Dumaguete
We found Dumaguete very nice and laid back but more of a big town than a city. Our hotel, Florentina Homes was situated close to the airport and a 25 minute walk into town or a 20 peso trike ride. The hotel had rooms named after Liverpool, Harrogate, York and Leeds.
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Apart from enjoying what Dumaguete had to offer, we visited other places in the area. Saturday 23rd was the start of over a week of continuous glorious weather so we headed down to Apo Island.
The trike ride down to Zamboanguita was very pleasant. The boat ride across to the island was expensive at 2000 peso's so we hung around to see if anyone else wanted to go across and go halfs on the journey.
An attractive middle aged happy-go-lucky Pinay arrived soon after at the jetty with her older Dutch playmate lumbering behind. She was from Zamboanga and was visiting her son in Dumaguete and she had just met the Dutchman who was down from Cebu. Unknown to him she already had a partner in Mindanao who was Swiss. This is what she told Maria anyhow. In Tagalog of course!
The banca was small and was just big enough for the four of us and the crew. The crossing was choppy and every five minutes or so sea water would splatter everyone but it was fun. It took half an hour give or take to get to the island which gave us around four hours before the boat went back.
ZAMBOANGUITA
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The island has a resort with splendid views and you can use their reasonably priced restaurant if you so which. Unless you're a diver there's not a great deal to do here although I was kept busy by trying to avoid an elderly female stalker who was hell bent on flogging me an undersized navy blue T-shirt of Apo Island.
There's not much sand on the beach, mainly rock and also large boulders which you could climb across. Perfect though for escaping from elderly stalkers. This is the area where you can observe sea turtles but unfortunately a photo was out of the question as they only popped their heads out of the water briefly.
APO ISLAND
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The day after we went to Apo Island, we visited the falls in Valencia, just outside Dumaguete but the trike broke down and we had to ride the remainder on the back of a bike.
The scenery was fantastic but we couldn't really take pictures on a bike. A familiar voice was heard from the wayside as we spluttered up an incline. It was 'Miss Zamboanga' waving from the side of a hot pool while her Dutch buddy wallowed in the water.
More pics to follow.......
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