I found Nemo!

That's my new best buddy and I posing for the camera. It was her idea. I thought it was a bit pretentious but hey, what can you do when you get instructions from a person that likes to pose? Claire was great with the camera. Every time I turned around there was a lens in my face.

We met on the tiny airplane on our way over from Manila. I had just hiked across town from a bus station, sleepless and twenty minutes before the flight was to take off. Basically, I spent the entire night travelling from Legaspi listening to every effing Bon Jovi song (sorry Joanne) ever written. On the upside, the eventually did switch CDs to Engelbert Humperdink and a few of the locals sang along to classics such as Quando Quando Quando and red roses for my lady. I just wish it hadn't been 3:30am which is when I was having this cultural experience. My mood shifted considerably when I scored a seat on the 'sold out' plane to Busuanga island.

Claire and I checked into a room and then went to organize an island hopping tour which is how we met Miguel and Mai. I liked them instantly. The four of us got on a boat to look at some property M&M were considering purchasing. It was a no go. The mangroves made the beachfront an impossible place to enjoy. Afterward, we went out to climb 732 steps to a huge cross overlooking the bay of Coron town before heading to the hot springs to soak under the million or so stars out that night. We capped the night off with a bottle of wine and a dinner of devil fish. Mai was quite disappointed in this local specialty but I really liked the fatty, white meat which tastes heavenly when dipped in lime and chili.

I thought everything was taken care of for the next day. We got up at 4am and waited for the boat to show until 6am at which point I took my chances and went back to bed. I rolled out of bed at noon and organized a half day snorkel trip for the four of us. It turned out to be one of the best days. We must have snorkeled for over an hour. The coral is incredible at Siete Pecados. The water is clear enough to see a hundred feet down. The fish were multi-colored. There were sea urchins, blue fish, yellow fish, small fish, medium fish, fish that looked like blow fish, fish that looked like zebras and then I found Nemo!

We moved our boat over to the twin lagoon in hopes of finding some large turtles to swim alongside but aside from experiencing some really cold water and having more pictures taken by shutterbug Claire it was an uneventful soak. Banol beach didn't disappoint though. White sand and clear blue water along with a magnolia tree. Did I mention that we were the only people on the beach for the two hours we spent there until sunset?

A day well spent in the Pinos. This is fast becoming one of my favourite countries to travel. I've met nothing but amazing people (locals and travellers) since setting foot on this group of islands.