Going back to Boracay

It’s crowded. There are so many people in the small island that there’s even moderate vehicular traffic along the small main road behind the beachfront properties, which would have been unthinkable decades ago. And should that make you shake your head in disbelief, you can get some comfort from a cheeseburger in McDonald’s or a latte in Starbucks. Okay, time to pick up your jaw from the sand, Boracay-visitors-from-long-ago. Oh, let’s not forget the lumot (algae) that stain the clear waters particularly in the summer months when the tourists come in droves. With so many people jostling for a piece of this paradise, it’s easy to tell yourself, I won’t ever go back. I shouldn’t have gone back.

How can you not go back to this? Early morning when the crowds are still nowhere to be seen on White Beach.

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A December tradition

Since I got married several years back, my husband and I try to celebrate our wedding anniversary in a new place every time. We didn’t really get to travel together before we got married, but we knew we wanted to see more of the world, or at least as far as our modest savings will allow us.

So after we said our ‘I dos’, we also took it as a vow to regularly travel…in good times and bad, in upset tummies and un-sexy coughing fits; to have no qualms about roughing it when called for and to hold on to our sense of humor, from this day forward, for better or for worse, until delayed visa applications do us part.

The magic hour

My favorite time of the day. A time of transition: right before the sun lights up the sky or bows out for the day in a brilliant display of colors from orange to pink to red.

When I’m working in the house, I often find myself stopping whatever work I’m doing and just looking out the window during that magical hour in the afternoon. I don’t get a view like the travel photos below–just our next door neighbor’s white wall getting a hint of orange, rooftops, and trees against a blue-pink sky–but it’s enough to make me stop and just look outside.

Sunset in Boracay Island

Sunrise in Siquijor Island