After our
nice stay in Manila we tried to get to Mindoro Island. Mindoro Island is divided
in two parts, one is called oriental Mindoro, this is the well developed part,
and the other half is called occidental Mindoro, this is where we wanted to go.
Somehow we figured out, that there is only one bus company which goes directly from
manila to our destination. With good spirit we tried to get a taxi to the “Dimple
Star” Bus Station but the first three taxis where not interested in bringing us
there or they asked for crazy prices. Finally the fourth one did not complain
at all and drove us there, all the way with short cuts, and in a very short
time. Wow!
We bought
our tickets, waited for the bus and when he arrived we put our luggage on our
seats. We had one hour for the scheduled departure and decided to wait outside.
Not very smart we realized when the bus was just driving away… No worries, they
told us, the bus is just driving to another station to collect more people… I
can tell you this was a very long hour of waiting and hoping that all our
luggage would still be in the bus and complete. And you might wonder but the
bus came, full of people, and all our belongings were where we had left them! What
a good feeling! The rest of the journey
was easy but long, and finally at midnight we arrived in Sablayan. The passengers
and the bus driver discussed together and decided that it’d be better for us to
drop of here and go to a hotel instead of going to our original destination
because it was already late and the had some doubts, that we will find the apo
reef club in the night and so we ended up in Emily hotel.
The next
day we took a jeepney and finally in the middle of nowhere the driver stopped
and said: “Here is Apo Reef Club, just walk down this road…” And we did and
after a few hundred meters we arrived in the wonderful resort and understood
why it was better to stay the night before in Sablayan ;-)
We spent
the days with dolce fa niente and because we are always ready for an adventure
we took the opportunity to stay 5 days in apo island to fill tanks for a coral
garden restoration project.
I think now
it’s time to let the pictures speak: PICTURES