Budget for the trip for 2pax:
Boat: ₱500
Food: ₱500
Transport: ₱500
Activity: ₱1000
Total: ₱2500 for two
Activity: ₱1000
Total: ₱2500 for two
Activities:
- Island Hopping
- Snorkeling
- Seafood Food Trip
How to get there:
1. Ride a taxi going to the port at Marigondon
2. Ride the boat and enjoy :)
Our Story:
We woke up 7am to prepare for our first ever adventure here in Cebu City. We plan to meet with our travel buddies in Gaisan Grand Mall in Mactan City by 9am. Its an hour away from our hotel, so we rushed going there, then these guys were late! making us wait for an hour :( brutally killing the excitement!
We had a private vehicle so i really dont remember where we're going and how got there. We stopped in Marigondon and met our bangkero, we were charge 1000 pesos for the whole boat. It was a big boat and it has a simple "change outfit" area where you can change clothes when you are ready for some swimming in the ocean activity.
We started doing the Island Hopping, we were just passing by the islands and stop for a minute just to admire it and take selfies. Kuya said that going to the main island will cost us money as they charge for an entrance fee on each island.
Then we stopped on the middle of the ocean just to appreciate its beauty, and it is really is beautiful, the most beautiful beach/ocean/place i've ever been!
One guy popped up and offered us to do some snorkeling activities for ₱250 each gear, and this is were the fun starts! He taught us first how to use it, at first I was hesitant as many other people already put this gear on their mouth before us. But anyway..
After learning how to use it, we swim on a shallow part so we can stand up anytime. And started exploring the ocean, its beautiful and scary at the same time. We saw starfishes, its my first time seeing a strafish in the ocean and it doesn't look like Patrick at all, lol. There were also some sea urchins that are very dangerous special if you accidentally stepped on it.. aw!
After a 30minute fun, our bangkero said we should go somewhere else so we can enjoy the snorkeling more. So we went to the Olango Marine Sanctuary where many fishes and corals lives.
The marine sanctuary is deep but beautiful, really nice place. We had life vest for safety as we continue snorkeling underwater. It was fun. We had some bread and fed it on the fishes so they would come near us.
After an hour of exploring the sea. Our tour guide offered us to have lunch on the boat with some freshly caught seafood. It was a little bit expensive and we were not sure about it and it is not in the budget but we were told by our local friend that saying yes and accepting the offer is our way of helping these people, because this is the only job they have and their everyday lives depends on it. So we agreed to have lunch on the boat.
We moved into an island and wait for an hour for our lunch. The island is not the typical tourist island, its more of a people's island, where people lives here everyday. The kids where busy hunting for fishes and sea shells, the mother's were busy cooking and the guys were busy climbing the trees for coconuts.
We had our lunch ready, the kids of the island harvest it, the mother cooked it and the father offered it to us. Without even tasting the food yet, I must say the payment was worth it.
We traveled far from the island, we stoped in the middle of the ocean and ate our lunch. We had fresh coconut drinks on the side. :)
The food is really different from the usual food we had on restaurants, the experience is really awesome, you should give it a try too.
We had freshly caught seafood! There were some shells, I did not tried eating it but my friends said its great and it taste somehow like squid. Mew said it taste like the ocean which is so complicated. We had grilled squid also, very good. We had a lobster, i was little disappointed as it doesnt look like the lobsters i see on tv. We got some fish kinilaw, i thought "kinilaw" was the same as "kilawin" in pampanga, but its very different so i did not tried it. I am a picky eater by the way. Last, we had steamed crabs. This is what I had on that lunch, very great as always.
After eating, kuya asked us to buy some of his sea shell crafts, It worth 200pesos each and its not on our budget but he did a good job touring us so we bought some.
Check out our tour Video here:
