Vacating

As Keith said, we had a really hard time deciding whether or not to leave Davao for our pre-planned vacation with Julie. It was somewhat heart-wrenching, but we took off on June 30th for Siargao Island at the Northernmost tip of Mindanao.

Siargao Island is a small spot known for its world-renowned surfing. We were heading for a spot called The Boardwalk at Cloud 9, owned by an Australian man and his Filipina wife. We had hired our friend, Toto, to drive us up to Surigao City to take a ferry to the island. We thought the drive would take 6 hours, so we left at 5am to catch the last ferry of the day at 12 noon. It turns out, however, that the drive is 7 hours at a pretty good pace, so we arrived in Surigao City at 12:15, just too late for the last ferry. We had two options: charter a boat to the island for 10,000 pesos (about $250) or stay overnight in Surigao City for about 1,800 pesos. We chose the latter option and checked into a nice hotel for the night.

To fill up our time in Surigao City we went to a historical museum, walked around the city a little bit, and watched (cable!) TV in the hotel room. Julie had started feeling a little sick on the ride up to Surigao, and by the time we finished dinner and had gone to bed, she had full-on chills and a fever. Awesome. It was a restless night (a live music performance downstairs lasted until midnight and construction started at 7am), but we got through and headed to a ferry the next morning. It was not the funnest of 2 1/2 hour rides, as it was very loud, we were sitting on wooden benches, and lots of men smoked the entire time, but we finally made it to Siargao.

We hopped into a tricycle for the bumpy, 45 minute ride to the resort. It was such a feeling of relief to finally be there and settle in, especially since Julie was getting progressively worse. We relaxed for the rest of the day, enjoying the beautiful views and peaceful atmosphere of the location.

The next morning, after much deliberation, Keith and I left Julie at the resort so she could sleep for the day and hopefully recover more quickly, and we headed on a tour that had been organized by the resort to the Sohoton Caves. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed swimming in the amazingly blue-green, clear water, jumping out of trees into the water, swimming into caves, and snorkeling amid hundreds of non-stinging jellyfish, all while making many new friends. It was quite an amazing day trip, although it was tempered somewhat by the thought of our sick friend. We headed back to the resort in a little boat at sunset and even had the amazing blessing of seeing a few dolphins swimming beside our boat!

Keith had his first surfing experience the next morning. He did great and had so much fun, and we snapped some good pictures too. I think he turned into a lifetime surfing enthusiast. Julie was feeling a little bit better after breakfast, so the three of us hopped on a motor bike with our driver, Jersen (who was also Keith’s surfing instructor) and drove (through a tropical downpour!) to a lagoon and some rockpools in another area of the island. The place was beautiful, and we had fun swimming, rock-jumping, and taking lots of pictures. We then headed back to the resort and relaxed for the rest of the day, chatting with our new friends and just enjoying some rest.

For our last day, we decided to go kayaking through the mangrove area near our resort. Once again, Jersen was our guide and we paddled peacefully through this amazing ecosystem. We even saw some flying fish! It was a relaxing way to spend a morning.

We were a little tired of the food at our resort and wanted to do some exploring, so we walked down the (rather remote) road from our hotel, seeing what we would find. We came upon a beautiful resort and, after looking at the menu, decided to eat lunch there. This was probably the best decision I’ve made since arriving in the Philippines. The food was so good, and we were the only ones in the restaurant so it was quiet and peaceful. We found out later that the resort was opened by two Parisians who had come to Siargao and fallen in love with the place. It seemed so strange to find this beautiful food - probably the best we’ve eaten in our time in this country - in a remote corner of a somewhat deserted and isolated island. What a blessing.

We headed home the next day and had a much less stressful drive home than the one on the way to Surigao. We arrived back to our apartment, cleaned it thoroughly (many dirty people had trekked through after the flood) and had a wonderful sleep back in our own beds.

The rest of Julie’s visit consisted of more exploration of Davao: a trip to Eden Nature Park where we went on a beautiful hike; being guided through a Davao historical museum; and doing some touristy shopping. It was so very lovely to have a friend visit us here, even though the 2 weeks definitely had their stressful times. Saying goodbye to Julie was hard, but we felt ready to go back to work and get back to being productive.