After securing a Telcel SIM card at MEX airport—which I thought cost 129 USD until I checked that “$” is also used for Mexican peso—and making sure it was gonna keep me going in the city, I booked an Uber to Biblioteca Vasconcelos for $91.96 and stepped out in ~23 minutes, muttering the palabra one has to know in the Spanish world: Gracias!
It was already 37 minutes past three in the morning when I did a final check if all the plugged gadgets were charging, ensuring we have enough juice for our El Nido island hopping activity. Following firefly watching in Iwahig (where I have no proof of the sightings because I was too busy dramatically thinking if a croc was gonna attack our boat in the dark), we flew from Puerto Princesa to El Nido in a van. It was one of those moments where you get to be thankful for an nth life, where n > 1.
Bucas Grande has always been under my radar due to its proximity to my home province. When I fin’lly (wow, twang again) had the chance to visit it, what I actually had in mind was a typical island hopping activity. Apparently, you can also swim with stingless jellyfish in Sohoton Cove. (The use of “stingless” there may have been unnecessary. Who wants to get hurt, right?) My GoPro was still alive back then and the nasty little devils sure did a very good job in showcasing how much wonder there is beneath the surface.
Following our quickie (which didn’t feel like one, by the way) in Hinugtan Beach, we made our way from Alegria, Aklan to Sebaste, Antique in two tricycle rides and one bus ride within two hours. From there we hopped on one more tricycle and arrived at the jump-off point to Igpasungaw Falls around three o’clock.
Before you can say “expensive”, let me break it to you that if you want to fly to Europe for less than ₱20,000, it’ll take an error fare for that or a really mad seat sale. In my case, I scored my round trip tickets from Manila to Athens for only ₱22,518.66. “Only” because, c’mon, it’s the Schengen area, which means you can hop to other countries without needing additional visas. (Bloody visas!) Despite the long layovers in Singapore, it was definitely a no-brainer when I saw the deal for a week in Greece. Besides, I got to meet and shoot with my postgraduate folks there. Social as usual, brotha!
If you haven’t heard the news, summer is basically upon us again. And before we know it, it could be almost over already. I already had a dose of Vitamin Sea so Bunker Dive Resort ain’t the first for this season but because I loved our quickie how quick and easy it was to get there, here I am, bragging about it first.