JENTZSCH

Greg and I left the kids home with our helper for 3 nights and 4 days to go to Coron, Philippines!!! It was just a 1 hour flight away, which was amazing! Such a short easy trip. This was our first day there and we had a trike bring us to a good restaurant. The service was absolutely horrible and there were ants all over our table. Once our food came a stray cat and little kittens were all crawling all over underneath our table waiting for food and it was really freaking me out. I kept scaring them off, but they came right back. I felt bad- the kittens were so cute.

We walked back to town. It is such a peaceful, small town. The whole town sort of looks like it was just dumped out in a pile and stuff went everywhere. Little shacks everywhere, just random pieces of this and that material this place and that. It was wild for me to see the little shacks and know that people were living there. Families, with children all sleeping on the floor of these open huts with everything they own there too. It was crazy and it made me feel really naive that I didn't realize this was the real Philippines. I live in Manila- 3rd world- so I started thinking that's what the Philippines looks like and 3rd world really isn't THAT DIFFERENT than our world. But oh man! Was I incredible wrong. This place was nothing like Manila and I can't believe this is how everyone lives outside of Manila. It is crazy and it is humbling and makes me feel insanely wealthy. I really loved walking back and seeing the life here.

We booked a couple tours and the first one was AMAZING!!!!! First we snorkeled. Now, I got to snorkel in Borocay- but with the kids, I only snorkeled 20 minutes max- it wasn't that much. And it was really windy and the water was choppy so I got nauseous getting in and out. This time was so amazing!!! I loved it. Greg kept telling me how impressed with me he was- that I was so natural and just catching on. I was happy about it too! I didn't think too much of it 'till I realized EVERYONE ELSE on our boat and everyone else's were in life jackets. We were literally the only ones not wearing them.

There were plenty of fish. Many times they were just a few inches from our mask. I just kept pointing to everything and making noise under the water like, "Oh!" or saying "There! Look!" all muffled with my mask on. And a couple times I sort of screamed with surprise or delight. Soon after we got in the water, there was a big huddle of fish that I was swimming towards and suddenly a man just jumped in the water, right in the middle of it and the fish shot everywhere and I screamed. I loved snorkeling. It was all so beautiful and wonderful and I loved it. When I look at the pics after we were done- my face is just glowing. It is obvious how happy I felt.

Next we drove to the famous Kayangan Lake. I was really excited because this is what pops up when you google the Philippines, so I'd been staring at the beautiful pictures for months. We get there and it's very pretty.

Then we hike up these steps and when we reach the top we see another tour group taking pictures off to the side, and our group was going down- so I thought, well here we are, let's take our picture too. That tour group took SO LONG we waited 30 minutes to take our picture! Oh it was awful. Everytime we thought about leaving it was, "Well, it's been 10 minutes, they're almost done, right? It's been 20 minutes, there's no going back now." Oh man, how I regret that decision. Because when we finally went down to the lake- AMAZING!!!!!! It was SO beautiful, SO peaceful and no salt water in our eyes. And we'd wasted 30 minutes of it waiting for that tour group. Big bummer. It stunk because we would've had an hour to soak up and relax, but instead it was just a half hour. And hour group DID take pictures- after the swim.

Once we got there, there were these cool rock formations under the water to look at.

Greg is such an amazing swimmer. I loved watching him swim around in the deep.

So peaceful. So beautiful.

We were like honeymooners!

Hiking back down . . .

A refreshing coconut.

I just couldn't believe how hot Greg was and kept taking his picture.

Then we went to a beach for lunch. We got to relax a bit in the water- it was hot!

Then to Skeleton Wreck. It was SO COOL!!!!! A sunken Japanese ship from WW2. Greg could swim way down and said all the light was shining through the side and it was awesome. I just watched from up top.

It was kinda fun to watch Greg. Everyone else just floated up top and Greg would just take a breath and go down, then up. I felt like, "Yeah, my man's awesome."

This is me trying to swim closer to the boat. I was not used to swimming underwater with my snorkel. I couldn't believe how hard it was just to get down. My body just kept floating back up and my breath capacity was WEAK. But I tried.

Then the most amazing part! Twin Lagoon! It had these amazing cliffs! Straight up and magnificent. They really were a sight to behold. We were constantly in awe taking pictures constantly.

To actually GET to the lagoon you had to either swim underwater through a small passageway- or wait your turn to climb a ladder. There were atleast 30 people waiting to go over and it was no small task (well for them), so we just swam underneath. I felt confident, but people were just bobbing right there at the entrance so when I reached them I came up for air and hit my head really good on the rock. That stunk. I just wanted to say "get away from the entrance!"

It was really peaceful in the lagoon. Not very many people inside. Though it was really neat- I was pretty exhausted at this point.

This was my favorite shot. I just loved the outline of the cliffs.

Then we saw a jelly fish the size of our thumb print. It was insanely tiny! It was awesome!!!

Greg really loved to see schools of fish.

Back to town. We finished off the night with a massage at the hotel.

The next day we did a snorkeling tour. It started with a different shipwreck from WW2. This one was really shallow so we could see it really well. I really wanted to swim down to it, but was so tired from the day before. The water was also very choppy.

This is my attempt to get a picture with the boat. Ha! I was so tired.

A picture with the fish.

Eventually I bailed and left Greg in the water. I was just too tired. He was having a blast. We kept thinking how his parents would just LOVE it here!

Then we went to a tiny island that we literally walked completely around. The boat crew made us lunch. Pretty soon after we got there it got INSANELY WINDY! When I was eating, sand was just blowing on my face in gusts. I had to keep turning away. It was really really beautiful though.

You can see one side of the island, and the other side too- cool!

Ah, my hot husband.

I have love that I can just eat half a fish now. It used to be such a weird and gross looking thing and now I can't wait to just tear into it with my bare hands. Yum.

A little walk across the island.

A little exploring . . .

And now relaxing. That's me sitting in the water. We were both so tired. Greg found this little dried up bush and we eventually just laid down our towels and laid behind it to block all the sand.

Our last stop was the Coral Gardens and it really was like a never ending garden! Beautiful, incredible coral everywhere. Different varieties, colors and fish. It was incredible. It just went on and on. We thought it was so fun that we saw clown fish in the sea anemone. On this trip I really started swimming deep and getting more confident and comfortable in the water. It was fun.

Right at the end of our trip we saw these little fish and we just thought they were really cool. It was so fun how you'd think you saw all the fish and then suddenly there was something new. I love swimming with Greg.

This was the start of me swimming deep.

And then Greg, the master. He would often swim into the darkness below and completely disappear. If I didn't know he had so much sense and control, I would be very nervous.

By the end I just wanted to keep going, feeling more and more comfortable but I was just so tired! I kept saying I was done going under, then I'd do it again. Then we ran out of time and had to go back to the boat.

Riding back after a perfect vacation!

Our last day we had a few hours to kill so we went walking through town and it was really neat. I just love seeing the life here. The trikes were EVERYWHERE. I loved seeing them. They were a lot cuter than the ones in Manila.