Boracay and Puerto Princesa

 

Boracay

We ended September at a delightful Philippine island called Boracay. It's #59 in the map above. If you click the map, you'll be taken to our complete "World Tour" interactive map where you can click on the numbers and see more. We had no plans at this port, we didn't even get off the ship on the first day. For the second day we just wandered. We took the tender to shore, then hopped on the local bus to see where it would take us. We ended up at a place called The Keyhole. It's a picturesque arch in the rock at the end of the island and people actually lined up to take their photo. There was this guy at the front of the line who took your phone and told you how to pose. How fun! 

Then we got back on the bus and headed to the beach. It started raining and we sought refuge under a tarp where some locals were selling rum drinks. Gee, what a coincidence! A rum drink under a tarp, talking to locals is a perfect way to pass a rainy day on a beach.

We continued down the beach, stopping ocasionally for someone to admire Jim's mustache, and ended up at a wonderful open-air restaurant with a saxophonist.

Puerto Princesa and the Subterranean River

Next stop - Puerto Princesa. We signed up ahead of time for a tour on the subterranean river - I think we paid $120 each. I thought it was well worth it. A van picked us up right at the ship and we drove nearly 2 hours to get to where we got on a traditional outrigger boat for about 20 minutes to the mouth of the river. We had a beautiful day!

This is a major attraction and they've learned how to protect it. NO talking allowed. So, the tour guide did not come with us ... tour guides are noisy! They had audio devices with earbuds so we could hear a commentary. There are lots of bats in the cave and noise is a problem for them, not to mention the fact that if there's lots of talking we don't get to hear the silence and the sweet drip, drip, drip of the water from the walls into the river. Yes, some of it is water and they refer to it as "holy water' but some of it comes from the bats, so they call that "holy shit!" The helmets are to protect us from the latter 😊