Manila to Boracay, Philippines

On Saturday our flight to the small town of Kalibo was cancelled due to bad weather so we were forced to spend another day in Manila, where the weather was also bad - typically tropical with heavy warm rain all day. Our flight yesterday was almost cancelled as well. We checked in, waited at the gate, boarded the plane, taxied out to the runway, waited forever and then the pilot said they had just closed the airport at our destination (Kalibo) so we taxied back to the gate but no-one got off. A few minutes later the pilot said we were waiting for the weather to improve, which it did, and then we finally took off about 90 minutes late. Once in Kalibo we got on a bus to the small town of Caticlan, then boarded a tiny boat to ferry us across to the Island of Boracay. It was great getting off about 10m from shore and wading in the rest of the way.

Boarding our flight to Kaliba from Manila

The Jeepney that took us to Caticlan

Now we're here, at last. Sara has already signed up for her dive class which started this morning and will probably go for at least 3 days, maybe 4. She's already read the first 2 chapters of the book (which is more than I read during my whole course) so now I have a few days to do some things on my own - maybe some sailing or canoeing. On the last day of Sara's course I will be joining her for one dive which will be my official refresher dive because it's been five years since I strapped on a tank. There is no-one else on the course with Sara, just her and the instructor - a guy called Jerry from Bristol in England. Sara is a bit nervous about it all but at least she won't have the pressure of trying to keep up with a large group of divers. After Sara has got her PADI Beginners Course, we'll take a few days to celebrate and then both do the advanced course together. In the advanced course we do 5 dives including - a navigational dive, a wreck dive, a night dive and a deep dive down past 40m.

The beach at Boracay

This morning we had a lovely breakfast in the sunshine, and now, one hour later, it's absolutely pouring outside and very windy. We were told that at this time of year we will probably get 5 bad days and 5 good days of weather so we just have to ride it out. I just hope when we come to leave that our flight will be okay otherwise we may be stuck in a nothing town like Kalibo where there is very little to do.

Boracay from the plane