Philippines - Boracay Island

In Boracay, we had a special mission: we were able to meet with a dear neighbor from Niederbergkirchen who had offered to take some of our luggage to Germany after his vacation! After scoring a large cardboard box at a supermarket in Cebu, we unpacked our backpacks: all the warm clothes that we would have needed in South America but are completely unnecessary in Southeast Asia, tent, sleeping mat, and the souvenirs we had bought so far were stored in the box and tied up at the airport. When we weighed it at the airport, we found out that we were now traveling with a total of 18 kg less - once again, thank you, dear Walter!! What we also found out at the airport: I had booked the flight to Boracay for the wrong month, namely for July 18, not June 18... Oops! But no problem, the staff at the airport were very helpful, they quickly changed the flight and we were already sitting on the plane heading towards Boracay.

When we finally met Walter in the evening, with the 18 kg package in tow, we were quite nervous about whether we would have to take half of it with us again (you can't really expect that from anyone...) and indeed Walter was initially shocked when he saw us and our package. After the brief moment of shock, there was joy in seeing each other again, and we were promised that everything would find its way to Niederbergkirchen :) After a fun-filled evening, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen the next day, in our hammock. When we saw the beautiful palm-fringed beach with its crystal-clear water and white sand, we knew that this island is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in the Philippines for a good reason. Along the beach promenade, there are hotels, restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops, and the later it gets in the day, the more crowded the dream beach becomes. Due to the large number of tourists and increasing pollution, the government decided to close the entire island to tourists for a year last year. Now that it's open again, the beaches are clean and there are plenty of rules in place (smoking ban on the beach, no more buffets on the promenade, fines for throwing trash into the landscape...) to ensure that it stays that way in the future!

After another lovely evening with Walter and his family, it was time to move on to the next island: Siargao.