Boats and Giraffes

Sometimes all you need is a couple days away to reset and recharge your batteries, especially when you live somewhere where your daily commute includes fighting Jeepneys and wayward buses for an hour each way. Our weekend away to Coron was just what we all needed. We packed up our passports and bathing suits and headed out. 
We packed and got our passports out.  Take that Jason Bourne. 

We decided to test out the new smaller double stroller we got for out upcoming Italy trip to see if everyone liked it. So far, huge success. The boys loved sitting next to each other instead of one behind the other. It’s easy to fold, light and small! Italy here we come. But first Coron.

One of the things I love the most about these two is even though they each have a kids kindle for when we travel (thanks Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj!) they usually end up watching each other. I’m going to count that as a good sign that they one day will choose to hang out with each other and be friends.

Big surprise -please read with sarcasm- our flight was delayed by a few hours. This is hands down the number one thing I dislike about travel in the Philippines.  Flights are often delayed for hours and with two little kids to entertain these hours can feel like fooooooreeeeveeer. But we mostly kept smiles on our faces.

Our plane was a propeller plane and was the cause of much excitement.

Only rivaled by the kindle of course.

We finally arrived.  It never gets old to land on a little one lane runway with a little string fence keeping the cows off.

The hotel was an hour away from the airport but this place was worth every second of our trip! We woke up the next morning to this view from our balcony.

We had arranged an all day boat tour. I was a little nervous about how the boys would do -spoiler alert- they did great!
Malcolm is so funny, the second he gets on a boat he wants to go to sleep.  It was a long trip to our first island, almost two hours. Malcolm snoozed for part of it and Adam just enjoyed every second of being on a boat. 

The views were like this the entire way.

When we arrived at our destination we were treated to a cute sign on a rickety little pier. This island, Calauit has been a wildlife sanctuary since 1976. The story of the island is that the Philippines government was responding to the request of the Kenyan president during the Third World Conference for help saving African wildlife threatened by war and drought. 

There are tons of zebras, giraffes and deer walking around all over the island.

After feeding the giraffes we headed off to South Cay island which is owned by the hotel we were staying at, Busuanga Bay Lodge. This island was the place dreams are made of. Beautiful white sand, turquoise water, an amazing barbecued lunch, oh and beach chairs and umbrellas. Did I mention how much I love beach chairs and umbrellas. Even in Greece, where you have to pay for your chair I would buy one each and every time I was at the beach, because it is so much better!

Coron, you are pretty amazing!

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