Philippines or Bust...

Happy Year of the Ox! Since Taipei is always a cold and rainy ghost town during the Chinese New Year holiday, and since the rest of the island is bustling with family-centered holiday traffic, we decided to pack our bags and head to one of the many nearby vacation spots in southeast Asia. We spent the week in Cebu, an island in the central Philippines. It proved to be the perfect place for us to recharge our batteries on the beach, and to rekindle our passion for economic fairness in a country where the average yearly income is only around $3500 USD.


Our new favorite mode of public transportation, a tricycle, is basically a 2-person carriage welded to the side of a dirt bike. Much cheaper and more enjoyable than a taxi.





We started out our trip on Mactan Island, Cebu, where we stayed in a nice resort for a couple of days. Although we enjoyed our time there, it paled in comparison to Moalboal, a city on the southwestern part of the island where we spent the remainder of our trip. Keep reading to see why.

Below: A few pics from the first resort we stayed at. Chip was pretty giddy over the two large shark pools located on the grounds. :)



Cebu is home to countless breathtaking views, including Kawasan falls (located about 30 minutes outside of Moalboal). After a 30-min trike ride and a 15-min hike, we were pretty excited to swim in the pools. We hiked up the mountain a couple of kilometers, seeing several of the falls that trickle down to the larger one pictured directly below.





One activity we're both growing quite fond of is scuba diving. After doing one dive on our honeymoon, we decided to give it a go again in Cebu. This time we did boat dives, where you enter the water via a boat, rather than from shore. The sea life was absolutely amazing! A few things we were able to see -- beautiful coral, colorful fish, loads of sea urchins (don't worry...we didn't step on any!), and our personal favorite, three sea turtles. We did get stung by a few jellyfish, but it was totally worth it (and they were pretty wimpy jellyfish).




A couple of different video clips follow. First you'll see some fellow divers take their plunges into the water, and then you'll see me (Chels) taking my plunge. Chip accidentally held the camera the wrong way when he was filming me, so you're getting a less-than-ideal shot, but it works:)



And perhaps the highlight of our trip was a one day canyoning excursion we took through Planet Action Adventure, the company that runs the resort we stayed in. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take our camera since the outing involved being in water all day. However, we did run into a couple we know from Taipei who just so happened to be staying down the road from us. They too went on the canyoning excursion and took along their waterproof camera. We're waiting to get copies of the pictures they took so that we can post them here on our blog. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for a description of our journey and a Planet Action promo video that we ripped off of youtube.



The first challenge to be conquered on our canyoning trip was a 2-hour hike up a mountain. Although it was tough work (for Chels...Chip found it a breeze compared to all those 14ers he's climbed in Colorado with the boys!), once we got to the top we had a beautiful view of the island--lush vegetation, clear skies, and bright blue water surrounded us. After taking it all in for a minute we kept on truckin. Next we stopped briefly to practice rappelling and then made our way down through a huge and beautiful crater to a stream. For the next several hours we found ourselves using much balance and technique to work our way through the rock-filled stream. Since it had just rained the whole night previous, the water was dark and muddy (as opposed to its typical bright and clear state) and the current was stronger than normal. That didn't stop these adventurers though. When we came to our first large waterfall, we geared up and rappelled down as water poured over the falls. In the end, we descended two 30-meter (about 98 feet) high waterfalls. Along the way we also had to jump some cliffs in order to get down to the next level of the ever-flowing stream. The highlight of our day was when I (Chels) finally mustered up enough courage to leap from a height of 12 meters (about 40 feet) into the water below. It took me about 10 minutes and plenty of encouragement and reassurance from Chip and the rest of our fellow adventurers to do it, but I finally managed--and am glad I did. It was such a fun leap! And a trip highlight for Chip :)

Thanks for keeping up with us on our blog. We'll try to get some canyoning pics of us posted once we receive them from our friends here in Taiwan. We continue to feel blessed by your love and support as we serve in Asia.