Missed a day crossing the Pacific.....the Philippines! Welcome to the latest adventure...3 planes and 16 hrs of flying have landed us in a party.. .. Mardi gras Philippines style....early bird gets the worm....tricycle choas the norm.. the beaches of Boracay...AC units can take you down...... .

Yahoo....after 6 months of traveling in 2015, we have packed up (about 7 kg worth) again, and are back on the road for 2016.... (or should we say airplane seat, tricycle, bus) heading to warmer climes for the next while...

Come along for the ride n read, view Yvonne's pics, as we explore the Philippines and its approx 7000+ islands for the next 2 months.

On a map, the Philippines look as if someone took a chocolate chip cookie and gave it a whack on the table. The bits and pieces, all shapes and sizes, with chunks of chocolate are scattered over a wide expanse of this corner of the world..

... Won't get to them all, but we hope to taste a few crumbs of this mysterious region....

Starting our trip, we arrive at the airport in Vancouver late one Monday night and touch down in Manila around noon on a Wednesday.... felt like years later....surprisingly, still the same week!

We treat ourselves to an airport lounge for the 5 hr layover in Taipei, Taiwan...then head out to Manila.

Arriving in Manila was easy, trying to depart from Manila to the island of Panay proved to be a practice in patience...

After delays from 2:30pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10:30pm..we finally manage to escape Manila and land at midnight in Panay...

...As usual, of course, it is dark and in a strange land, and with no idea of where we need to go...except for some vague directions that don't seem to help much in the dark...

...we walk out of the Kalibo airport, grab a tricycle (a motorcycle with an attached sidecar) ...much like a tuk tuk, and roar off in the blackness sounding like an angry hornet, for another 30 minute journey to the neighbouring village, trying to find our Airbnb room for the next few days...

...finally, after this long journey into the night and nearing 1am, along with a few wrong turns in dim headlights, we find a house with lights still on. "Hello...we are lost!" we yell out. A lady opens her door and instantly knows who we are and where we need to go.

So, she hops...(squeezes.. might be more accurate) in with us..(as we are now 5...driver, his friend - somehow he's ridden with us from the airport, why?, 2 Canadians and our new found guide) and takes us to our AirBnB room. The caretaker is patiently waiting for his Canadian guests and welcomes us in.

At last, into our room and sleep!! What a beautiful home owned by a Filipino doctor who lives most of the year in LA. Amazing what is listed for about $60 Can (about 3x the price due to festival time)! The entire town of Kalibo is fully booked out, for weeks, if not months due to the festival. We are lucky to find this gem spot still open.

We have arrived in Kalibo to see the people-friendly, raucous street party that runs for 5 days or so.  The festival is called Ati-Atihan and is a religious celebration in recognition of  Santo Niño or Baby Jesus...that really is just an excuse to dance, drink, paint your body, wear costumes and make music.

Part drum-off, mardi-gras, MayDay/workers parade, even Halloween, the festival draws hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, for chaos, noise, fireworks and a chance to drink on the streets or in front of the police station!

 .....Testing local drinking laws.....

We get invited to join the festivities...with the blue-shirt team..

....and, somehow make a good enough impression (hey, Canadians were recently voted as "the nicest people", by a traveling magazine) to have lunch and wine with the ex-mayor of Kalibo and congressman Alan Quimpo and family...

...Best view in the house of the maddening crowds below..

...Oh, and for dessert or an appetizer???...eat wood worms...yum, yum...just another fun start to a great trip.

Seems this  (eating word worms) is a bit of a delicacy and claimed to be aphrodisiac... Shhh! We'll never tell. Locals buy chunks of mangrove wood (30 - 60cm long), take it home and chop it open, much like we'd split open a watermelon or firewood.

 Then they scoop out the worms, squeeze out the dirt, cellulose, worm poop, rinse them all in water....there can be quite a few of the wiggly guys in a chunk....and marinate in vinegar. Then pop in your mouth!

In between the noise and crowds, we visit a mangrove restoration project with a one km boardwalk to the ocean and viewpoint.

This bridge is totally built out of bamboo... As is much of their furniture, buildings, fences etc...   so strong!

...hike a small mountain lined with the Stations of the Cross in Banga...

and wander the small village and market of Banga, where we are staying.

                                             Dried local fish...

With the festival wrapping up, we travel 2 hrs north by van to visit the next party stop for some sun and fun...

After taking a 10 min ferry from Panay,  we arrive at the bustling port of Boracay... A 7 km long, 800m wide island that is a happening place!

Once voted ..."one of the world's most beautiful beaches (White Beach)"...stretches of it seem to have grown bloated, now well past its prime, and, as they say, a victim of its own success.

 Traffic is non stop...tricycles run amok, as they seem to do everywhere we've been so far...Crazy construction, growth and crowds.

However, when you get down to the water's edge with the powdery white sand, the setting sun backdropping the sails of the many Island boats...you see the magic that constantly draws people here...

Once our tricycle drops us off in the centre of town we start the hunt for a room.  Walk in, ask what is included with the price and view the room. After about the third one, Shayne manages a close encounter with an AC...they make them low here....the crack Filipino first aid team from the hotel jumps into action. Several minutes later, disinfected, pressure treated, washed, wiped and bandaged, the head is good to go.

Our Air bnb room on Boracay is kind of a dump...so, we will look for better digs, let the head wound heal, settle in by the water and explore the quieter parts that Boracay has to offer.

Filipinos have been unfailingly polite, warm, friendly and helpful so far. We've felt safe, even in the mad house crush of the thousands of spectators at the festival.

Traffic was in gridlock in Kalibo...with tricycles, motorcycles, vans, buses, jeepneys etc all competing for road space. Think tricycle marathon without the road rage.

As usual, it all works!

Until next time!

Enjoy some additional photos...

Cheers!

Welcome to 2016...Back on the road......soon....so.....come join us

Happy New Year 2016!

We are heading out on the road shortly. Come along with us......

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Happy travels!

Shayne y Yvonne

Riding the chicken buses on both sides of the border......Trapped in a flooded cave for 10 hrs - now, doesn't that sound like fun?........keep on truckin...or don't look back! Island life and Belizian brownies, some mighty fine baking there! Back in civilization in PDC!

End of days...Guatemala and the rest... Part 3

Time to leave Tikal and the jungle environ....
...originally, we thought to head back to Flores, fly out from there to Guatemala City and then head on...

But... as we are so close to the Belizian border...

...we decide to press on to Belize, rather than backtrack in Guatemala...

Asking around, there are several options to get us out of the jungle and to the Belizian border...   

...spend $50 US for a private shuttle

...spend less on a shared shuttle, or...

...as we ask some more questions....we find out, we can

...spend $50 Quetzal (abt $8 Can) to ride a chicken bus

The answer is obvious...take a chance on the chicken bus.. why not?

The bus arrives at the Tikal gates, drops off a whole load of park workers and we get on...clean, still painted the yellow school bus color...

....….As usual, our planning is fairly nebulous and open...sooo

There is a bit of structure to our very vague ideas about how our day will unfold....

....where we want to go, where we might end up and what we may want to see or....(the key word is VAGUE...aka known as loose, flexible, unscheduled...)....

The 45 minute trip for the crossroads leaves the park at 8am. Where, we are told, any number of buses head to the Guatemalan/Belizian frontier.

...while it seems we travel without a clue sometimes...we really are organized...what teacher isn't...as the bus pulls away, we discuss the day ahead (hey, we've got lots of time before we have to get off)...

Our rough plans look something like....

...Plan A.. get to the Belizian town of San Ignacio (located about 20km inside Belize) and visit the ATM (Actun Tinichil Muknal) cave and river system. It sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, with crystal skulls, skeletons and a 3 hr cave walk - waist deep in water while holding candles. Sounds fun!

... Plan B...bus right through Belize to Corozal (Belize) or Chetumal (Mexico)...

...Plan C....looks to be something in between Plan A and B...(aka - we could end up anywhere!)

...our travel plans always depend on schedules, weather, the unexpected or new information we've picked up on the fly...

Getting through the park gates/security at Tikal ends up being the longest wait at any 'border/control' crossing we've traveled through yet, on this trip...we wait...bus driver assures us ..."es normale, no problemo"

..soon we depart the gates and rattle off.

Our chicken bus stops every few minutes to pick up locals, it drops off/picks up plastic jugs of gas along the way...school kids, families, all get on and off...people wave, shake hands, talk, kids stare at us, and out the window...

                              
                             ......riding the chicken buses will do this to you.....

...we eventually come to our dropoff stop at the crossroads, and our driver points up the road (thataway!!) , to where we need to catch our next ride heading to the border...

....it takes all of 30 seconds to walk to our next bus stop and we wait....seems some sort of transport comes by every 30 minutes or so....so, we wait.. morning is sunny, lots of daylight left....

2 locals walk by and say "Hi"... they ask "What are you doing here?"... for a split second, we think they mean Guatemala...?? (I wonder the same thing, at times??)..what they really do mean is.."Why are you standing here on the side of the road?"... we tell them we're waiting for the bus, going to Belize etc...chat with them in English for a few minutes.

...we say goodbye, as they point out an approaching van is the one one we need to flag down...

The local collectivo stops and we get on...it's a beat up van, with several people on board heading to the Guatemalan border town of Melchor.

The 90 min ride costs $60 quetzal and passes through rich, green countryside, lakes and small towns.

We stop for a baño break at a gas station and several people grab some food from a local vendor set up right beside the gas pumps...whole new meaning to gassing up at a drive-thru!

We head off for the final stretch to the border. We are arriving at another border crossing without any currency of the next country we are entering.

...after all the traveling, crossing borders, we have stopped worrying about having local $$ before hand. We have discovered there is always someone ready to deal/exchange local currency.... we are told there will be money changers at the bus station...

Sure enough, as we climb out, a guy approaches us with a wad of cash (at least 2 bricks thick) bundled in his hand.. "Need some Belizian $$?" We do...and quickly, painlessly swap out our Guatemalan $$ for Belizian $$$ ...exchange is 4 to 1..there goes our $100 Quetzal... and we are rich with $25 Belizian..not sure how far that will last?? Still need to find a banco!

...a little voice used to go off in our heads when we first started dealing with street-level money lenders way back when..."This isn't legal, or safe!" ..."We could get into trouble!"...we don't worry a bit, not any more, as the voice has stopped....now we just cross borders, buy money on the run, or failing that, find a taxi driver to take us to a bank machine; esp, if they want to get their fare)...

With limited Belizian $$ in our hands we walk off to the border. It is literally over a bridge, past a long line of trucks idling at the border....

1st stop is departure from Guatemala.

We present our passports, get a stamp, then wander towards the Belizian customs ...the in-between no man's land is a jumble of trucks, semis, people, officials and uniforms. The usual border chaos anywhere outside of Canada/United States.

We are waved on to Belize. Everybody is happy, relaxed.

 I think one could possibly skip right through these borders and everybody would laugh. Customs there check our passports, we get a stamp and we enter Belize..easy, breezy and hassle free...

....now we need a ride out from the border??

Oh, did we mention...we are doing this on the American Thanksgiving weekend... met many people from the USofA in Tikal...all travelling over the weekend and extending their trip for several more days....things may be crowded, at some point.

We come across a private shuttle bus carrying a number of backpackers (some we recognize from our Coban section)...we track the driver down and ask if there's room to catch a ride onward..he'd like to help, but he'd get in sh#$! from the taxi drivers waiting at the border...

...so, we grab a cab..spend $7.50 B to get us to the closest border town that has a bus ... 10 min. later, we are on a bus and shortly heading to San Ignacio and the ATM caves.... still, didn't find a banco ATM!

The Belizian chicken bus ride is pretty uneventful. We stop every few minutes, people get on/off, school kids, people going to Belize City etc...

A few minutes outside of San Ignacio, some travelers get on...we ask them about the ATM caves. They tell us the heavy rains have closed them. In fact, several days earlier, a group of tourists were trapped in the caves and rising waters for 10 hrs before getting rescued. Now, that sounds like fun!

The bus rolls into San Ignacio and our stop.  We make a decision to just continue on and not stay in town. ....next stop Belize City...we pay the driver another fare from our dwindling Belizian $$ and face abt 3 hrs more on the bus! A long day's journey into the night!

...bus travel in Belize is fairly cheap, most buses look to be the old bluebird school bus ( flat nosed and long)...

We hit a traffic jam that slows things to a standstill....seems a dump truck is in a ditch and a bus has run into the back end. Another dump truck sits angled in the lane, blocking whatever space that could be available... to make matters worse..a pick up is towing a modular home the other way...of course the modular home is slightly too wide for the road it is on..which just adds to the chaos....eventually, we sneak by and do get to Belize City by late afternoon!

At the Belize City bus station, we find there are 2 buses leaving for the border town of Corozal. That means another 4 hrs ride...but first we need a bank...

...we exit the bus station, find a cab and off we go to the ATM...we talk about our options...push on (it's getting late), stay in Belize City overnight (not the best choice) or head to the islands for a day or 2...??? Hmmmmm?

.... eventually, we get to an ATM, pull some $$ out and get our cabbie to take us to the harbor to check ferries to Cayo Caulker... seems they leave every hour ...and that decision is easy! We head offshore on a 45 min boat ride to spend several days on Cayo Caulker belonging to Belize. About 80 people fit into this short boat crossing.

....ah...Belizian Island life...a little Belize, a little Caribe, a little reggae... Life is easy on Cayo Caulker.... we hop off the ferry and head down clay/dirt Front Street to look for a room in the gathering darkness...Look at several places, before finding a nice, quiet upper floor room of the Bluewave Guesthouse across the street from the beach and a view of the ocean. Cost around $65.

Near the only real beach spot called the Split...so named cause a narrow channel was formed from natural/human cause and morphed into a 100 M wide channel, perfect for boats to take a short cut from the outer side to the inner island.

...we chill out for several days, swim at the infamous Split beach, watch the sunrise, endure some good wind and rain storms....eat some local island food and taste...

 .....Belizian brownies from a beach vendor, sold straight out of his Styrofoam ice cooler and made by wife....ingredients are to die for ...the effect ...heavenly!..

Our few evenings here were spent checking out the local street and pub scenes.  Music everywhere... One particular night we were at a sports bar with reggae music by The Melody Man - a Rastafarian from Belize.  Great music to listen and dance to...
with some interesting characters ...

...there's only 2 real band members (fellow in the white T, along with the guy in the background on the keyboard.....the rest....guy with white oar for a guitar, the other with a beer bottle for a microphone are just what happens when you are on the islet....

Cayo Caulker has the reputation...but in reality, is just a sandy, clay packed mangrove islet that attracts a wide, diverse group to its shores.

...rather than return to Belize City and hop another 4 hr bus ride to Corozal/Chetumal....we opt instead,  for the panga ferry to San Pedro (Ambergris Caye).... which gets us through Belize customs.....we then hop a final ferry for Chetumal, Mexico!...the 3 hr ride is easy, breezy, filled with ocean views and ocean calm...

Again, arrive without problem or pesos...no issue in customs...the waterfront taxi stand at Chetumal takes Belizian $$, and our cabbie assures us there's an ATM in the ADO bus station where we need to go.

Move through Chetumal and out in 30 minutes, as we catch an ADO bus to Playa del Carmen (PDC) with minutes to spare and head out on the 4 hr ride up the coast. This premium bus came with a pair of free headphones, a free drink, Spanish videos, male/female washrooms, curtains to close and plenty of room to stretch. Shayne even got his own set of seats.

With our days numbered on the road and a flight to catch home, we walk into a busy American Thanksgiving weekend in PDC and look for a room.

Find a nice, small hotel close to the action Hacienda Paradise Boutique Hotel for $100.  We have a large room with a balcony overlooking the inner courtyard and pool which proves to be nice for a cool early evening swim. Nice to go upscale for a it.

We're now into the higher prices of the tourist strip!  We spend a few days on the beach and cruise the famous 5th Avenue shopping street during the cooler evenings with hustlers at the ready to entice you into their shops.  PDC is extremely overpriced, the beach & water not so great with a sewage-type smell lingering. Some say it's from the mangrove swamps, others say it's from the Sargasso seaweed and still others say it is from a burst sewage pipe up the beach near the river.  Hmmm?

After 3 days in Playa, it's time to hop on a bus for the hour ride to the airport...

This trip is a wrap....heading home to colder temps/weather, a chance to see family and friends.

Adios for this road trip...nearly a dozen countries in 6 months of travel in 2015. Each so varied, so unique and so much fun!  Do we have a favourite?  Not really.... It's always about the wonderful people we meet along the way... Precious!!

Come join us in early 2016, as we head out again...Should be fun and another great adventure to share in words and photos.👍

Shayne y Yvonne