We are staying in an adorable, clean, cool, perfectly appointed little condo on Mactan Island. We are here on Cebu Island for the next 3-4 months and are hoping to use this next week to find more permanent housing.
How did we pick Cebu? Why? Good question! We’ve been asking ourselves too…not because its not lovely, but because we can hardly remember…like so much of our trip it was a bit of a leap: its supposed to have great snorkeling and diving and its got other fun tourist adventures while also being near a large city with necessary emergency stuff if needed and an international airport for visitors!! Come visit! Mactan Island (also called Lapu-Lapu Island) famous landing point for Magellan (and place of his death) is, per folk here, very much an island, with Island vibe and Island time. There are a ton of huge and luxurious hotels/resorts but we are so sad that it seems really hard to find a beach to just go to and swim or snorkel at. We are lucky enough that Chad’s friend’s friend is into real estate here and he took us today to look at places to rent. We had been feeling a bit discouraged what with the lack of access to water, and snorkeling seems to be hard to come by if you don’t get a boat, and we want to not be completely insulated in a housing complex, but we also want to have toilets that flush and a place where guests can visit and be comfortable…We are needing to adjust our expectations a bit, but with everything else, we are rolling with it and we are so lucky because after visiting a couple places we are feeling more optimistic. We know we are spoiled beyond belief and something will turn up. Or we’ll go somewhere else. Or we’ll figure something out. World is our oyster! Is that the phrase? Looked it up, we’ll open it with our swords! Thanks Shakespeare
But don’t you worry, I’m sure you were 😉 despite it sounding like we’re complaining we have been fitting in plenty of fun. We’ve been getting settled, doing the usual grocery shopping (it can be a bit of a marathon to be in a new unknown store, foreign foods and interesting sights and smells while trying to get the staples and other whatnots). Did we mention Cebu is known for their guitar making? We bought one! And a beautiful tenor ukulele. So you know what that means: music lessons!
We’re enjoying hanging out at our place, swimming in the pool ( they require swim caps! We look hilarious), playing the guitar/uke, riding in the tricycles that are downright spacious! Its interesting how everywhere we’ve been in the Philippines so far seem to have their own take and style for the trikes. Here they can accommodate more people and are roomier: i can sit erect! Hallelujah.
We also took a little boat out to do some snorkeling, just off the shore so it wasn’t spectacular as it’s mostly seagrass instead of coral (we’re told the great coral and diving etc are out around the surrounding islands) but there were some good fish (we had to move to a new area after the first one was in a swarm of jellyfish and Chad, Alys and Marion all got stings…”I got like FIVE stings and I wasnt even in there for even 30 SECONDS!!” -Buoy). The girls didn’t last very long with the snorkeling, though did get to see some of the usual suspects: nemo and anemone, yellow, white and black striped, light bright neon blues. its not too rough hanging on a boat on a sunny afternoon looking at starfish (sea stars actually…mostly horned/chocolate chip…these girls are getting pretty knowledgeable…to go with their smarts and general adorableness).
off to a good start!
The Adobo Hobos 