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Water World

Cebu Travel Blog › entry 2 of 3 › view trip summary

Summer is here again... and where else should a traveler living in a tropical country spend a long weekend? Our "BEACHful" islands! Welcome to my Cebu-Bohol Travel blog.

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Water World

March 21, 2008

March 21, Day 2 of our trip. We woke up at 6AM as we have arranged an 8AM trip with the boat operator. Yes, we allocated the whole day to be spent with just the waters of Cebu. We wanted to do nothing else but ISLAND HOPPING!

The boat operator was already waiting at our meeting area when we arrived. We were impressed that the boat was actually bigger than what we expected. The eight of us, along with five other guides and crew, we sailed the ocaen of Mactan for our first stop--- The Gilutungan Island.

This island is claimed to be the most beautiful island in Mactan. Our main guide, Ivan, told us that the island was declared a marine sanctuary in 1990, with the area providing an undisturbed habitat for various marine species to feed and reproduce.

The shallow waters within the sanctuary were so excellent that we immediately jumped out of the boat for a snorkelling adventure. Wow! A wide variety of corals, reef fish and invertibrates were easily visible from where i was, about two to three meters of water. And with the piece of bread that Ivan gave me, there were about a dozen of fish that approached me and literally consumed the bread on my very hand. It took us almost two hours spent in Gilutungan Fish Sanctuary. Ivan seemed to notice that we had no plans of leaving the sanctuary that he called us back to the boat and reminded us that there were other islands that we have to see.

About 20-minute boat ride from Gilutugan is an equally impressive island of Nalusuan. The island is nestling at the Olango reef in Cordova.

choco chip cookie con century tuna... eek.. weirdo!

In this close-to-a-half hectare of island exists a rich, unspoiled marine life. We were told that Nalusuan is touted to become the next diving haven. But as for us, marine life here is not as rich as that of Gilutungan. Nonetheless, we took this opportunity to enjoy its blue-green yet prisetinely crystal clear waters.

We all decided to take our lunch on the boat. Since it was Goof Friday, and by belief we should not eat meat that day, we just brought cans of Tuna flakes and sardines which we enjoyed eating with puso (rice, native in Cebu, which is wrapped in coconut leaves which is then boiled).

After lunch, we proceeded to the nearby island of Pandanon. This island is of excellent beauty where white sand and turquoise water awaited us for a day of fun in the sun. It’s got a long stretch of sandbar, a setting for that was truly intimate. The panorama of the calm open sea and the neighboring island across was truly breathtaking. I felt like I wanted to staye there for a week or two. Truly beautiful!

It was already 6PM when we got back to our hotel. It was indeed a long day full of water adventures but all of us seemed energized as we can be. This experience of interracting so closely with marine creatures is defnitely something we will never forget.