We're Back!

The husband and I are back from the Philippines and it was awesome. My family over there pampered me to the point where I was asking myself, why do I live in America? But I know that visiting and living somewhere are two very different realities, this realization came with my move to NY, so it is still fresh in my mind.
My last post listed all of the things that I have done up until that point, and since then we had some action packed days. So here goes my summary of part one of what we did. Part two and maybe three to follow in the next few days.
Took an hour flight out of Manila-Quezon city to go to Iloilo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iloilo. We were met on the plane by an aunt who was in Manila for the day, Tita E. When we arrived at the airport we were met by Tito R. and driver, and I got a glimpse of how I was going to get treated for the next few days and what kind of life my family is used to over there. As we got off the plane I was making my way over to the baggage claim to pick up my pink and Mr.P's tennis ball green luggage, but Tita E. directed us to wait outside in the air conditioned car while a porter was instucted to look for our bags. When we pulled up to our Tito and Tita's house I was amazed to learn that we would be staying in a house surrounded by not only a wall but also armed gards, who had holsters for each of their bullets. It was both a comforting and sad feeling because I realized that my family has a hard life in a secretive sense.
Anyways we went out for dinner and had oysters and fresh red snapper (I think), Mr.P and I were still kind of jet-lagged at this point (it was only day three for us), so we weren't the best and most talkative company. Shortly after dinner we were both full and exhausted. Before we went to bed though we discussed with Tita E. that we would leave at 7ish for Boracay.
The next day we were up and ready to go and so began the road trip part of our travels. We were set to drive from Iloilo to Caticlan, basically from the bottom to the top of the island.
Some photos of our view:















































































While in Boracay me and Mr.P were alone and free to enjoy our official honeymoon. While in Boracay we went on a glass bottom boat tour that was nice but a horrible moment of regret for me.

So we go on this glass bottom boat tour and the tour guide is a sweet and smiley guy around my age. He is giving everyone a history lesson on the island (found by Germans) and is very warm and welcoming. Everyone gets passed snacks and drinks and we are told that his boat is our boat à la mi casa es su casa. I was all into looking at the corals and stuff and was even playing along with our mission to find Nemo (by the way we totally did). We went all the way out to Crocodile island (so called due to the shape of the island, not because of the abundance of crocodiles), and turned around to come back. However on the way back the tour guide had it planned out to stop for a while so that anyone who felt so inclined could go snorkeling. The boat anchored and in dove our guide and the boat driver grabbed a bunch of life jackets and mask as they expected a few people to go. An uncomfortable silence made its way through the group, no takers, the boat guy singles me out and asks me (I secretly think that because I was so animated for the first part of the tour, the boat crew was banking on me to be the one to go), I uncomfortably look around and decide that I can't make everyone wait for me, but inside I am thinking "wow I can have a one-on-one tour", but I instead go with the first feeling of passing. The moment they pulled up the anchor, I regretted my weak ass decision, first of all because it was totally out of character and because it was essentially lame. The rest of the boat ride was quiet and awkward, the tour guide looked all dejected and probably was disapointed that he was not able to inspire any one to go with him. I went from cool to fool with the boat crew, man oh man if I could have that moment back.
That is lame me afterwards.














The next day though I was vindicated as I went snorkeling with Mr.P and I was able to feed the fish as they ate bread right out my hands.
Other Boracay highlights: The Hobbit House-a regular restaurant but staffed only by the vertically challeged.














Jonah's fruit shakes, my favorite papaya lemon:













"Seriously this is the best shake ever"

and of course the beach:













So that's all for now please stand-by for the more stories.