Digyo Island, Cuatros Islas, Inopacan, Southern Leyte

To cap off our Summer 2011 Leyte escapade, we headed to Inopacan, Southern Leyte. Since we were billeted in Maasin City, we traveled 35.71 kms to Inopacan for P80 one way. If you are from Cebu, you can ride a boat to Hilongos (P350 for tourist class) and travel 15.26kms to Inopacan. Inopacan boasts of the Cuatros Islas, composed of Digyo, Mahaba, Apid & Himokilas (part of the municipality of HIndang) Islands.

Digyo Island was our destination, and despite the rainy weather, the water was cooperative (and still! thank God!), and we got to the island after a 30 minute boat ride (P3500 with life jackets!). And the long trip from Maasin City was worth it because the island was a paradise!  

digyo island

reaching island paradise

wati enjoying the sand & taking in the view 

Since there are no rooms, except for some open cottages, in the island, so we brought a huge tent to accomodate all. And since there's no electricity, we brought along a petromax so we'd have light during the night, and we can charge batts. And since there's no store in the island, you need to bring a lot of liquids & your food and utensils. But there is a nearby island, Apid island, where you can buy stuff though.

pitching the tent

the only accommodation in the island

The island is so small that we went around the island in a few minutes. And based on some research in google, the island is named Digyo coming from the old Cebuano word "digyot" which means small. We got to the island quite late and it was cloudy, but still, it looked lovely. But when we woke up the next day, the sun was shining, the blue water looked so still, and the sand so nice, that you could not help but marvel at the beauty of this God given gift. :) I read that the sea shore is not as big as years back since there was some illegal quarrying of the island's sand to ship to a hotel in Cebu. booooo for those who did that! :(

digyo island

Digyo's Sandbar

beach bums, beach lovers

the crystal clear water with Apid island at the back where you can buy stuff :)

Before we headed back to the mainland, we stopped over another beautiful island, Mahaba Island. Unfortunately our cam's battery got depleted, and our friend's cam batt got depleted too, that we were not able to take pix of the magnificent view of the island. Here are some iphone pix of the place.

Mahaba Island's tempting water..you can't help but jump out of the boat

the sand bar

The island hopping escapade was indeed a great ending to our week long Leyte Experience. The summer is almost over and too bad, our Bohol trip was stopped by typhoon Chedeng...:( But summer 2011 was awesome for us...and we're looking forward to more places to visit for the rest of the year!

Excited!:)

Visiting Maasin City, Southern Leyte

After a 5 day stay in Kananga & Ormoc, Leyte, we then headed to Maasin City for a friend's birthday. From Ormoc, we asked around for a bus/van that would go to the place. Fortunately there was a bus heading for Davao which would pass by Maasin. I think we could still pass up for students even at 27 & 29 since the bus conductor said we need to pay just Php140 each since we have student privileges even without asking for IDs! It pays to have a baby face! hahaha. :) The bus ride to Southern Leyte was nice because we chose the seats where you can see the coast, and we feasted on the view and checking what place we were in already and how far we were and after 2 and a half hours of travel, we reached the capital of Southern Leyte.

it pays to look young! SP!! :)

Since our friends were still out caving, we decided to visit the Our Lady of Assumption shrine on top of Jalleca Hills. To get to the top, you need to conquer 161 steps, but once you get there, you get a beautiful view of the city and the sea.

on the way to the top

Mama Mary Shrine, Maasin City

the view from the front of the shrine

view from the back of the shrine

And since we don't know where else to go, we walked around the city and after walking for a few minutes, we saw Seawall Barbecue and Beer! Perfect! We have not eaten lunch and we are thirsty for beer. LOL! And mind you, their barbecue's yummy!!! :) Drank 2 bottles of beer before Angge's cousin Maeann dropped by and we drank 2 more for the road before we headed to the Tan's farm near the airport for a fiesta celebration.

doing our fave pasttime at Seawall resto! LOL

pretty cousin Mae-an! :)

For our last day in Maasin City, cousin Mae-ann took us out for dinner at Kinamot sa Abgao where the ambiance is nice and just wonderful, because the moon was bright! And lucky for us the governor of Southern Leyte, Governor Mercado was there, and took care of the bill! :)

Kinamot sa Abgao treat by the governor! :)

We then had a drive around the city. Seeing the place, and Ate Mae-ann talking about it brought back memories of my dear lola (Angge). The Espinas are abundant in Maasin, in fact there is a boulevard named after the Espinas in Maasin!

our boulevard! :)

We then drove to the Capitol and went all the way to Ibarra, Maasin to buy their delicacies for our families here in Cebu. After the night ride, we then hurried to Hilongos to catch our boat ride back to Cebu.

Maasin City, maybe someday we'd meet you again! :)

Biliran's Tinago Falls Experience :)

We visited Leyte to attend the 2nd birthday of Angge's cousin Paolo and then headed to the tip of Biliran to dip in the cool waters of Tinago Falls.

From Cebu, we had a 2 and a half ride to Ormoc through Weesam Express at P650. After the kiddie party, we traveled for 15minutes and stayed in Kananga, Leyte, Angge's dad's hometown. The next day we were off to Caibiran, Biliran to check out the falls! 

Just a short info about Biliran. Biliran is located in the Eastern Visayas Region. It used to be part of Leyte until it was declared a full fledged province in 1992. Biliran is connected to Leyte by the the Biliran bridge. So we stopped over, marveled at the glorious view and had pictures taken. :)

Biliran Bridge

Zoe  & Angge enjoying the spectacular view

We then headed to Pulang Yuta, Caibiran to finally have lunch and enjoy the cool waters. Angge had been there so many years back, she hardly remembered the place. Then, there was no stairway, so you had to climb over the boulders to get to the falls. But now, the government has constructed a pathway to make it easier for visitors to go to the falls.

the 1st level

So after the 2.5 hour road trip, we hurriedly ate our lunch and dipped in the water. We stayed in the 1st level for we had kids who were more eager than us to jump in. The water was cold, but not freezing, and clear, but the current was quite strong since it was a rainy week before we visited. But nevertheless, we just swam and swam until it was time to go home.

the kids enjoying the water

wati jumping from the 1st level falls

you can swim towards the rocks near the falls, and jump because it was quite deep. And because the current was strong, we didn't exert so much effort in going back to our base, we just wen with the flow :)

We then climbed up the big boulders (unfortunately, we decided to go barefoot and the rocks were scorching hot!hehehe) but nevertheless, the view of the top falls, the cool air, and the water were just amazing. 

our 2nd falls getaway this May

relaxing in the big falls

After a few hours of swimming, we went to Caibiran proper, visited the in laws of Angge's aunt and checked out their beautiful church, the St. James the Apostle Parish! Too bad, camera's batt got depleted so we made do with a phone cam.

Before the main entrance to the church is an edifice of the apostle which is surrounded by 6 columns and protected by 6 singing angels. At the bottom of the statue is a fountain, which according to the tablet near the statue represents the 4 rivers that gives the land the irrigation it needs. The park also has benches around, and more statues decorating the park. Could not resist having dramatic pix taken :)

And aside from the great view within the church grounds, surrounding it are luscious mountains, worth taking pix again! :)

It was a great Caibiran experience. They say Biliran has more spots to be explored, more waterfalls, springs and white sand beaches too! Maybe the next time we'd be in Leyte, we'd get to see those places and write about them too. 

Excited!:)

Bohol Day Tour

We've been to Bohol several times, but never really together until the past girlfriend of Wati's brother took us to a day tour of the popular spots of the island to celebrate her 25th birthday last November 2007! All for free!!!:) 

The usual tour in Bohol would include the blood compact site where we had to wait till the bus full of Koreans left before we had our pictures taken.

Blood Compact Site

When one goes to Bohol, especially the first timers, the Chocolate Hills tour is always part of the itinerary.

Chocolate Hills

We also dropped by the Hanging Bridge, and saw the man who can peel the coconut husk with his freaking mouth!!!

Hanging Bridge, Bohol

We also stopped by the Man-Made forest, where the sun can barely penetrate and reach the land because of the abundance of really tall trees.

Man made forest with Wati's family

We did not do the Loboc Cruise for lack of time but we stopped over to check out the tarsiers. The rules were not to touch the animals and not to use the camera's flash. Tarsiers are suicidal once they get stressed, so if you disobey the rules, you might be the reason why the world is one tarsier less.

We then visited Prunie, the Giant Python. It was really scary going in the cage and having your picture taken with the python! The place also had other animals, and a host that sings, climbs, and makes you laugh at the same time.

Giant Python

Of course we visited one of the oldest church in the Philippines, the Baclayon Church. Since we were not appropriately dressed, we just hanged outside, had a few shots of the belfry.

 The Bohol day tour experience was nice, especially because we got to do it together. In a few days, we would be visiting Bohol again, can't wait to talk about it soon!

Excited! :)

Palawan Wonderland!!!

This trip happened in May 2009 and it's just unfortunate that we thought of talking about it now. The rates would be very different with the soaring prices nowadays, and yeah, we don't really remember all the rates! But nevertheless, we just want to reminisce...the 5 day 4 night Palawan escapade!:)

It was just great that we got super low fares then. Imagine for the 2 of us, we just paid around Php 1100 round trip!!! REally sweet savings for budget travelers like us! :) In Palawan, there are so many cheap pension houses that you can stay. You don't really need the expensive ones since you'd be out of the room for most part of the day.

On our 1st day in wonderland, we had the City Tour. We visited different places in Puerto Princesa. We checked the Crocodile Farm, the Iwahig Prison, Mitra's Ranch and Baker's Hill.
,

Baker's Hill

Crocodile Farm

Iwahig Prison

Boys over Flowers @ Mitra's Ranch

After the city tour, we headed to San Rafael, spent the night in Duchess Seaside Cottages, had a few beers before sleeping, then spent the whole day on their floating cottage in the middle of the very serene sea. Had a great day swimming, drinking, and most especially, enjoying the magnificent view!

the floating cottage

the boys shuffling back & forth to get our stuff :)

enjoying the waters

For our 3rd day in paradise we were scheduled to go to the Subterranean River. So we rode a van to Sabang Beach, had lunch there, a very yummy one (bought big fish for really small amount!) and went on to check out the much talked about cave...and stealing monkeys..:)

Sabang Beach

the berkz in Sabang, Palawan

the glorious view!!!

Subterranean River, Palawan

For our 4th day, everybody in the group except the two of us went to Dos Palmas while we opted for Honda Bay island hopping at a way way cheaper price...and great decision, because we had nothing but sand, sun, the clear water, the fish feeding, and loads of fun fun fun!!!! There are many islands in honda bay, but we visited Pandan, Snake & Starfish islands.

Starfish Island, Honda Bay, Palawan

Pandan Island, Honda Bay, Palawan

Snake Island, Honda Bay Palawan

beach lovers, Palawan

On our last day, we did some bargain shopping (Ukay-ukay) and souvenir shopping before we headed to the airport. Palawan was definitely a wonderland for us. It was our first Luzon experience, and it was one of the best trips we've had!:)

We have not yet totally explored Palawan, we know we'd both be back...Coron & El Nido...watchout for us!! We're gonna explore you...Excited! :)