The Reef Paradise

Boracay is an island south of Manila in the Western Visayas. It gained popular recognition in global tourism as it was distinguished by the BMW Handbook as one of the best beaches in the world in 1990, as well as the world’s number one tropical beach by British magazine TV Quick in 1996.

My family and I had a three-day vacation in Boracay in May 2009 as requested by my younger sister and her Australian husband. We stayed at one of their apartments in Manoc-Manoc, gate 3, which is just 50 meters back of the beach. I would consider this an experience of once in a lifetime which was imprinted in both first impressions and fun.

The reason why I consider it once-in-a-lifetime experience is that before I came about to discover the atmospheric ambiance of Boracay I was pathetic about beaches. Our province Pangasinan had a lot of beaches but they were dry and dirty so I was not really interested about crossing any other beaches. Aside from that, I am not an outgoing person so I almost believe that getting into fun somewhere in the Boracay cross lines would understate my social shortcomings.  Anyway, I brought with me only my father and mother so that would highlight the possibility of me getting alone in the middle of my sister’s European and American friends. These uncomfortable feelings were, at one point between watching the seas of the ocean while inside a ship and landing into the tourist spot of Aklan, washed away.

The travel was by sea since we had a lot of baggage. Hence, it took us one day to reach Aklan. While on-board one of the Navigation Lines ships, the feeling, being first-time (since I am not usually fond of vacation travels), was indescribable. The cloud above was so clear that I could see cotton-like formations which relieve stress and discomforts given by the city. The water was crystal-clear with blue tones all over. There were mountains and ridge lines at the far horizons. I felt absolute freedom for the first time, where all sides were open and wide, totally opposite from the constrictions of the urban lifestyle and college pressure.

With the shorelines on sight, the color milieu was astounding. I was approaching a beautiful and white coastline from all the sides of this small island of Panay. From about 300 meters the atmosphere could be felt. There were coconut trees around and bushy herbs, colorful sheds and bancas, mixed with people who were wearing colorful summer dresses, too.

That was just like the border impression. When we were already in that island, the feeling was more intensely nature-passionate. For the three days that I was there I enjoyed one of my life’s most wonderful experiences. I could now see the actual heaven which was brought down to earth from above. A lot of people and families were enjoying their summer getaways bonding and sharing fun with one another. It also displayed cultural diversity since a blend of ethnic, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Latin and American tourists were there. I could see beautiful bodies and faces. I could also see a lot of restaurants and bars lining everywhere. Commerce and industry was rich along with tourism. And wow, the sand was just genuinely rich-white, which was the rarest thing I have ever seen in my years of existence. From that point and forward, I enjoyed every second of the vacation swimming and roaming around Manoc-Manoc myself while my parents were busy talking with my sister, her husband and their foreign friends. While staying on the apartment, I also had some bondage with Steve, my brother-in-law. He is a project engineer for contracts of high-rise buildings. Once, he took me on board his motorcycle to show one of his big projects, in a mountain base. The building was in the initial phase of construction so he was checking for structural and cable defects. After that, he toured me to the reefs. According to him, the island was actually a multitude of coral reefs put out together to make up an island. From that moment I got to know him as a very smart (in fact he was a distinguished scholar of Chemistry in University of Western Australia who could handle engineering projects), very competitive and very funny person.

Although time was short for the vacation for me to give a general impression of the place, the experience was indeed a treasure. It reminded me of the time when Philippines was free from exploitation of its natural resources and beauty decades ago.