Island Hopping in the Philippines

There is a local joke that the number of islands in the Philippines depends on whether the tide is in or out. There are about 7107 islands and we got to visit 2 of them during a one-day island hopping adventure.

Sam on one of the islands.

Before we arrived at the first island we stopped at a reef and snorkeled. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of fish and a wide variety of things (coral and plants) to see under the sea. It was easy to just keep looking for the next cool thing to see. We discovered that Jenna didn't like breathing through a snorkel and somehow we lost her snorkel. I think her mask was too large for her. The bottom hung over her upper lip and I bet that's what made it hard for her to use the snorkel. After we lost the snorkel Jenna didn't seem to miss it and enjoyed "snorkeling" more without it. Is there a name for "snorkeling without a snorkel"? I couldn't think of it.

We arrived at the first island at around 9:30am. If we weren't the first boat there we were the 2nd. There were maybe 15 buildings and covered picnic tables on the island. It was looking pretty rustic. Our tour guide and one of the guys from the boat started preparing a yummy lunch and told us to go play. There was a beautiful beach with a couple of platforms and a diving board. While we were there the tide came in and covered up large parts of the island.

After snorkeling, swimming, and beach combing for a couple hours we ate lunch at around 11:30am. It was grilled pork and two kinds of grilled fish, rice, boiled shrimp, grilled egg plant (yummy), watermelon, and egg salad. We all ate until we were full and then swam again before leaving for the next island. I think all of the other boats had already left the island.

The next island was Cowrie Island. It was a bit fancier. It had a big pavilion, a restaurant, a bar, and fresh water showers. We spent two hours here swimming and playing in the water. The kids learned by observation how to take some fun pictures and spent quite a bit of time doing that. Watch for one of the kids to post some of those photos. They are really fun.

Both islands were tropical paradise. We had so much fun playing together in the water, swimming, snorkeling, and beach combing. It really was a great day. We all hope we get more tropical paradise experiences in Malaysia where we've planned more beach time!