OCS Town Meeting/R & D Kick-off (Day 2)

Coco Beach, Puerto Galera
15th October 2005

I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm clock rang. It's my dad's birthday! I tried to send him a text message but I had to try severaI times because the signal was quite bad. Thank Goodness, I was able to send it afterwards. =)

Since I was assigned to make arrangements for Island hopping, I had to be at the beach front earlier. Good thing, I already asked the resort coordinator the night before, for a boat that we could rent. She said it will be waiting for us at 8 a.m.

The girls also asked me to wake them up at 6:30. So there, I was the official alarm clock. Hehe… Tina woke up when she heard me fixing my things. It was a beautiful Saturday morning! When I opened the door, I was so fascinated to see such a magnificent view.


view from our room
Still feeling sleepy though, I sat at the hammock and just marveled at the beauty of the surroundings.


at the hammock, still quite sleepy…
Then I walked up to Anne, Lea and Claire’s room. The three of them were still in dreamland even as I was already banging their door. (tsk, tsk…) Good thing, (or maybe not) they’ve left their window unlocked and so I successfully opened it and gave the girls a nice wakeup shout (haha!) They got out of bed, finally.

We all went to the restaurant for breakfast. We all enjoyed the delicious breakfast even more than the meals we had the day before. I had fried rice, bacon, scrambled egges, ham omelette, strawberry jam, croissant, fresh mangoes for dessert and coffee of course.

After my sumptuous breakfast, I approached each table to announce that the boat is already waiting for us. We rented some snorkeling gears before hopping in the boat. The vest was free of charge. All aboard by 8:30. Oh not really all, since some opted to just stay around the resort, while others were still fast asleep in their rooms. Hehehe…

The boat stopped at a good snorkeling spot. It was actually my first time to use the gear so I was feeling uncomfortable. But later on, I got the hang of it and was really glad to be able to gaze upon the beauty of the world under the sea.


snorkeling! That’s me, Royet, Mike and Chris
The “manong” offered to take us around the area with his boat so that we could go to the nicer snorkeling spots. All we had to do was to hold on to the rope attached to the boat’s “katig” (don’t know the English term for that). That’s 100 bucks for an hour.

I really enjoyed the experience. Watching schools of fishes of different kinds, sizes and colors passing by me, seeing blue starfishes and giant clam shells! It was awesome!

30 minutes was up and we rode the boat again. Next stop was at the “Coral Garden”. It’s snorkeling time once again. The manong with the small boat was already waiting to take us around for another 30 minutes.

The Coral Garden had more beautiful corals and fishes compared to the first area we visited. The manong was also kind enough to give us crumbs of rice (for the lack of bread) so that we could feed the fishes.

The fishes started coming towards us by the time we scatter the crumbs under water. It was a beautiful sight! I’ve never seen that many fishes of wonderful colors coming so near me. I really wish I had captured that in camera. Unfortunately, I didn’t find Nemo. =( (clownfishes, I mean. Hehe…)


snorkeling again at the Coral Garden
Time is up for snorkeling. We boarded the boat and went to our final destination – White Beach. It’s time to buy some souvenirs! They sell nice shirts at a relatively cheap price. I brought shirts for my dad, mom, sis and for me as well. We also stopped by a souvenir store and I bought some magnets and keychains for my friends.


shopping at the souvenir store
The boat took us back to Coco Beach at around 11 a.m. We headed straight to our rooms to pack our things and check-out. But we received good news that we could still check out until 2 pm. (yey!)

We proceeded to the restaurant for lunch. I opted for sinigang , chicken adobo, lapu-lapu, fruit salad and cake for dessert. We also ordered some fruit shakes. (The cakes were actually for the birthday celebrants. They just shared it with us. =D)


lunch time!
We decided to visit the hanging bridge right after lunch. It was like a five-minute walk from the restaurant. Again, it’s picture taking time.









Then it was time to try the pool! =)













At 2 p.m., went back to our rooms to pack our things and dress up. We’re just quite sad that we weren’t able to try the kayak and the banana boat. =( There’s just so much to do in so little time. Oh well, maybe in our next outing. =D

Ritche took a photo of us as we were walking our way towards the boat.


last shot before leaving the resort
Since it’s still low tide, we had to ride a smaller boat for transfer to the two bigger boats.


while riding the small boat


waving goodbye to Coco Beach…


In the big boat, while waiting to sail
It was also a smooth sail on our way back to Tabangao Pier. Again, we’re all so thankful for the perfect weather.


our boat (picture taken by Aspi from the other boat)
Hmm… I just had another wonderful experience to add in my “first time” list. I consider this another great blessing that God has given me this year. He’s really sweet! =)

Aside from the fun and enjoyment, we also brought home with us a sense of team spirit, ready to face the challenges that will come ahead. (",)