The last portion of our trip was spent on the Island of Samal (properly known as the Island Garden City of Samal). This small island is about a 45 minute boat road off the coast of Davao. The purpose of our days in Samal was pretty simple: REST. As much as I was looking forward to getting a taste (sometimes literally) of where Kris grew up, I was very much looking forward to this portion of the trip....a chance to relax!
We stayed at the Pearl Farm Resort and it was the perfect place to rest. It was small and quiet. There was a beach and there were pools. There was a lot of great food. It was perfect.
On the boat, heading to the island...
When we arrived, we were greeted with fresh pineapple juice.
There were lots of these guys around, which made me a bit nervous at first. But, once I was convinced that they planned to stay outside and had no intentions of crawling all over me in my sleep, I was good to go. In that case, they are kind of cute.
Our temporary home...
View from our porch...
View from the lounge chair...
Lots of palms...
This guy was so cool. We passed him every day on our walks...he would say "hello" as we walked by.
Infinity pool...
We had some amazing food at the resort. I wish I would have taken more photos of the food! Meals (especially dinner) were relaxing and fun and yummy.
Live music...
Yummy drinks. Green mango (Kris') and regular mango (mine)....I imagine there is a more technical term for the orange-ish one.
Wasabi. I can't eat this stuff, but Kris likes it with sushi. Though I don't like the taste, I can definitely appreciate the creativity here!
Tiramisu.
Blurry, darn.
The beach was just beautiful.
The water was so clear and blue.
Tide is out...
Mountains in the distance...
Starfish!
We saw lots of fish....I should have taken more pictures.
Buko. As organic as it gets.
Posing...
We went kayaking, which terrified me a bit. I am insanely afraid of sharks. Of course, I was assured that there were no sharks out there, but I still felt a bit freaked out being so close to the water's surface.
I didn't take my camera out there with me for obvious reasons (you know, the sharks might get it), but I managed to snap a picture after I had already gotten out of the boat.
Beautiful nights...
Time to go. The Pearl Farm folks waving good-bye. Sniff, sniff.
Well, there you have it! A small glimpse into our 2 weeks in the Philippines.
Thanks to our parents, who graciously took care of our munchkins while we were away. This was definitely a trip better taken without them. No offense, babies. =)
While it was nice to be just the 2 of us for those days, it is so good to be back together with our kids, and because of them, we jumped back into "real life" almost immediately after we got home. =)
Paalam! Ba-bay!
Click here for Part 1: Manila,
Here for Part 2: Tagaytay,
Or Here for Part 3: Davao.
