Our days in Boracay were great... We felt at home the moment we arrived! We rented on Airbnb a house (a room with kitchen), location was fantastic, right at Withe Beach. It had no windows, but as I wrote before we are getting used to places without windows LOL. It was on a "residential area" a very basic place, not fancy at all. We spent most days at the beach until the sun went down, with a nap in between. It was a pity that we only discovered a decent supermarket the day before we left, so when we were home we ate a lot of pasta with pasta, nothing more, not even salt. We usually try to find houses with a kitchen so we can alternate between eating out and at home. It's not for the money, since eating out in the places we have been so far can be quite cheap, it's just because it feels good to be home and not having to go out for food. Back to the amazing withe beach of Boracay, that beach...We stayed in station 3, way more calm and less crowded than station 2 where all the stuff happens. We hanged around there for dinner. It's so typical of us, when we like a place we always go there and we don't try anything new. We found an amazing japanese restaurant and we had dinner there every time we went out. We not only go to the same place we also eat the same dish, ramen for Pedro and chicken teriyaki for me and the kids. There were some people playing statues but when Teresinha saw a pink lady (princess she called her) she jumped straight to her lap and didn't want to move, everyone around was laughing!

We did an island hopping tour but honestly I think it's not worth it, White Beach is amazing and the best one. Well, maybe I'm being unfair as we had bad luck. We booked a group tour on a smaller boat, for 16 people, but when we arrived at the beach the boat was for 40 people, all Chinese. No way! So we rented a private boat with a big discount because they had messed up. So far so good. It was quite windy so we arrived at Puka Shell beach (a really nice one) but we were eating sand, not comfortable at all. We decided not to stay there and go to another place but our boat broke and we had to wait there for 1h for another boat. The boat arrived and took us (and the broken boat too), so we were sailing very very slowly. What could have taken 20 minutes took us more than 1h. Good the kids fell asleep. We went to a local island to drop off the broken boat and headed to other places, but we didn't even left the boat, too windy. We just decided to go back to our beach and to our chairs and give up the boat. 

There were a great bonus for staying at that house, 10% off  on the Cowboy Cocina, a restaurant were we spent our days (they had beach chairs, for free as long as you ordered something...with our beer we were cool). We had several lunches and dinners there and even bought some home made bread to take home. It was really convenient, right next door.

It was hard to leave this island!
Os nosso dias em Boracay foram óptimos... sentido-nos em casa desde o primeiro minuto! Alugamos uma casa no Airbnb (um quarto com cozinha), a localização era fantástica, mesmo em cima da praia. Não tinha janelas, mas como já escrevi, estamos a ficar habituados a casas sem janelas HAHAHA. Era numa zona "residencial", muito básica, nada de mordomias. Passámos os dias inteiros na praia, até depois do sol se pôr, com uma sesta pelo meio. Foi uma pena só termos descoberto um supermercado decente no penúltimo dia, quando estávamos em casa comemos um monte de massa sem mais nada, nem mesmo sal. Tentamos sempre arranjar casas com cozinha para podermos alternar com o jantar/almoçar fora. Não é pelo dinheiro, pois comer fora nos sítios pelos quais temos andado pode ser muito barato, apenas porque nos sabe bem estar em casa sem ter que estar sempre a sair para comer. Mas vamos falar da praia, aquela praia... Ficamos na zona 3 (station 3), muito mais calma e com menos gente que a zona 2 onde tudo acontece. Só lá íamos de vez em quando para jantar. É mesmo típico nosso, quando gostamos de um sitio vamos sempre ao mesmo, não experimentamos nada mais. Encontrámos um restaurante japonês espectacular, fomos lá jantar todos os dias que jantamos fora. Não só vamos ao mesmo sitio como comemos as mesmas coisas, ramen para o Pedro e galinha teriaky para mim e para os miúdos. Havia pessoas a fazer de estátuas pela rua, quando a Teresinha viu uma senhora toda cor-de-rosa saltou para o colo dela e nunca mais de lá queria sair, foi uma risota entre toda a gente que ali estava à volta.
Fizemos uma excursão mas sinceramente não vale muito a pena. White Beach é maravilhosa e a melhor de todas. Se calhar estamos a ser um bocadinho injustos. Compramos a excursão para o barco com menos gente, para 16 pessoas, mas quando chegamos lá o barco era para 40 pessoas e todos chineses. Nem pensar! Como eles fizeram asneira acabamos por ter um enorme desconto e alugamos um barco privado. Até agora estava a correr bem. Estava uma ventania horrível e quando chegamos a Puka Shell Beach (uma praia mesmo gira) estávamos a comer areia e não se estava nada bem.  Decidimos ir logo embora mas o nosso barco avariou e tivemos que esperar quase 1 hora para que outro barco nos viesse buscar. O que não sabíamos era que esse barco que nos ia levar, ia também rebocar o nosso barco estragado. O barco não tinha força nenhuma e uma viagem de 20 minutos demorou 1h, não havia barco que não nos ultrapassasse. Tivemos que ir a uma ilha local deixar o barco que não pegava e só depois seguimos viagem. Nem saímos do barco, estava demasiado vento. Decidimos ir para a nossa praia, para as nossas espreguiçadeiras e desistir do barco.
Havia bónus por ficar na nossa casa, 10% de desconto no Cowboy Cocina, um restaurante onde passávamos os dias (eles tinham cadeiras na praia grátis para quem pedisse alguma coisa... com a nossa habitual cervejinha estávamos safos). Almoçamos e jantamos algumas vezes por lá, chegamos a comprar pão caseiro deles para levar para casa. Era prático, na porta ao lado da nossa.
Foi difícil deixar esta ilha!

This was the worst of all so far... We took a van to go from El Nido to Sabang. We bought the direct 9.30 a.m. We arrived at the terminal to find out there was no direct van to Sabang and worse, the van was so full that there was no way we could fit. We offered to go on the next one. They told us there was one at 10 a.m. but we looked at the schedules and only saw an 11.00 a.m., they kept telling us not to worry and not to complaint cos there was a 10 a.m. one. 10.30 a.m. and we asked about the van, it was running late they said. 10.45 a.m. and we asked again, flat tire they answered. Off course there was no 10 a.m. van, all  but bullshit and only a 11 a.m. like it said on the scheduled. We started to discuss with the guy and they retuned our tickets and didn't wanted to let us in on their van... OMG and now what?! Pedro is much more calm than I am and managed to convince the guy to let us in on the next and even managed to get an entire row (one seat each, us and the kids. Normally kids don't pay and they sit on our lap). The van was half empty so they stop millions of times along the way to collect and drop locals on their destinations, usually in the middle of nowhere. Kids fell asleep, ok, good. This is all but comfortable but we can manage. We had to change vans and the waiting was painful, Teresa had a huge meltdown that lasted almost the 2 hours, we were waiting in the middle of nowhere. Finally the van arrives and off we go. way to crowded and kids on our laps, the bags on top secured by some dubious ropes, so we spend all the time looking through the window making sure our bags didn't end up in the middle of the road. It was us and a bunch of locals, it felt really strange when they drop us off at the Sheridan beach and Spa resort, everyone looking at us, the locals and the the staff from the hotel. They are used to people to arrive in a much more fashionable way LOL. We left hour house in El Nido at 9.15 a.m. and arrived at our destination in Sabang (around 200km) at almost 6 p.m., what a long horrible day!

Sry if the title its not so polite, but commuting here sucks big time! Our first experience was from Coron to El Nido, 8 hours on a lousy boat, crowded, with our lifejackets on... There's a better kind of boat, like a ferry that takes people and goods but only runs once a week off course we didn't check it and it was just the day before we left the island. We should have left one day before (or now that we have been in other places, a week latter).  Back to the boat experience... Wooden boat, plastic benches and side benches, that you can't lean cos it hurts your back. There's some nice outside space, but since it doesn't have any lateral protection it would have been quite dangerous with our 2 toddlers  running around, they would probably have ended on the sea. But we didn't bother going outside anyway, there was almost no shade and it was 40 degrees, we might have ended like 4 red lobsters... the 30 degrees inside the boat felt much nicer LOL. At the end it was not so bad, the kids slept great part of the way and we managed to keep them entertained the rest of the time. They have proven to be very good travellers  (better than me for sure, I couldn't stand that boat after the first 10 minutes). They served us quite a good lunch (at least much better than we were expecting). Overall it sucked but not as much as we were expecting and we arrived safe and sound to El Nido.  Just before we arrived we met a really nice man and the kids were immediately drawn to him, which is quite strange since they are very timid and takes them some time for them to "go" with someone, after minutes Teresinha was in his lap. Shortly after we found out that he was the priest of the catholic church in El Nido... No wonder the kids acted like that!

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We only spent half a day in Puerto Princesa, one day more would have been nice... Not much more though, I don't think there's much to do there. Probably most people think that the underground river is in Perto Princesa, for example, but its actually a 1h30/2h drive away, in Sabang. We didn't see any beach either, you probably would need a boat or a tricycle. We stayed in Orange Mangrove, a clean and nice place, with the most friendly people!  Having no windows was the only negative aspect, but for just one night its ok. Actually we are starting to get used to places with no windows LOL.

We wondered around the baywalk park, we rented a bike for the kids and spend the afternoon running behind them. There's a lot of food stands and it's cool and relaxing, a good mix between locals and foreigners. We met a really nice Mexican women that ended at our table sharing beers and a dive master from Holland. We had an early morning flight from Puerto Princesa to Boracay, thats why we decided to leave one day early from Sabang and sleep in Puerto Princesa, I'm so glad we've done it! We loved it!

Bay walk park... And very good parenting, kids giving us beer to drink LOL / Bay walk park... Ser bons pais e ter os miúdos a darem-nos cerveja à boca hahahahah

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Só estivemos meio dia em Puerto Princesa, um dia mais teria sido ideal... Mas não mais, não parece haver grande coisa para fazer por lá. Provavelmente a maioria das pessoas pensa que o rio subterrâneo é em Puerto Princesa, por exemplo, mas está a 1h30/2h, em, Sabang. Não vimos nenhuma praia, deve ser preciso apanhar um barco ou um triciclo. Ficámos no Orange Mangrove, um sitio simpático e limpo. As pessoas eram muito simpáticas! Não ter janelas foi a única coisa negativa. Mas já nos começamos a habituar a casas sem janelas hahaha.

Andamos a passear pelo Bay Walk park, alugámos umas bicicleta para os miudos e passamos a tarde a correr a trás deles.  Há varias barraquinhas com comida, o ambiente é muito giro e relaxado, com uma boa mistura entre turistas e locais. Conhecemos uma mexicana muito simpática que acabou na nossa mesa a beber cervejas, e um dive master Holandês. Tinhamos um voo bem cedo no dia seguinte, por isso decidimos sair de Sabang um dia antes e passar a noite em Puerto Princesa, ainda bem que o fizemos. Adoramos!