Beaching in the Summer with Friends

One, two, three — say, BEACH!

Last week was the most times I’ve been to the beach/pool ever! First we went to Pandanon Island with my high school buds plus new friends from Manila and two of our colleagues. We took the Island Bangka from Island Cruises. I must say it’s a comfortable and semi-modern take on the conventional Filipino bangka. It could blast music from your iPod, had bean bags to laze around with, a toilet, lots of space and friendly crewmen to assist and guide you. We left at the port near Hilton Hotel (pink panther hotel).

The white space below is our bangka. Bye Cebu!

The crew all wore orange shirts (color of Island Souvenirs)

So much space for everyone! And yes, we were a LOT.

Upper: Amanda and her Manila friends.
Lower: Us high school peeps plus colleagues.

Our last annual summer beaching with my high school classmates was also in Pandanon Island. It’s a really nice get-away place with your friends. A secluded-but-not-so-secluded island located at (insert sailor-ly directions here/Percy Jackson’s ability to exactly tell where you are in the sea)!

It was BLOODY hot! As usual.

Little huts were people can stay.

The organizers (thanks Mandz and Charlie!) brought food from Cheaverz and lechon. Cowboy style all the way eating at the little hut~ It was low tide the whole time we were there so we strolled around the place looking for a decent place to swim. In the end, we were much too preoccupied taking pictures with Jai’s Shockproof + Waterproof Olympus cam. Underwater/overwater shots to the max!!

This is how lowtide it was!! Impossible to swim lor.
So we had to keep moving forward to find a decent place to at least half-submerge.

Overwater shots…

…and underwater shots! lol at unrecognizable faces.
People were kicking too hard it scattered the sand all over.

Later we moved to an area near Talima Waterpark (I know right, we were so close!) and swam around til our hands were so wrinkly. There were a lot of fishes in the area, small and big! So much fun fun fun. Explorers, dive!

Jumping off the bangka and all sorts of youthful things.

Free towels for us!! Manny Villar would have been proud.

My friends are so photogenic? I know right!

and me bringing my camera (Cife the Canon 350D) everywhere. 🙂

Group picture! Woohoo~

And then… after a few days we went swimming again at Chad’s beach in Danao! Yes, I’m actually two shades darker than before. I only noticed it a day or two after this trip!

(alternate first pic and this) Same seating arrangement much?
And if my readers happen to see one of my photostories with the Bercede girls,
I’m sure they’ll be familiar with the sundress I’m wearing. lol.

Of course, thanks Mike for letting us ride with you!
I’m getting too lazy to drive lately and when Mike drives it’s so chillax.

Coco Palms, Danao!

The underwater pictures we took here were much clearer since the bottom wasn’t sandy!

Since I’m blogging about it, I might as well advertise a bit. Go visit the place, it’s just a quaint simple resort where you can bring your family, especially if you have a lot of kids! There’s a slide and most parts of the pool are really shallow. The beach was really clear too. (Chad, you owe me!)

Brett brought his new puppy, Blaze! It was so cute and small.
It was just locked up in the room while we swam though. 🙁

And it was in this beach that I was able to (hurridly) take a photo of this fish cloud with fishermen under it. 😀

Amazing, right? And no edits at all!

Start of the underwater pictures and videos~ We actually have a really cool video where we formed a circle and posed underwater.

So hard to position yourselves underwater.
Not as easy as it looks okay!

SLIDE!! I’ve tried headfirst, backward and doing the train with three people.
I think we should go to a waterpark next.

Thus ends my long entry about my awesome fun with my beloved high school classmates. Spending time with them always feels like home. 🙂

I’ll be out of the country until June 10. Bye Cebu! My flight will be in 5 hours. /excited