Beautiful Boracay 2

We arrived on the island and the hotel we stayed at picked us up and got us to the hotel in an easy and quick fashion. Which is always lovely in a place you don't know.
This is the front of our hotel. The upstairs has a seating area where you can sit and check your e-mail or just have a drink and enjoy the gorgeous view of the ocean.
I don't have many pictures of the week, because I was busy with my scuba diving class. I had a great time taking the class, aside from the first day in the water when I managed to get sea sick underwater. Ryan, my friend who took the class with me, took pictures on our third dive but I can't steal the pictures because he has yet to get them developed and uploaded. I will keep prodding him and will hopefully get to show some of the pictures to you.


This is Filipino money also called pesos. Can you tell they were occupied by the Spanish for quite some time.

Beautiful beach. Obligatory sunset shot.


The day we graduated from our scuba course our instructors decided to hold a beach barbecue. Anyone who had dived with them at any point during the week and anyone we met who wanted to attend was invited as long as they were willing to donate a bit of food or drink. We had a good time especially once the alcohol started flowing.
The Blue Mango Dive Center has a tradition that all who graduate from their dive courses are taken to the Jungle Bar and treated to a drink called the F U Archie (sounds like argee in the accent). You have a highball size glass full of blue drain cleaner looking fluid set in front of you. You are supposed to drink it down in one shot and then flip off Archie and say as loudly as you can muster F U!
I got about halfway through the drink when the tabasco, or whatever mysterious hot burning substance was in the drink, hit me. I could not finish lest I bring back all the delicious food I had just ingested at the barbecue. The evening got considerably fuzzier from that point on. There are (were) several pictures in my camera that I don't recall taking or that have any context that I can place them in.
I do remember dancing with a very cute guy and realizing at some point that I had rather seriously turned my ankle and could not walk anymore.
It is quite a trick to make your way down a couple of kilometers of sandy walkway to your hotel on a twisted ankle while drunk. I managed to find a trike driver who took me to a place to get ice and then to my hotel where he then fleeced me by charging me three times what he should have. (it's not expensive by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a principle. even when you're drunk off your ass)
Boracay is fantastic. There were so many excellent restaurants with food from absolutely everywhere. There is also of course the wonderful idyll of just laying on the beach with a book and some music and occasionally wandering into the ocean to cool off and float on the gentle waves.