RYANN REYES

This was our last day here in Boracay. I woke up a bit early than usual just so I can have more time at the beach. I was just taking in all that was going on. And the sad part is that I’m never going to see this again for a long time. It’s hard to leave a place that you just fell in love with.

My moment with the beach was cut short when I was finally given the go signal to move out of the hotel. Since our flight was at 11 am, we had to be at Caticlan by 10 am. The photo below is my final photo of the beach. I was a bit emotional when I had to turn around and leave.

We had to board this Bangka so we can get across the island. That’s when everything started to sink in that we were actually leaving. I was very sad, but I really need to go home. Reality is waiting for me back home.

We had to wait for an hour and a half just to board our plane. I was expecting more from the airport since most of the passengers there are foreigners. The least they could have done was construct a huge enough pre-departure area for everyone. So we finally got in the plane and we were only 15 people on board. Empty airplanes scare. I don’t know why. As for my in-flight entertainment, I read Time’s 100 Most Influential People Edition while listening to Kelis’ Flesh Tone.

We finally arrived in Cebu at around 1 pm. Despite me not really wanting to leave, It’s still good to be back home.

So we woke up extra early on that day, ate little or no breakfast, and hopped in our hotel shuttle en route to Boracay Shangri-la. My dad arranged for us to have at least a “Day Use” of the place, since we were already there and my dad really wanted to see it.

The place looked very beautiful. It was more than I ever thought it was. It was posh, but it had this very Filipino vibe to it. It had a subtlety to it that evoked opulence but also it had this artistic restraint which translated to the entire design beautifully. But it doesn’t matter really what I think about it. Anyone who’d see it for themselves would agree that that place amazing.

Their beach front was nothing short of amazing. It was like, the long beach with extra comfy lounge chairs minus the crowd and the noise. The powdery white sand, crystal clear waters and the bright sunny weather was already a given.

I was a bit drowsy at the time so I just reclined my seat back and dozed off at a pool side lounge. It was literally more comfortable than my bed in the hotel.

We had lunch at their amazing restaurant called Vintana. It was an all you can eat buffet. That explains why we didn’t have anything for breakfast. We wanted to make the most out of the food there. They really lived up to their 5-star status especially with the kind of food they had. We even ordered a glass of white wine just for the heck of it.

After we had lunch we took a really short power nap and then we started to hit the pools. What’s great about their pool is that their water is not chlorinated, but rather it’s oxygenated. So it doesn’t hurt your eyes and it’s very good for the skin. After that we went on a quick dip on their beach. It was nice but I kind of miss the crowd and the music when I was in the long beach.

But we had to leave since it was already 4pm and we didn’t want to miss another awesome sunset at long beach. So we made our way back to d’Mall and stopped on this beautiful coffee shop while waiting for the sun to set. This was going to be our last sunset there that’s why it’s very important for us to see it.

The beach was teeming with a whole lot of different people all wanting the same thing, the beach. You can still feel the calm and relaxing mood despite the very many people there.

The whole diversity of the island is what made me fall in love with it even more.

And finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the Sunset. Words can’t even describe how beautiful everything was. 

After that, we went back to our hotel and washed up. Everyone did their own thing after that. My brother and I went out again. While our parents stayed back doing God knows what. And as usual, I went back to my favorite bar, Café del Mar to have my last drink of my ultimate favorite, mango daiquiri.

Yesterday that day, my dad saw a flyer about “a wonderful place” called Ariel’s Point. It was 15 minutes away from Boracay by pump boat and they said that it’s really amazing there. But to be honest I wasn’t too keen on hopping a boat to somewhere I’m not even sure I’ll like. But then again, I like to be proven wrong. So while waiting for the boat to arrive I took photos of my mom because she was so excited to have a photo of her in her facebook. She was already posing when she asked me to take her photo. I couldn’t say no to that.

After that the boat finally arrived to pick us up. We were a group of around 15 people who wanted to go to Ariel’s Point. Judging from the crowd turn-out, I had a feeling that this place was really going to be “wonderful.”

So we arrived there, it was a sea-side cliff with a lot of planks sticking out from it and a little port for our boat to dock. There wasn’t really anything else—no beach, no white sand and no people. It was just a 50 feet high cliff and a 30 feet deep ocean at the bottom. I’m not much of an adventure-seeker; I’m not the kind of person who wants his feet off solid ground. But then when we started to settle in, this girl started to jump off the highest plank. And that got everybody excited, including me.

I said to myself that I have to enjoy every minute of this trip. It’s not every day that you get the chance to travel. So I just embraced the whole place and changed my settings to adventure junkie mode. This eventually led to me jumping off a 20 foot cliff. It was the best jump I’ve ever had. I thought it was impossible for me to do it, but I did it. It wasn’t photographed the way I wanted it to be, since it was my little brother who was holding the camera for me. But point is, is that I came there, I jumped and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

That’s me on the photo above. I was scared to death but I jumped anyway.

The entire afternoon was spent on snorkeling. The ocean was really beautiful. It was filled with all these colorful fishes and beautiful corals. Too bad I didn’t have an underwater camera with me. Trust me, it was beautiful. When I swam farther away from the cliff, the sea floor just suddenly disappears and all you can deep Blue Ocean below you. It was breath taking, literally.

After that, I spent the rest of my time exploring the entire area. It was really beautiful because I realized that the place looked like Santorini, Greece especially with all the white against the blue ocean.

And I got the chance to see a local resident in Ariel’s Point. Her name is Michelle. And according to the tour guide, she’s very temperamental. And seeing that she’s chained down in a rod by the cliff, with no roof on top of her, she has a lot of reasons to be temperamental. But good thing she gets fed on a regular basis. She even drank and entire bottle of beer. Very impressive, even for a monkey.

So at around 4 pm, we finally left Ariel’s point on account of it’s already getting dark. We got back to our hotel, washed up, and prepared for another walk around the island. Eating freshly caught sea food was one of the things we really wanted to there. That’s why we had dinner at this amazing place called d’Talipapa.

After that we went around the island more, and explored more shops. It’s very colorful, especially this lamp store we found across d’talipapa. They have really beautiful lamps.

We ended the day with a few drinks at my favorite bar in Boracay, Café del Mar. What I love about this is that it’s right beside the beach and they have the best lounge seats in the entire island. It’s like a hammock but it’s shaped as a chair and it’s super comfy especially when you have the powdery white sand under your feet.

A tall cold glass of mango daiquiri is all I need to ease up on all the jumping and snorkeling and all the boat riding we’ve done all day. All is well that ends well. 

We arrived at Boracay at about 12 noon and headed straight to our hotel, Crown Regency. It hadn’t even sunk in to us that we were actually there. So instead of jumping head first on all the Boracay action, we decided to take a 30 minute nap that lasted for three hours.

Good thing when we woke up the sun was still there. We walked around and were surprised to see all the changes since we went there last 2005. It’s more commercialized that what I wanted it to be, but I’m glad they didn’t go overboard with the development. The last thing I wanted to see in the shore is cemented roads and a 20 storey building.

It’s impossible not to be charmed by the little shops around the island, especially the very little shops that sell quirky and fun souvenir items. But even if we were walking around, we still couldn’t believe we were actually there—all the years of wanting to go, saving and planning finally paid off.

The beauty of Boracay is that no one really owns the beach. Even if you live in a tent by the shore or in some swanky hotel, you still enjoy the same thing that everyone came there for, the beach.

So after we walked around, we went straight to the beach. Overwhelmed is not even describing how I felt when I was taking in everything that’s going on—the music, the people, the water, the sand and the beautiful sunset. It was really nothing short of awesome.

After that, we went back to our hotel, washed up and then explored the island even more. We went to this place called D’Mall. It’s rightfully named as D’Mall because it’s literally a mall by the sea in the middle of all the action. They even sell Fila, Crocs, and computers. When we walk back, we saw this little ice cream shop near our hotel. It was an easy favorite for us because two scoops of ice cream in the middle of a hot Boracay evening is all we need to cool down.

Since I was with my parents (since they’re paying for everything) the whole time, they get easily tired, especially from all the walking we’ve done. So we went back to our hotel and they went to bed. While I was so giddy looking back at all the photos I’ve taken so far. I was very excited when I went to bed that night, because I know I have a lot of things in store for me the next day.