If you're going on a fixed weekend tour to Surigao del Sur, your schedule will almost always have Enchanted River on the Saturday and then island hopping on the Sunday. Well, that's how it seemed when this happened to me twice already.

Before anything else, let me show you where we stayed and slept by Saturday night: at Mac Arthur's Place. This was my accommodation last time too. It's definitely ideal because you can set off to the Britania Islands as soon as you want. Our room for this trip was even fronting the beach!

We had an early start since we'll have to leave for home after lunch or early afternoon. Before anything else, we had breakfast, of course. Anyways, it was free because it was part of our fee. That rhymes, huh? 

It was a gloomy morning and that dampened my spirit a little bit. I've gone to these spots before, so there wasn't an element of surprise anymore. But beyond the familiarity, I was there with my best girl friends. Enough reason to celebrate life~

People and their boats flock the islands, so it became hard to "park" our own. I think we even spent a good 30 minutes just to do so. And that's probably for every island. Well, let me just show you some of our sights while we were onboard:

Then began my role as a photographer. Kneesa has more pictures on this trip than I had. I couldn't blame her though. She's such a madame 


PAK GANERN. On the other hand, I be like the safe bish... Haha

 

These are the only "proper" shots of the three of us. It's really a different story when your friends partner up. I'm saying this as an observation. Just makes me wonder how it'll be for me in the future~


I took a lot of snaps here, so I wasn't able to take a dip and swim. I didn't mind though. Vitamin sea is all around me. No need to panic. Teehee.

 

Did you notice the cloud formation right there? It was such eye candy. I can't give you a zoom-in look because I only had my 16-50mm lens with me but srsly, it was pretty. Oh, nature, you spoil me 


The waves here come from different directions and meet at the center. Isn't that cool-io?


Doing this post has me drooling for the beach alreadyyy

As you can see, there are stores, so we were able to feed ourselves here. Souvenirs and other knick knacks can be bought as well, perfect for pasalubong. 

Other than these Filipino street snacks, I was also able to eat a sea urchin! It wasn't delicious. I mean... it didn't really give me that wow factor or something. It actually didn't have a taste. How do I explain this?? Haha I'm no gourmet, forgive me.

 

It wasn't scary because we were wearing "legit" life jackets. I knew I was gonna float if ever we fell over. I wish we did though, since that was the thrill when riding a banana boat. But we had a kid with us, so we just can't.


Boohoo, the reminiscing comes to an end. What do you think of the 3 out of the 7,100+ islands in the Philippines? 

My second time in Surigao del Sur was still a different experience than the first, especially that I'm with another set of friends. I was with my high school gals, Kneesa and Jan (sans Franie), plus their respective boyfriends. We didn't get to push through our original date of travel because the weather was acting up. Did you hear the news about the Signal #1 advisory in Mindanao around the 24th of October? That's what got us moved us to the next weekend.

This time, this isn't a DIY trip. We paid for a tour via Travelink Tours which costs 1,999 PHP per pax. The payment covers the van service to Surigao and all the tourist spots, then for the trip home. There's the driver and overnight accommodation as well. Pretty much worth it, if you ask me. We were with other people though, but that just meant new friends! I  actually know some of them from school. You just realize that it's a small world  after all~ 

After the grueling 7-hour journey, it's time for fun and action!

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