Philippines Tour - Moalboal

The first full day of our tour, we met the group for breakfast at a pancake house but chose to try the local dish beef tapa. We then got on the van to travel 4 hours to Moalboal, where we would be spending the next few days.

On the way, we stopped to have a local lunch, where we tried lechon - roasted suckling pig with rice, plus some other Filipino dishes.

We then also stopped at a catholic church which had been established 25 years ago and 'Mama Mary' was a big influence. We saw hundreds of letters of people who had prayed to Mama Mary and were healed of various ailments and the walls are covered with old wheelchairs and crutches. There are special prayers for passing your exams too. The building was impressive and felt more like a Disney castle than a church.

When we arrived at Moalboal we relaxed and unpacked before heading out with the group for dinner and we shared pork adobo (local dish of stewed belly pork) and falafel wrap which were both delicious! A few cocktails and beers were also well received.

Snorkelling

Our favourite day on the tour was next. We were out by 3am to get early tickets to swim with whale sharks! After a 2 hour minivan ride, the queue when we arrived was massive but soon we got a ticket for the group and waited on the pretty beach for our number to be called. It was cloudy but were thankful for that as if we were waiting in the blazing sun, we would've been too hot and probably burnt as you can't wear suncream with the whale sharks. There were also tiny crabs on the beach which kept us entertained as we waited.

We were flagging so walked back up the hill to a cafe for bacon silog and two large coffees - we felt much much better for this. We were also pleasantly surprised to see bacon just as we get at home!

Our number was called shortly after and we got kitted up with life jackets, snorkels and masks and headed on to the choppy waters to see the whale shark. We couldn't believe how many times we saw them and how close they got. They were mesmerising and it was an experience we will never forget! When agreeing to the excursion, we were a little worried about the ethics of it, having heard stories of whale sharks getting dangerously used to boat propellers but were happy to see it was rowed boats only. They feed the sharks to keep them near the beach for longer, so these sharks are probably semi-domesticated, but it employs dozens of locals so we can see why they do it. After coming to the shore, we wrapped ourselves in towels and got the van back to the hotel.

We dumped our stuff and a group of us headed straight into town to a smoothie bowl place Cathy and Siobhan went to the day before. They were delicious and it was good to get some vitamins back in our bodies!

After finishing these, we met the rest of the group to snorkel in the sardine run and see turtles. It was amazing to see so many fish, not just sardines but very colourful fish too and a large turtle! The visibility was apparently not as good as other days as the water was choppy but we still saw lots. One not so friendly creature were the jellyfish which Lauryn got a couple of stings from (and realised she had probably also been stung during the whale sharks earlier in the day too). Back at the hotel, they gave some vinegar to dab on the stings but they didn't hurt after a few minutes. We chilled by the pool for the rest of the day, Lauryn read her book and Dan got a massage (for £7!) and met the group for Greek food in the evening. We followed on to a club for a boogie but were home by 11pm.

Canyoneering

The final day in Moalboal we spent zip lining and canyoneering. We stopped off at a shack to get life jackets, shoes and helmets and got back in the van to have a briefing and collect our cereal bars.

We then got on the back of a motorbike to make the steep ascent up to the start of the zip line which was hair-raising to say the least - probably the most adrenaline inducing part of the day! We were first to get strapped in and lay down on the zip line which was 1km long and took around 1 minute. It was great to have time to look around whilst you zoomed past the forest underneath and it was a lot slower than we thought it was going to be.

We then started our walk through the trees, streams and waterfalls with the most breathtaking views of the landscape. The guides on this excursion were so lovely and we were never far from a hand to help us across a slippy rock - we have found that Filipino people have been some of the kindest and funniest people we have met so far! We had the option to jump from high rocks into the water (the tallest being 10m) and after one jump, Lauryn decided that jumping wasn't really for her after falling funny and avoided them thereafter. Dan took on every jump on offer but wasn't the biggest fan of the higher ones. We both came away with a few bruises but smiles on our faces! We had a lunch of rice, fried chicken, spring rolls, stir fried veg and noodles which we demolished in about 3 minutes because we were so hungry.

We got changed once we were back at the hotel, washed a few clothes in the sink and had some beers (San Miguel apple and light) before going for dinner at Smooth Cafe, where we went the first night in Moalboal. We got an early night ready for a 4am start to drive 4 hours to the airport for our next destination: Boracay!