Gone fishing...

Gone fishing...to a hidden paradise.

Will be back on Tuesday. Have a meaningful Lent.

Before sundown [Watery and Outdoor Wednesday]

A stroll by the beach at sundown looking for creative ideas. The sea breezes blew its own freshness into my face, the sound of waves gave me rhythm, the warm sand under my bare feet made me slow down, nature's peace flowed into me. And yes, I had a eureka moment.:p

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. ~Henry David Thoreau

Posted for Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Fresh [Photo-Hunt]

Fresh sea-foods at the Seaside Market along Macapagal Boulevard. This is my favorite destination when I have a craving for fish, bihod (fish roe), oysters and other sea foods. This is a great place to bring balik-bayan friends and relatives for dinner, and even foreign guests. Patrons buy the sea-foods from this wet market and bring it over to a restaurant [at the back of the market] and have them cooked. There are rows of restaurants to choose from---they charge a minimal cooking fee.

Posted for Photo-Hunt

Riding into the sunset [SWF and FFB]

Riding into the sunset, not on a horse, but in an outrigger boat on our way back to Mactan after a day of island-hopping. The sunset beckoned as if offering a never-ending view of this beautiful horizon.

Posted for Sky-Watch Friday

Watching a sunset is always a humbling experience, a tender moment. To witness one of God's masterpieces brings peace that blends and fuses with wonder.

Posted for Friday-Finding Beauty

Lunch at Olango Island

I don't know why but being on water makes me hungry. The wind, sun and salty water whet the appetite, I suppose. The anticipation of having fresh sea-foods for lunch on a "floating restaurant" made me more hungry! The outrigger boat brought us to a cluster of "floating restaurants" in Olango Island as part of our island-hopping adventure in Mactan.

From the island of Hilutungan, we bought 3 pieces of rock lobsters from a local fisherman for P1,800. I didn't know those were rock lobsters---when I was a kid, we called them pitik-pitik, although the ones we bought were much bigger than the pitik-pitik of my childhood. But still, I think P1,800 for the 3 crustaceans was way too expensive. We were "tourists", after all.

This was our lunch in one of the "floating restaurants". The sea-foods were not only fresh, they're all alive! We had litob shells soup, steamed lapu-lapu (grouper), grilled squid, chopsuey (mixed vegetables), garlic fried rice and grilled rock lobsters.

Buying sea-foods here was a bit, for a lack of a better word, tricky---they won't give you the price for each item that you choose, like how much for a kilo. They will give you a price based on the whole basket you selected, including cooking charges. There were five of us and our lunch was P6,300. Not cheap. But then, the experience was worth it, plus the food was delicious.

waiting for lunch to be served

"floating" restaurants

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Plastic [Litratong Pinoy]

Isang malaking ka-plastikan ang ibabahagi ko sa 'yo ngayong Huwebes. Napakarami kasing plastic sa ating paligid. Kaya siguro naisipan ng isang malikhaing Pinoy na gawin ang sangkatutak na plastic bottles na ito bilang isang work of art.Hindi ko nga lang mawari kung ano ito--parang kamag-anak ni R2-D2, parang smiley naman ang isa. Pero ang galing di ba? Kaysa naman maitambak pa ang mga ito sa landfill, o kaya bumara sa ating mga kanal.

Nakita ko itong naka-display sa Greenbelt 3 noong isang taon.

Join us at Litratong Pinoy

At the Hilton pier [Watery & Outdoor Wednesday]

Working in Cebu feels like a perpetual vacation (don't tell my boss!). A Saturday in Cebu when you have nothing else to do, rent an outrigger boat for P3,500 (roughly $77) to explore the nearby islands in Mactan and Bohol. It was so much fun than vegetating in my hotel room, window-shopping or people-watching at the mall. To rent a boat, go to the Hilton Pier in Mactan, or you can call El Capitan--I have his cell phone number.:p

The Hilton pier is very accessible and you won't miss it...just look for the two pink towers after Mactan Shangri-la. The scene at the pier was organized chaos. Huge outrigger boats (ours has a 35-person capacity) are "parked" at the wharf, and to reach the boat we rented, we had to walk wobbly across another "parked" boat.

@ mirandablue

illegal parking

a young diver

our boatman as we were leaving the wharf; not an easy job

leaving Hilton pier

We visited 4 islands, had lunch on the floating restaurant at Olango Island, snorkeled at the marine sanctuary in Hilutungan Island, swam on a sugary white sands of Sulpa, parked our boat in Pandanon and took out the fishing rods. On our way back at sunset, we even saw a Blue Marlin jumping on the water. It was magical. More photos in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Posted for Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Bougainvilleas in bloom [OWM]

Summer is officially here and along with it comes the vibrant colors of nature. Two weekends ago, I was at the Mactan Shangri-la and noticed the lush bougainvilleas in bloom. I love bougainvilleas---they're wild, free and spontaneous. And I would say, they're the official flower of summer.

at the poolside

view from Shangri-la's Cowrie Cove

How's your weekend? Join us at Our Weekend Memoirs

Three huts [Photo-Hunt]

Three big huts and a tiny one.

These huts shelter beachcombers from the unforgiving sun, a seaside escape on a narrow patch of white sand in Pandanon Island. I suppose most of us are now hankering for a beach hut---in Pandanon Island, a hut is always available, no reservations needed.

Pandanon Island is about an hour boat ride from the Hilton pier in Mactan, Cebu. One of the 75 smaller islands surrounding Bohol, Pandanon is a part of Getafe, a municipality of Bohol. The island has a small fishing village, approximately one hectare stretch of white sand---a sand bar in the middle of warm turquoise waters of Cebu Strait.

Posted for Photo-Hunt

Above the clouds [SWF]

I love flying. Takeoffs always make me sleepy, the motion of the plane as it accelerates off the ground lulls me to sleep. I seldom take afternoon flights from Cebu to Manila---but on this trip, I was so tired that I opted to board a late afternoon flight to get home a bit early. And I was rewarded with this orange glow at the horizon.

Posted for Sky-Watch Friday

River Shrimps on the rocks

I'm back after a 2-week hiatus. Missing my blog buddies and catching up with what's happening in the blogosphere.

Here's my comeback post to tease your tastebuds---river shrimps (swahe) on the rocks. This dish was cooked before my eyes. Fresh shrimps are thrown into a hotbed of rocks and covered for a few minutes. The waiter shakes the pot here and there, and---voila!--cooked shrimps on the spot. Smells good, too! It's actually steamed shrimps (halabos) prepared in a creative way.

I enjoyed this experience at Mesa-Filipino Moderne, The Terraces branch in Ayala-Cebu.

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday