Puerto Galera 2019 - Day 2

April 7, 2019 (Sunday)

Island Hopping!

Ernesto woke up at 5:00 AM to cook breakfast: scrambled eggs, Chorizo and garlic rice (before our trip, I was on my 7-day streak of Intermittent Fasting [16:8], but had to skip doing it since we're doing three full meals with snacks a day). We ate breakfast at 6:00 AM, then by seven, a tricycle fetched us from the resort to head on to our Island Tour. We first had a quick stop at the tour agency office to settle our payment. The Island Tour package was priced at P799/pax for three persons (price varies depending on how many people in the group are availing the package; more people, lesser price per head). The tour included visit to three sites: snorkeling at the Giant Clams, snorkeling at the Coral Garden, and San Antonio Island underwater cave. It was similar to the tour I had back in November 2017 except we visited four sites, the aforementioned three and another island/beach.

Mishaps and Bounce-backs

At the starting location, there were aqua shoes for rent (P100/pair) because the rocks at San Antonio Island had rugged edges, similar to the ones you see in Palawan. I didn't rent a pair because I thought my slippers were just fine.

Venus was already in the boat, Ernesto and I walked beside it on opposite sides (we were in between the outriggers and the body of the boat), while the boatmen pushed the boat toward a slightly deeper part of the water. When we were about to ride the boat, I tore both my plastic slippers apart while walking beside hurriedly. Those slippers were the only footwear I brought for the vacation, and I went barefoot the entire island hopping tour.

I didn't want to ruin anyone's mood by moping, so I just shrugged off what happened and thought that I could just buy another pair of slippers later on our way back to the hotel.

First stop, snorkeling at the Giant Clams. The way you do snorkeling for this tour is you have to hold on tightly to the ropes tied at the front of the boat, relax while you float making sure your body is flat straight especially on shallow waters, while the boatman maneuvers the small motor boat through the snorkeling area. It's crucial that you don't let go of the rope while the boat is slowly in transit because once you do you might get hurt with the boat's propeller.

Ernesto hanging on for his dear life :P

Super Boy and Super Girl. :P

Ernesto isn't really fond of snorkeling but I assured him that the view underwater was worth it and he didn't have to exert much effort in paddling unlike free style snorkeling. He was hesitant at first, still he tried. On the other hand, Venus somewhat struggled. She had a hard time biting onto the protruded parts of the mouth piece making it hard for hear to breath underwater.

Lucky for me, I saw a laid back turtle munching on sea grass/weed for breakfast. Too bad Ernesto and Venus didn't see it.

Snorkeling Buddies

Before going to Coral Garden, Venus changed her snorkeling gear. Finally, we all leisurely enjoyed our snorkel at Coral Garden. Ernesto admitted he became comfortable in the water, and Venus' snorkel was then water proof. The downside, we were only there for several minutes.

Ernesto finally enjoying snorkeling

At San Antonio island, I encouraged Ernesto and Venus to trek the part where the underwater cave was at since it's both their first time doing the tour. Besides, I couldn't join them because I was bare feet and stingy to pay P50 for aqua shoes rental at the island. But both of them didn't want to go, see and have pictures taken at the underwater cave. So we just hanged out at one of the stores and chatted for a bit.

Halo-Halo Break

Pak Ganern! :P

Happy Tourists

We were back at the starting location past 9:00 AM. While waiting for our tricycle service, we saw a kitten aimlessly wandering bye paved the road. A jeepney just finished unloading its passengers, was on its way back to the main road when suddenly the poor kitty was run over by it. It was very unsightly.

Siesta

Before heading back to the hotel, we asked our tricycle driver to stop over somewhere that sells slippers. We were several meters to our hotel when we stopped by the road side at a line of stalls which sold souvenir items. I bought a new pair of slippers for P100.

We had an early lunch back at the hotel. Ernesto cooked Chicken Adobo and Stir-Fried Vegetables. The morning activities sure made us hungry and we ate lunch with much gusto. We even had chilled watermelon as fruity after-meal dessert.

Initially we thought of swimming at the beachfront after having lunch but it was already midday and the sun was high and mighty. Ernesto and Venus each took a turn to shower then had an afternoon nap. I didn't immediately showered and changed because I'd like to swim at the beachfront. I thought I could wait for a time where it would be overcast. I didn't realize soon I also fell asleep.

I woke up around three in the afternoon. I took a shower and changed clothes. Around 4:00 PM, we decided to go to White Beach by tricycle. On our way, we had a quick stop at PNB ATM near the port. Ernesto withdrew some cash. (From what I've seen, there are three ATMs in town: PNB, Landbank and I'm not sure if the third one was a rural bank).

Stroll at White Beach

As expected, there were plenty of people at the White Beach. I acted as their tour guide pointing to several landmarks. We watched people chillin' by the beach, kids playing, and group of friends enjoying water activities. There were even teens playing beach volleyball.

Welcome to White Beach!

We walked along the elevated paved path side of the beach lined with restaurants and shops looking for BBQ (Ernesto was craving it). Until we reached the end of White Beach (left most part facing the sea), we decided to have an early supper at the Italian restaurant Casa Mia. We dined al fresco at the second level of the restaurant offering us a beautiful view of White Beach. We ordered and shared pizza and pasta for dinner.

At the cozy Casa Mia Italian restaurant in White Beach, Puerto Galera

View of White Beach from our table

Pizza and Pasta for Dinner

White Beach Night Life

By 7:00 PM, it was already dark and the fire dancers started their mesmerizing show. We asked for the check, left Casa Mia and walked toward where spectators were huddled around the fire dancers. We also saw the drag queens show and their comedy acts.

Obligatory Sand Castle Group Pic (happy lang, achieved! :D)

And since it's Ernesto and Venus' first time in White Beach, they had to try Puerto Galera's famous cocktail "Mindoro Sling". We opted to have drinks at an acoustic bar where we ordered a pitcher of Mindoro Sling and some pica-pica.

A few hours of listening to some acoustic jam, more chitchats (Venus was busy reading her Harry Potter e-book on her phone) and an empty cocktail pitcher, we decided to call it a night. That was around 9:30 PM. We knew it's a bit early for a night out but we were concerned with our ride back to the hotel since there weren't much tricycles that would be willing to take us. Our trike ride went up from P120 when we went to White Beach to P250 back to Square Beachfront Apartments in Tabinay.

Back at our apartment unit, Venus slept early. Ernesto and I had more chitchats and finished the what remained of the chilled watermelon (it was mostly him, I only had one slice that night hahaha) before settling to turn in.

Next day, it was "Goodbye, Puerto Galera" and "Hello again, Reality".