The beautiful islands of CEBU

When I open my eyes in the morning, with my eyes half open and with my weak body which still long to hug the pillows, I strive to reach my towels hang on the wall and the body soaps in the cabinet and head to the bathroom to take a bath. Soon after that, with stomach starving to have some breakfast, I prepare my self and my bag and head to the office. And for the whole day, there's no other place I stay but within the premises of the building. Sitting all day long would kill me so I choose to walk around as much as possible. Cafeteria, the small book store owned by the company, and the small garden are the only places I could visit but this at least eases the stress I feel staying in the office and seeing only the cream colored walls.

One day, I learned that I was assigned to accompany some Japanese students to an island hopping. This is work, but this is a fun one.

Then finally that day came. I woke up early in the morning and just like the usual routine, I prepared and head to the office. But this time, I threw those pants, yellow blouse and black shoes and pack some clothes and different stuff for the trip in my black bag pack instead of packing those make up, pens, notebooks and different office stuff in my leather sling bag. Then I arrived in the entrance of the building. I arrived at 6:55 AM which is an hour and thirty five minutes ahead of the scheduled time for the hopping - I was obviously too excited. The crazy part is, I thought I was the only one but around seven minutes after, my co-worker who was going with us too came - she is excited for it too and we both didn't have break fast  just to get their as early as we can, because of too much excitement of course.


Soon as we gathered all students we take off and started the trip to Smile Hopping, an Island hopping company in Mactan. This is owned by a Korean who has lived in Cebu for a considerable number of years and lived just like the Filipino staff he has.

The weather seemed to be so excited for us as well. The sun was so bright and the ocean was so calm and the boat was sailing smoothly. There are times that bigger waves hits the boat, splashing water to us, but it was rather exciting than scary.

SNORKELING at HILUTUNGAN ISLAND 

And into first spot, snorkeling at Hilutungan Island. Seeing the wonderful underwater world amazed me. Yes I had seen how it looks like, but it was the first time to see it in person. I kept on following the big fish and soon hear a shout "Maam, diri lang ta dapit.", and I realized I was going far from the boat. I could see different types of fish which are so colorful and of various sizes. It's even so amusing as they got near me as I threw some food to them.

As I was looking at the fish and corals, I felt like it was so easy to reach the see floor. Feeling so envious with other divers not using life jackets and get deep to the ocean, I convinced my life guard to watch over me as I try to dive deeper. I felt so confident that I have enough skill to do it, then I learned something, I need to practice swimming more. I felt so afraid and just got out of the water in 3 second period. That is so disappointing. Later on, I got my jackets off and swim without it but I was holding on to the ropes around the boat. That's when I felt like my experience in deep water so satisfying.

LUNCH at PANDANON ISLAND

Then we set forth to Pandanon Island where we had our lunch and had swimming. As we are approaching the island, I saw houses and small infrastructures in it. The scene amazed me a lot with questions in my mind such as "This kind of island exist, seriously?" and "What kind of lifestyle do they have here being so away from the city." As I roam my eyes around the area, I  noticed that there are two islands, one with the houses and infrastructures and the small one with a countable frameworks on it - a chapel and one that looks like Parthenon and cottages . But as I amusingly gaze at the two islands, I notice a part of the islands covered by water connecting them. And right there, I understood that these islands are one during low tide and becomes two during high tide.

When we came off the boat, some kids were coming our way. With curiosity of the place I spoke to one of the kids and I knew that they have a school in the area and even though the school is a bit far, the only means of transportation to get there is WALKING. This means they have to walk everyday to school. I thought the island is just small, but I guess I have mistaken since the kid said "It's far, it's so hard to get there, we hate walking that long but we have to." I could feel that he was exhausted doing it every day as he said that line.
Then lunch was served, everyone seated while waiting for the food to come. As each dish arrive one by one, everybody keeps on saying "wow...!". We had grilled chicken, fried shrimp in barbecue stick, pork BBQ, crabs and by the end the meal, fruits were served. And as we eat, some staff gathered and started singing, such a great entertainment you get other than the amusing scenery of the place.

The beauty of the day when the sun was partly 
covered by the clouds making it shine on 
a certain part of the ocean like a flash light
 focused on one place.   

And right after eating, everyone were so excited to swim at the beach and play with the clear waters and the crystal like white sands. I was so astonished when I saw people of different raises and nationality. Wow, this island has been visited by different people even before I knew it exist. It is so shameful but there's no way I could change it. So I just enjoyed the place, took a lot of photos, play, go around the place, and I just don't want to leave, but of course we have to.  And even when everybody would like to play more, the energy is not enough to do it.

If there is one thing that would make my day, that is the beauty of the clouds and it's wonderful formations. As we traveled back to Mactan, I kept my eyes on the clouds. Well, I see that everyday, but it would take long for me to see it again from the middle of the ocean. It got even more better as the sun sets and gives a different colors to the clouds. Everyone's tired but the eagerness of playing more and having more fun is drawn on the faces of the people on that boat. And as we traveled back to the academy, everyone's mind full of flash backs of scenes of the overwhelming activity we had just done and wish of doing it again if time, money and our body permits.