#294 Boat Trip

By our final day in Boracay everyone was healthy enough again to venture a boat ride around the island. We took off from Boat Station #1 and visited a snorkeling site and another small island called the "Crystal Cave". The snorkeling was terrific. We anchored the boat over a beautiful coral reef and swam among thousands of small and colorful fish. The kids had fun feeding bread to the fish and admiring interesting shells and starfish.

We weren't the only folks snorkeling in this area at the southern tip of Boracay. In fact there was a guy there on a small canoe who collected a $5 fee from us for the privilege. There were also other guys on canoes selling coconuts and ice cream. You can see the Cazzato children enjoying some local Philippine ice cream after a strenous 20 minutes of snorkeling. Actually, I felt obliged to buy ice cream from the vendor after he loaned us some ice to helped remedy a sting that Marco picked up in the water.

The Crystal Cave (or maybe it was the Crystal Cove) offered a nice walk around the island, but overall was a bit overpriced. We paid 800 pesos admission ($16 U.S.) for a stroll and a visit to a fairly uninteresting small cave on the waterline.

But have a look at that blue ocean and the clear water. The boat ride was certainly a chance to enjoy the ocean and the island from a different perspective. Boracay is a very beautiful place and as exotic a tropical beach location as one could find anywhere in the world. The Cazzato family gives it two thumbs up.

#293 Mt. Luho

On one of those days that the wind died and my kiteboarding lesson ended early, I followed some signs to a scenic hilltop called Mt. Luho. Mt. Luho is only a few hundred feet above sea level, but offers a view of the entire island of Boracay and some of the nearby islands as well. Some local entrepreneurs have claimed the hilltop as private property and charge a dollar admission. For the same dollar, one is also able to tour the owner's very odd collection of wild birds and animals.

Along the way there were some great views and interesting chances to see some local people doing their thing. Above were three young girls walking home from school who offered to pose for a picture. All of the housing I saw was very lightweight construction to say the least. Exterior walls are made of woven palm fronds and many houses were perched on stilts, one even built in a tree.

One memorable part of the walk to Mt. Luho and back down to White Beach were the caravans of Chinese tourists driving rented ATVs and dune buggys along the road. I passed several large groups of these off-road vehicles. All of the riders had wide smiles on their faces and many waved or gave me the peace sign as they drove by. Also whenever I saw a Chinese couple together on a dune buggy, the man was in the passenger seat and the woman was driving. While I consider myself a modern man, I cannot imagine joining Kathleen on a rented dune buggy ride and wanting to be a passenger.

#292 Kiteboarding

One of the activities that the boys and I planned to do this week was scuba diving. None of us has done this before and there are supposedly many great underwater spots to see in Boracay. There were certainly many scuba shops willing to take tourists out for a dive. Unfortunately, the day we planned to do this, Joseph woke up with a very high fever and upset stomach. His illness took him out of commission for a couple of days and scuttled our plans for scuba lessons.

Instead I broke away for two mornings and took some kiteboarding lessons at Bulabog Beach on the east side of the island. Bulabog is a world-famous windsurfing and kiteboarding locale. There were scores of people kiteboarding on the day that I went to check it out. Above you can see pictures that I wish showed me kite surfing and freestyling my way through jumps and turns on the board. Even though I have some experience sailing and windsurfing from graduate student days on Lake Michigan, kiteboarding turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.

After two days of lessons I had not developed enough skill to get up on a board and run down the coast like the guys above. Nonetheless, it was fun and challenging just learning how to keep the kite in the air and drag myself around the ocean. Someday I will tray again when I have more time and do not have to leave Kathleen alone to watch three healthy kids and a sick one at the hotel.

#291 Boracay

Our Chinese New Year R&R trip this year takes us to Boracay in the Philippine Islands. Boracay is located about 200 miles south of Manila and is an island only four miles long and a half mile wide. This location was billed by Kathleen as a "No-Sightseeing Zone" as she wanted a pure beach vacation with none of the work of seeing landmarks, historical sites, or other so-called educational things. The weather certainly cooperated with 90 degrees and sunshine every day.

We stayed at a very nice, small resort on the ocean called the "Two Seasons" and had a two-room suite. The location was very close to the beach as well as many restaurants and amenities. The pool area was small but the kids still liked it. There was a decent breakfast and cheap happy hour drinks. Our hotel was on White Beach which faces west and thus provided remarkable views of the sunset over the ocean every night. We give the hotel at least one and a half thumbs up.

A highlight was the family banana boat ride shown above where we sat on a cigar-shaped inflatable and got pulled around the ocean by a 12 year old Philippino kid in a power boat. The beach was also populated with professional sand castle builders who put up castles like the one above and collected donations to have them photographed.

#290 Year of the Tiger

Feb 14th is Chinese New Year, the year's biggest holiday in China. This is like Christmas in the Western World. The Chinese travel home to be with their families, eat traditional food, and watch NFL football. Well, two out of three. The Chinese traditional calendar follows the lunar calendar, so the new year is marked by a full moon and occurs on a different day each year.

2010 is the 3rd year in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac which makes this the year of the tiger. The Chinese believe that the markings on the forehead of the tiger resemble the Chinese character for "wang" or king and the tiger is the traditional symbol of military commanders in China. All of this info I plaigerized from a spam email I received during the week from our local graphics supplier. He also provided the picture above of the hybrid tiger and race car.

The Cat Suzhou factory is closed for the Chinese New Year next week, so the Cazzato family is heading out for another big-yellow funded R&R trip. This time we are going to the Philippines to an island called Boracay. A group of our neighbors went there last year and recommended it. Kathleen did all of planning for this trip. As I write this entry, we are using the free wifi at the Hong Kong airport. Our next flight takes us to Manila where we will spend the night. On Sunday we will take a third flight then a bus, a ferry boat, and a van to get to our beach resort. I will keep you posted if there is internet on the island.