Bantayan Island, Cebu

After our 3 day - Seminar in Cebu, we headed straight to Bantayan Island.

From Cebu, we took a cab to the North Cebu Bus Terminal which is near SM Cebu but is not walking distance. We rode a Ceres Bus going to Hagnaya Port. We arrived pretty early and luckily, got the newest, airconditioned bus and the best seats.Travel time is around 3 hours.

Upon arrival at Hagnaya Port, we purchased tickets for the ferry going to Sta. Fe. This is what the ferry looks like.

I was very excited because it was my first time to ride a ferry. There was an airconditioned room and a non-airconed part of the ferry. We initially paid for the airconed room but chose to sit outside instead. The view of the sea and islands did not fail us. We enjoyed the view for around an hour and arrived at Sta. Fe.

Bantayan is a beautiful island with very nice and warm locals, some resorts, a few tourists (at that time), and foreigners who seemed to have settled down in this island. It is surrounded by several other islands of which I never knew what they were called.

Bantayan Island is composed of 3 towns/municipalities which are Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos. We stayed in a resort in Sta. Fe. Sadly I don't have pictures of the resort itself, but it's alright because I wouldn't recommend it anyway. However, it's nice to share that the owners, a Filipina and a Finish couple, were very, very nice to us. We had a nice stay nevertheless.

It is notable that the people we have met were generally very nice. Bantayan seemed like a very safe town. during our stay, we have befriended a pedicab driver who served as our tourguide/driver all throughout our stay. He was very pleasant.

The pictures above are the 2 mode of transportation in Bantayan Island. Unless you brought your car through the ferry ;P. The white one is called the trisikad and the picture below it is  the pedicab driver I was telling you about. His name is Junie.

We stayed in Bantayan Island for Three days. We went Island Hopping on the 2nd day. We went snorkeling, which was not that amazing, even though it was first time. The corals weren't that colorful but it was a nice experience. My sister said the corals in Boracay looks so much better. I will find out in January if it is indeed true.

The best part about our stay was our visit to the virgin island.

Here's more pictures, and tell me if the island is not beautiful.

Don't go home without visiting the church inside the town of Bantayan :)

The Queen City of the South

We got invited to a 3 day seminar in Cebu and since it was free of all expenses... who are we to resist?
Boy was I very excited!

Originally our seminar was supposed to be Nov 7 -9 and we planned to go to Bohol after. For whatever reason, our Seminar got moved to Nov 6 -8, 2011.

Since it was a seminar...we had pre-planned iteneraries for the day. The 1st day was for the tour around cebu which by the way, didn't feel like a tour at all. Second day was a whole day seminar and the third day was half day seminar and then flight back to Manila.

1st Day:

We arrived between 8 - 9AM and headed straight to The  Basilica de Sto. Niño where the mass was being held and since it was a Sunday, the place was packed with people. The place looked nice, because the mass was being held in the stage across the actual church too bad they don't allow to take pictures outside because the mass was ongoing. We didn't attend the whole mass because it was being said in Bisaya and I couldn't understand a thing.

                   Right there in the middle is the Magellan's Cross packed with tourists and faithful followers alike.

 And then it was time for lunch. We headed to Plantation Bay where buffet was served. After Lunch we had time to enjoy the resort to ourselves. There are lots of activities you can do in Plantation Bay. There's swimming, bicycle riding, wall climbing, kayak, indoor games etc. After doing a little research, I found out that a day tour costs around Php 2000 or Php 1500 for a group of around 20 pax.
                                               
                                            Here's a picture of their lagoon/pool.

We didn't do any of the activites. We had fun lounging around and taking pictures. I don't understand how some of the participants managed to swim in such a limited amount of time.

After Plantation Bay, we went straight to Radisson Blu where we stayed from day 1 to 3. I was surprised to see that we got to stay in a posh hotel for free. ;)

                                   Here are some pictures of the room we got... Sorry about the bags.

We had a great stay in Radisson Blu. It is located beside SM Cebu and there is a walkway towards SM. It's definitely a plus for a mallrat like me! The rooms were very nice and clean, the staff was very accommodating and helpful and we had free food from their buffet Feria which offered a little bit of every cuisine there was a little bit of Filipino, Japanese, Italian etc. We were ready to puke on the 3rd meal eating at the same buffet LOL.

Our Cebu-Bohol Trip

Our nature of business is in the academe, it is usual that we get invited to seminars from time to time. Usually, we send our teachers to those seminars but since the venue was in Cebu and was intended for school administrators and school heads my sister and I went with two other teachers. (My sister is the school directress and I am the Corporate Secretary (kuno)

Thanks to Phoenix Publishing House for providing us with a great seminar and venue free of charge! yey!!!

We were away From Sunday to Sunday. November 6 to 13 and Spent 3 days in Cebu City, 3 Days in Bantayan Island and 3 Days in Bohol. It was a long vacation. :)

Will post more about my long vacay soon!