“It’s like an aquarium in your face!”

Yes, that’s a direct quote from Chad. 🙂 We played tourist again and took an island hopping tour out in Honda Bay! It was our first time actually getting in the ocean (I know, really?!) but boy was it worth the wait. We also scored by getting on a tour with a group of Filipino-Canadian folk (grew up in the Philippines and now live in Vancouver) who gave us some great tips and recommendations and were all around just lovely people. We had a beautiful ride on the water out to the first Island “Starfish Island” where there were, indeed, plenty of starfish.

There were also a huge amount of fish, which were easy to see as you were encouraged to feed them. Oy yoy yoy. Did not know how I felt about that…you know, feels wrong, but then it was great for the viewing 🤦‍♀️😆. And the girls did spectacularly! They both were champs: snorkeling and swimming their hearts out. Even when Marion got tired of the trickiness of her snorkel and leaking mask she would just take breaks and swim/view without the mouthpiece and just hold her breath. Alys was in her element, not getting shaken by schools of fish and even making dives down to check on starfish and other sights. It is a bit different on these islands, what with the hordes of people and tours and the cordoned off snorkel areas (like an enormous swimming area lined with buoys) but I was actually happy that at least it was somewhat restricted as there didn’t seem to be much other restriction (feeding fish, walking around on what little coral there was…I mean I don’t think most people were walking on it but there didn’t seem to be any limits on such).

Next, Luli island named for the fact that it goes up and down (li and lu are some form of shortening the words up and down I think…should have been listening to our guide a little more closely) …the island/sandbar is covered and exposed with high and low tide. More good fish, more cheesy signs, more lovely water that isn’t too cold but not too warm…just the perfect refreshing dip.

Our last stop was Cowrie island, where we did not see any cowrie shells (though one of our boatmen showed us a beautiful one at our last stop) but the island DID have palms to climb…

Soft powdery sand, blue skies, fish in the water and time to enjoy them all

And a feast with all the Filipino foods: fish, adobo, fried chicken, shrimp, okra, marinaded spinach ish veggies, rice and more rice, cucumbers, gravies, seaweed, bananas and all on a banana leaf!

Sadly we don’t have any pictures of the fish we saw. I was particularly taken with the translucent needlefish that hovered at the top of the water and were lit by neon. There were angelfish (or something similar), what looked like parrot fish in their rainbow colors, itty bitty bright blue fish, schools of small and big. In lieu of pictures these were the girls’ take on what they saw: (be still my heart) hashtag homework? Teehee