Boracay: Sun, Sand and Sweat?

Boracay Day 3

As usual, my brother and I woke up late. It was quite a bummer that loud music was playing.  Turns out that a rugby competition sponsored by Nestea was ongoing at that time.  The venue of the competition was actually at BomBom Bar, which is next to Sun Village.  And unfortunately for us, the rugby players occupied the bamboo beds of Sun Village. :(  I still got to use them, though I missed the privacy during the first few days.

Ladies teams of Rugby teams all over the Philippines!  There was a team from UP and SU! :)

1. Paris in Boracay!; 2. The Mermaid at Red Coconut; 3. Strolling at D'Mall; 4. Horns at the Steakhouse!

I can't just get enough of the view! :)

Having read so many reviews on Manana, I insisted on having lunch there. I am a big fan of Mexican food.  I just love spiced beef with sauce and tons and tons of cheese.  However, my brother and father weren't feeling it so off they went to have burgers at Bite Club, I think. Servings at Manana is huge! Mama and I shared an order of beef burrito.  A beef burrito order is actually two very filling burritos! :)  It has meat, beans, rice and veggies. Yum!  It also comes with three types of sauce and salsa! I wish we had Manana here in Manila!  But having Manana in Boracay gives me all the more reason to go back to that paradise. ;)

Party hats at Manana! :)

I'm a big eater and I must say, this really filled me up!

I especially loved the salsa and the chili sauce.

 After lunch, we met up at Aria for dessert.  I ordered the cookies and cream. Yum!  We returned to Sun Village to take a nap.  Yup, napping is the recurring activity for us. :)) Even in Boracay!  After recharging, my parents decided to go and but some souvenirs.  While my brother insisted that we rent a bike.  I haven't biked in years!  But I was game!  We saw two bikes off the alley at Red Coconut but my brother said that there was a bigger bike rental shop by the main road.  So in my bikini and summer dress, off we went to the main road.  Too bad I wasn't able to take a picture of the bike rental shop!  I was too excited to ride again! The bikes were rent were mountain bikes.They were huge and it was my first time to ride one! The lady was friendly though she didn't explain what the gears were for.  She just said "Wag mo na lang galawin." Kaloka! :))  The minimum hours that you can rent the bike is two, so that's Php300.  You can also rent a bike for half a day, or the whole day or during your entire stay!  :)

Because it was my first time to ride one, and because I was in a freaking dress, I had trouble finding my pace!  What more, we were on a main road where there were vehicles zipping by!  But since it is a small main road compared to EDSA, and drivers there were considerate not to run you over, there was really nothing to worry about.  But being the paranoid that I am, I kept a sloooow steady pace while my brother was biking furiously!  We wanted to go to Mount Luho so we followed the lady's directions.  We biked until we reached Bulabog Beach and there was a sign but no arrow! o_O  Bioy went to bike towards the beach and I just followed him.

Tourists should rent a bike and tour the Island on bike!  It's a great alternative to jogging and it's not as tiring.  Biking is my next favorite exercise, to swimming. :)  It's really relaxing biking on the beach, enjoying the sight, the locals and having the locals cheer you on as you bike.  Again, I kinda regret not taking that much pictures since I was too preoccupied trying to catch up to my brother. :))

Bulabog Beach :)

As we were biking, my instincts told me that we were biking to the opposite of Mount Luho.  So we turned back and asked some locals the way to Mount Luho.  Dang! I kinda regret doing that! :))  While the first few parts of the climb was easy, the next parts were just too steep! You see, I'm not a big fan of exercise, and I get exhausted very easily.  When I could no longer pedal up the mountain, I decided to just push the bike.  And even that made me short of breath.  My heart was pounding, and I thought I would collapse! Hell! I wanted to collapse! But I pushed, and went back on my bike to catch up with Bioy, who was nowhere in sight.  Buses and tour vans whizzing kept me on my toes.  There were two experienced bikers who whizzed by as if they were biking on a plane surface!  Sensing my difficulty, one of the bikers cheered me on. :)  Yay. Thanks for that, random biker!  Believe me, I wanted to reach the top.  But my body couldn't take it anymore.  We stopped at Cohiba Villas to catch our breathe and regretted not bringing water.

Last stop: Cohiba Villas! :))

Easiest incline during the climb!

Super haggard lang!

Still, the view there was majestic! :) When we were both recharged, we began our trip back. :)) The trip going down was relatively easier, but still scary!  I made the mistake of putting the wrong brake and boom!  I almost fell off the bike!  Good thing my reflexes were sharp that I was able to dismount before disaster happened. Back at Bulabog, we bought water at the store.  We were surprised at how cheap the water was compared to the water sold at White Beach! And to think it's just only a short walk!

Hay! After the really tiring bike ride, we went off to swim.

The only family picture we had!

I miss the cool powdery sand!

I love my bikini! Haha I just love the color! It suits my personality! :)

For dinner, we were supposed to eat at Cyma.  Regrettably, the place was packed!  And the next table would be available in an hour!  Originally, we wanted to wait.  So we strolled along D'Mall and looked at some souvenir shops.

I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel!But no one wanted to ride with me. :(

This clubbed artist has a lot of fans. He's really good! :)

Are these really snake bones?

Our camera doesn't give justice to these artists' attention to detail. :(

 But, our tummies got the better of us.  We went to Mesa, at Boracay Regency!  We were immediately seated.  We had the Inihaw Platter and Laing two ways. The Inihaw platter had tahong, shrimp, bangus, pork barbecue, chicken, liempo and squid.  The flavor was divine!  The laing was exceptional, especially the milky variation.  Will try other Mesa dishes here in Manila! :)

Milky laing and regular laing! Yum!

The crocodile skull my brother anted to take home!

One of the many souvenir choices, personalized wooden tags. :)

If you look closely, there are Aetas sitting on the sand.  This is quite depressing because there are quite a number of them begging on the beach front.  Maybe the businessmen of Boracay should set up livelihood projects for the locals so they wouldn't have to resort to begging. :(  

 Bioy and I went back out later that night to grab a bite.  I wanted to taste chori burger since I've read reviews about it.  It fell short to say the least.  It would have been better if it had cheese!

Boracay's street food - Chori burger! :)

Capped off the night with another fire dance show. :)

Where to:


Manana Mexican Cuisine, Station 1, White Beach
Mesa Filipino Moderne, Crowne Regency, White Beach
Chori burger, any ihaw food stall along the beach :)