Boracay

I love holidays!  I am one of those people that get the school calendar and immediately start marking the holidays on my personal calendar. Then I start planning. Last week the children had what I consider Fall Break. They were out of school October 28-November 2. Unfortunately Tony’s work doesn’t celebrate the same, but we were still able to sneak away for a long weekend to Boracay.  You could say I have been planning this trip for a while now. Last February, I “won” a trip during a live auction at a Gala to stay in a tree top villa at the Shangri-La in Boracay. “Won” is a tricky word there. If you remember, I had just arrived in the Philippines in January, so the concept of pesos was new to me. Plus there was some coercing from friends. Plus there was wine. Enough said. Let’s just say, we helped quite a few local school children with our donation at the auction. On the other hand, at a completely separate function, I did win a raffle for a one night stay at a different location not far from the Shangri-La. That truly was a win, as I only paid the equivalent of about 8 US dollars. So with the Fall Break in sight, we scheduled a trip to use both gift certificates and discover the beautiful island of Boracay. Here are some pictures to give you a glimpse of our experience.

After landing at the airport, we were transferred to our hotel by boat. Keep this in mind later on when I show you how we were transported to our next hotel.

 

We were greeted by fancy drummers.

 

The Shangri-La, Boracay

 

The tree top villa comes with your own personal butler. Sonny was the name of our butler.

 

Apparently the villa also comes with a family of monkeys. Sonny said to not make eye contact because they can be aggressive. OOPS.

 

 

 

 

The view from our room...

Breathtaking!

 

We headed straight to the beach...

 

...and stayed until sunset.

 

The next day we went snorkeling and kayaking.

Ellis was a big help!

 

After all that hard work, it was time for a drink!

 

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves.

 

 Later that day, they began setting up for a Halloween party on the beach. As you can see, a storm is approaching. After all their hardwork, the party had to be moved inside.

They had spectacular decorations...

...and the staff was in on it, too!

After dinner, there was music and dancing.

 

The next day, it was time to switch hotels. Remember that boat to the Shangri-La? You should have seen the look on my face when our driver LITERALLY stopped at an alley to drop us off. Here is one of the staff carrying our luggage in a buggy.

We were all wondering, "What the heck?"

In the end, though, the destination was beautiful.

 

It was necessary to stay in the water most of the time this day. It was HOT!

Oh, how I wish this was in focus!

As the sun set, the beach became very crowded. A little too crowded for me.

 

But I still saw a beautiful sunset.

 

In the end, we decided we all love Boracay!