On my third day in the Philippines I got up nice and early and headed to Carabao Island. On the boat, I met two other backpackers, Andrea (a Colombian who now lives in China) and Antonella (an Italian living in Germany) and we instantly hit it off. Antonella, like me, was trying to get away from the craziness of Boracay and looking for a more peaceful corner of the Philippines.
On Carabao Island I found the experience I had been looking for: beautiful beaches all to myself, friendly locals with no agendas, and the peace and quiet to read my book.
The girls were there for 3 days (we stayed at a motel-style "resort" of which I'll have videos soon), and I stayed a total of 5 days on Carabao before heading off to Tablas and quickly coming back to spend 2 more days there.
Carabao was bordering on magical...the first two days we just spent walking on the beach, chilling on the shore, swimming every chance we got and taking things easy...we met a ton of locals (mostly kids) who were incredibly friendly and genuinely happy to see us.
Like this kid who was proudly showing off his toy...a dead crab:
Or these kids playing on the far end of the beach:
Or these kids running off to school:
It was an idyllic existence...mostly sunny and hot during the day, stunning monsoon/typhoon storms at night (videos of that to come soon too, I promise!).
The Moon and stars through palm trees at night:
On Thursday I decided to take the main highway through Carabao Island and walk from Lanas to San Juan...okay, so the main highway is more like a sidewalk:
The "road" is about 7 km long and connects the two main settlements of Carabao Island. It winds through some amazing tropical rainforests, you're surrounded by gigantic coconut and banana trees the whole way...on a beautiful day with nothing but blue sky and fluffy white clouds above you, it doesn't get much better.Wait...it did. I think the highlight was that, among all the friendly people, one stood out. I was walking along minding my own business, when a girl - about 10 or 11 years old - coming towards me smiled at me and handed me a fruit. Stunned by her spontaneous generosity, I said "for me?" to which she nodded...I said thanks, she said "you're welcome," smiled and walked on. It was a small gesture (though the guava she gave me was very delicious!), but it summed up the kindness of the Carabao Island people.
Some of my detours:
And a 360* shot from the top of a hill:
On Friday morning the girls left (which was a little sad, since they were awesome to hang out with), and I went on a 3-hour kayaking trip by myself to see what I could find...I paddled through caves, among tiny little islands and onto deserted beaches...it was simply sublime.
Then, on Friday night we had the most gorgeous sunset of my trip, and one of the most beautiful of my life (the first picture in this post was taken on Friday night...here are a few more):
Panorama:
More sunset pics on my Flickr!!! http://www.flickr.com/tamasv
On Saturday, I walked again to San Jose and, wanting to save a little money (more because I was running out of Pisos and there was nowhere to change my dollars than actual cheapness), I spent the night in a quaint little cottage...okay, so the truth is it was the outdoor patio section of a restaurant...it was beautiful! The night was pretty uneventful, but I did manage to grab one of my favourite pictures of the whole trip there. Not photoshopped, everything about this picture is real...night on the beach at San Jose:
From there I departed for Tablas Island (next blog) and quickly returned for two more days of quiet bliss!
Okay...it's almost 4:30, I'm sick of sitting on this chair (day 2 of deskwarming)...I'm going home...
Y'all take care now!
T
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