Though I have been to Boracay once in 2010 when I went with MangoRED, it was my family’s first time last year. Prior to these trips to Boracay, we have vowed to make Boracay last in the list of places we wanted to go to. One, we liked our beach uncommercialized. Two, we always thought it was expensive to go to Boracay. These have been changed. A commercialized beach appeals in some way and going to Boracay does not have to be expensive.
We were supposed to go with a group of 11 that included my aunt and all of my mother’s friends who I used to arrange their trips for when my mother was still alive, but only my aunt and her friend made it. We took Kalai and Nick along for the trip since we had lots of extra rooms booked at Blue Mango Inn.
Because I was swamped with work and fixing problems with the Amigo film screening in Naga that coincided with this trip, we missed our flight to Caticlan and had to buy new tickets on a different airline on the last trip to Kalibo. Instead of arriving in the afternoon at the resort, we arrived late at night because of the additional 2 hour land travel from Kalibo to Caticlan.
The Boracay trip was booked and planned as early as March 2011 and the Amigo screening was originally scheduled for August so despite H’s complaints on how the trip went, it was not my fault that I was so beleaguered on this trip. Alas, some people just do not get what that means.
We all loved Blue Mango Inn. It’s situated in Station 3, away from all the noise and hustle and bustle of all the other stations. It’s very homey. We loved hanging out on the beachfront and having our meals at our family room’s patio. We had the garden apartment and family rooms booked and that afforded us our own garden patios. We spent a lot of time over breakfast, over dinner, over drinks, having great conversations with our friends.
We did not do a lot in Boracay other than eat, sleep and walk around. I looked absolutely exhausted, thus the absence of pictures of me. Lia also came down with fever, colds and cough, and was not her best self, but she enjoyed the beach immensely nevertheless.
It might be long til our next visit since we do not have plans of going to Boracay this year. Here are a few of the photos we took when we went for a walk all the way to Station 1 to meet with our friends Cha and Tee who now work and reside on the island.
Boracay is still beautiful despite it being a party place. It’s also beautiful even in September when the Habagat (southwest wind) blows onto the beach and all the establishments along the beachfront have to put up wind breakers. (It’s beautiful even with the E. coli. That’s why I never swim there! 
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Click on the thumbnails to view larger images/the slideshow.
