Day 11: Island Hopping

Ok everyone, it's official, I got crabs in the Philippines. Just kidding ... kind of. More on that in a little bit though. Today was quite an adventure. All of the begets went island hoping and it was a blast. We were sailing the ocean on a bangka, which I still can't really pronounce in Tagalog, but then again I can't really pronounce anything correctly in Tagalog. It's basically a small sailboat with two outriggers. Our captains name was Gener and he was cool as shit. He even had a beer with me and Alex at one of our stops. The beginning of the trip was smooth sailing and we visited a small island and had lunch. There were a bunch of little huts/bungalows to relax and eat under. After some swimming and snorkeling it was time for lunch and this is where I got crabs. We had a bucket full of 15 rock crabs, a grilled snapper, and a couple other small grilled fish along with some young coconut for dessert. It was delicious and it came included with our island hopping trip, but I was shocked to find out the price when we asked about the crab. Gener said it was 300 pesos, but I'm not sure if that was for the whole meal or just the crab. Either way that is ridiculous for crab and I want more of it haha. After lunch it was time to bury the large white man in the sand. All the girls got a big kick out of this and Alex was nice enough to give me large sand boobies as an added touch.

After the white man escaped from his sand body it was time to go to another island. The second island was a little fancier because one of the local resorts uses it as a place for its guests to go for picnics. It was straight out of a movie with large huts for eating, flags in the sand, and bent palm trees all over the white beaches. Thankfully Gener was with us because he took the girls snorkeling. Alex and I probably didn't have the patience and they had a great time because of Gener so it worked out for everyone. Unfortunately I'm still struggling with a sinus infection so I could not enjoy the snorkeling as much. Every time I dived below five or six feet my head would start pounding because of the compression. The swimming was nice though and after Gener took the girls snorkeling he chilled and had a beer with us guys while the girls stayed by the water and played in the sand.

It was a great, relaxing day, but it was over and time to go back home. The trip back wouldn't be smooth sailing though. Alex decided he wanted to ride on the outrigger and two of the other girls rode on the opposite outrigger to balance out the wait. This was all fine and dandy until the monsoon hit. It was exciting and the girls got a little scared. We had to stop the engine so we could get everyone back on the main hull. Surprisingly enough K.C., the 10 year old, remained pretty calm even though I'm sure she was a little nervous. The storm passed after about 5 minutes and everyone returned to their positions on the outriggers. K.C. even joined Alex on his outrigger. Unfortunately they don't make those things sturdy enough for 230 pound white men to sit on so I could not join in the fun.

Everyone made it home safe and it was a great time and that's all that matters. Tonight is Alex's birthday party and I think we have a big party reserved at a restaurant in Puerto Princesa where we're staying. Apparently there is a bar or two in town that are pretty busy and fun so we should be able to celebrate him getting older in style. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm definitely not looking forward to leaving for the airport at 7:00 a.m. Our flight back to Manila leaves at 10:00 a.m. and the airport is only 5 minutes from where we're staying, but for some reason Alex's family thinks it's necessary to be at the airport 15 hours before take-off haha.