Philippines Part 2

Our driver and his son waiting patiently

Camiguin Island was pretty awesome.  The first day we toured around the island in a motorela.  The guy was super nice and patient, and didn't charge us very much at all for a whole day's worth of driving (he asked for about $15) so we paid him double.

Us in front of the sunken cemetary

The biggest waterfall I have ever seen!
It was very fun to swim in there.

We finished up the day by going to some church ruins, drinking mango smoothies, and then chilling at the black sand beach.  The next day (Wednesday) we climbed a volcano.  We had a "tour guide," who was actually just a teacher in the Philippines.  He was being nice and we got to avoid paying for an actual tour guide that we were supposed to have.  The hike up the volcano was rough; the ground was wet from the morning rain, the path was steep and filled with large rocks, and it felt like we were hiking through a jungle.  On the way down, everyone kept falling because it was so steep and very slippery.  We went right into the hot springs at the bottom to rest our sore, bruised bodies.  

Part of the hot springs, different pools with different temperature water

The next day we took a boat out to a small island that can only be visited during the day.  We rented a hut on the beach, went swimming, walked around the whole little island, and my favorite- went snorkeling!!  It was my first time snorkeling, and it was so much fun.  I got to see clown fish in their anemones, huge blue starfish, sea urchins, and a bunch of fish with colors so bright they didn't seem real.  

The boats that took people to the little island

I was sad to say bye to Camiguin and the treehouse.  If I ever go back to Camiguin again, I'm definitely staying in the treehouse!

Treehouse

View of the beds in our treehouse bedroom

On Friday we headed back to Bohol by ferry.  Then we took a 15-passenger van to the main city Tagbilaran, and then got on a large crowded "party bus" to go to Alona beach.  It wasn't really a party bus, but it had different colored lights in it and was playing American pop songs.  Alona beach was very touristy, and it was hard to find a place to stay because everything was twice as expensive and nothing even closely compared to the treehouse.  We hung out on the beach that night, and I got to swim in a hotel pool some of our friends were staying at until I got kicked out because it was after hours.  Then we went for a midnight swim in the ocean, which was a great way to spend my actual last night in the Philippines.

The next day we caught the morning ferry to Cebu and hung out in the airport all day because there wasn't really enough time to do anything spectacular.  We got to have New Years during a layover in the Manila airport, watching all the fireworks around the city go off for over an hour.  I would say that was a very successful and amazing trip.