The Philippines - Birthday in Boracay

​We started our travels in the Philippines in Boracay, a small island off the north coast of Panay in the province of Aklan. We arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur at Kalibo airport, and got a van transfer to Caticlan port for the ferry crossing to Boracay.

Boracay is famed for it's White Beach which runs along the length of the west coast of the island. It is a great places to go for water sports, but we went there for one reason, cliff jumping.

Ariel's Point is a 45 minute boat ride away, and is a purpose built cliff jumping resort. We paid 2500 pesos each to spend the day at the resort on Ashley's birthday,  which included unlimited drinks (which we both actually made use of for once) and a bbq lunch. The jumps range from 3 metres to 15 metres, and look a lot higher when you are standing on the board looking down!

Not liking heights, Ellie went first for the 5 metre jump, and having got a nose full of water and rather sore feet drew the line there. Ashley went to the 8m and then straight on to the 15m which he jumped several more times.

We had great fun, helped along by a few too many rum and cokes. We thought the drinks were quite strong, and we realised why when we saw them making them up - 75% rum, 25% coke.

Back on Boracay itself, we decided the island wasn't really for us. It has become a huge tourist hotspot, and whilst the beach is beautiful and well maintained it is lined with restaurants serving comparatively expensive food. But you can find some serenity on the eastern and northern coasts of the island if you go looking for it.

Following 3 days on the island we headed on to Coron taking a ferry to Bulalacao on the island of Mindoro, and then then a 1.5 hour land transfer to the port of San Jose with the intention of catching another ferry the next day. We eventually got the 8 hour ferry crossing to Coron 5 days after arriving in San Jose thanks to a typhoon which stopped all boat crossings. We saw some pretty impressive lightning and torrential rain though!

Lets hope for better luck from now on....