Tinuy-an was forced to since they were already wet, plus, the falls was super tempting. It was actually a breathtaking sight.

When we reached the area, we were greeted with this picture. Entrance to the falls is only Php 20.00 per pax. They have this small store where one can rent swimming gadgets, goggles and life vests, at a cheap price.

This is one of the raft that the management provided for their guests. We rented one just to go underneath the falls.

This photo is priceless, as it was raining also when we arrived at Tinuy-an, my nephew and a friend found the best shelter. Neat, huh?

I really enjoyed Tinuy-an Falls because we went riding on a raft, which is attached to a rope, and went underneath the falls. It was super cool and better than massage, of course. And, it's also memorable since I lost half of my eyeglasses' lens. Tinuy-an Falls will remember me, yahoo!

After our tiring day, we went to the place where my brother and his family stayed, we had dinner there and we had a sumptuous meal of very fresh octopus, sinugbang bariles and kinilaw, our fave.

This wraps day 2 of our Holy Week vacay.

We woke up early on Day 3 just to take a glimpse of Turtle Island across our host's house. Too bad we weren't able to visit Turtle Island and Snake Island due to time constraint.

Here are a few photos of the area at the beach.

The green pen behind us is used to breed crabs.

This is another panoramic picture of the Barrio where we are staying.

After a few minutes of sitting down and catching up with our experiences the day before, we left for the Enchanted River at 8:00 in the morning. It took us 1 hour to reach Enchanted River, 13 kilometers from the highway. The tiredness was definitely worth it when we saw the spectacular sight. By the way, entrance to the River is at Php 20.00 per pax plus you have to go through 2 toll gates, rates for different vehicles were posted, I forgot to get a picture of it.

This is a panoramic view of the Enchanted River. The whole area itself can't be taken by my camera as it was really long. It's a mixture of water from the mountains and sea, not that salty compared to the sea.

Enchanted River also has a small area for visitors who wants to rent life vests and other equipments for swimming. The water was really good, I practically swam the whole day, rested for a few minutes after we arrived and left the water a few minutes before leaving and took some pictures

The Enchanted River management had also setup a fish feeding hour. Big fishes swim from underneath the deep water to grab a bite. Fishes were at least 1 foot long. I even borrowed a goggles just to take a peek at the fishes and it was really amazing.

and, we also have a fair share of fresh crabs and shrimps brought to Enchanted River with everyone. yum yum!

Enchanted River management provided a small area for the kids where they really enjoyed. Even after telling them that we're leaving and that they should shower already, they still stole a few moments to make a last dip..

It wasn't as much fun if you don't swim across the river. We had to ask my household help to take a picture of us after we reached the other side of the river and pose for the camera, luckily, we ran into a few friends from Davao who went there for vacation too.

On our way back to Barobo, I managed to take a few pictures of the area near Enchanted River. The picture you see below amazed me. It's like the house at the center is floating when the tide is high. Too bad I wasn't able to capture it when the tide was still high.

and, we passed by also this bridge. It was a long bridge, water is pretty calm.

We managed to make a stop also to capture some photos. This wall is pretty high and the government removed some portions to avoid landslide.

When we arrived at our destination, the usual, we went to the cave to rinse off the salt water.

We stayed for another night before leaving for home. Took some photos before breakfast.

Managed to get a pictures while we were on the road and running at 60 to 80 kilometers per hour.

I definitely had a good laugh at this since my youngest son had nothing to do while we were on the road and played with the hens, they were given to us since by our host's father-in-law, we had been going back and forth Barobo for a dozen times already and made some really good friends there, the last one was sometime year 2000.

since it was Sunday, we dropped by a church in Tagum, I forgot the name, and bought candles, prayed and thanked God for the safe trip.

Well.. We really did unwind when we went there, shed off stress from work and did a lot of bonding with the family and we plan to go back next year, God willing.