Last minute holy week trip: PUERTO GALERA - A day of fun filled activities, DAY 2

DAY 2

I woke up very early in a quest to find a hotel that has an available room for the night. We were not able to sleep well last night. It was horrible. The kids had mosquito bites. My eldest daughter woke up with insect bites on her eye and face. She looked like she had a boxing match and lost. Her face was red and swollen. The aircon was not working so we were transferred to a room that was so smelly, all 5 of us were squeezed in one small room.
Tip: If travelling with kids & toddlers, it is best to bring Lysol disposable wipes. Clean the doorknobs, telephone receivers, shower knobs, all switches, tables and anything your toddler might try to eat. You will be surprised that no matter how 'clean" the room looks, your wipes ends up with amazing colors from dirt. I always bring them with me to wipe airplane armrests, tables, etc.
All the resorts in Small La Laguna were fully booked (as it was holy week) except for one - RED SUN RESORT. God answered our prayers as they have one room available only for one night. Checked out the resort, the rooms were clean with balcony facing the sea. Room rates are at P2000 or $44 per night plus $11 for extra bed to which they provided 2 extra mattress.
I went back to Portofino to cancel my 2nd night with the resort, the lady-in-charge (Abigail) tried to persuade us to stay (She agreed with my request to have the room charged at $50 a night.) As I was about to reconsider, we heard some commotion in the ceiling above us, so my husband, Abigail & I looked up to see what it was. Lo and behold, a white mice jumped in front of us! Abigail was speechless. That confirmed our decision to really move out--fast! Sorry Abigail, she is a nice girl and really friendly but the resort is lousy. She could work in another resort though. No offense to the owner--who I believe is just there in the resort but didn't even try to talk to us.

Photo of Red Sun Resort
Checked out at Portofino and checked-in at Red Sun resort--Which my daughter calls the White Castle (having just watched Alice in Wonderland) and believes the white queen resides there. That helped us a lot because she was in her best behaviour the remainder of our stay. Hoping the white queen would come and visit her if she was a good girl.
We were ready for our boat ride at 9AM.
Tip: Canvas around the area first before getting a banca (boat ride). Out of 5 offers of Php1500 or $33 for a whole day of banca ride, we were able to find Elmer the boatman 0063928-2652897 who agreed to use his boat the whole day and come back the next day to bring all of us to Sabang Port for same Price of P1500. Normally a boat ride from the hotel to Sabang port costs P300. So it was a good deal. Saved us P300.
We asked Elmer-our boatman to buy fish and pork liempo, rice and salted eggs so we can have a picnic lunch at a secluded beach. He happily obliged and said he will be the one to cook for us.
So off we went to Coral Reef for snorkeling. The current was strong so we rented a small banca for p500. The banca has abaca ropes we can hang on too while we snorkel. You don't have to paddle or swim. You just hang on to the Abaca ropes and the banca will bring you around the water.

After snorkeling, we headed to White beach where my daughter
& I had our hair braided (insisted by my husband) for P100/person.

Ate some banana Q (a popular street food, deep fried banana with caramelized sugar coating) and toron banana rolled in lumpia or egg roll and fried with sugar) for P10each and went back to our banca.

Boat ride: P1500 rental for the whole day. Includes: White beach, Coral reef, and stop at a secluded beach for lunch) Added bonus fro our boatman Elmer: He cooked BBQ lunch for us, and went back to our resort the next day (on Day 3) to bring us to Sabang port for our ferry ride back to Batangas.
We reached our Banca past 12 noon. Elmer brought us to a secluded beach where he cooked us



Barbequed Tilapia, Tanigue, Liempo and salted eggs with tomato and onions.

lunch while we frolicked in the clear waters.
Our lunch was even best we have eaten so far. Good food and the fish was really fresh.
After lunch we decided to head back to the resort as the kids were tired. Finished our beach hopping at 4PM.
After our nap, we headed to Sabang beach again to look for restaurants in the area. All were overpriced! P400-600 for meat dishes and the waiters not so friendly so we decided to return to Hemingways. Place was full of people. We decided to wait.
Tip: El Galleon at La Laguna Beach have Indian Buffet every fridays at P495 per person. Not Bad.. But we don't like Indian food so we settled for Hemingways.
My daughter had the same Carbonara, while we ordered their Fried Chicken for less than P300. And their Roast Beef at P500+. All our meals came with soup, rice/potaoes & coffee and an orange brandy shot. Servings were huge. We skipped the Orange Brandy as it was too strong. Only my husband had it.
We finished our heavy meal and happily went back to the resort.
A perfect way to end our day.