Paradise

I’m writing this from the veranda of my beach side resort. I can see the sun setting on the Philippine Sea. I just had my second ever Philippine massage (more on that later) and I spent the day swimming under waterfalls and trekking through the jungle. In a little while Jessi and I will head down to the open air deck for dinner and drinks with our fellow guests. How is this my life? I should be shivering my brains out in cold Minnesota right now.

Jessi and I started our day early, as we were planning on going rappelling and canyoning with a tour through the resort. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people signed up and there weren’t enough guides to ensure that everyone would be safe. Since Jessi and I were the last two to sign up we were the ones who didn’t get to go. The owner of the resort felt bad and to compensate offered us a deal: Tomorrow he’ll take us to the private island just a few miles from here. There we will snorkel, swim, hike and have a picnic lunch on the beach. And this will all occur for the discounted price of $10.00. Sounds like a good deal to me.

After our change of morning plans Jessi and I decided to visit the waterfall that is close to our resort. To get there we had to…gasp…figure things out on our own! No driver, no coordinator, no escort. Just me, Jess and the jungle. I was elated. THIS is why I like to travel. We began walking down the street and hailed a moto-cab. Basically this is a motorcycle with a large cart attached to it. People pile on and yell when they want the driver to stop. It was quite a ride. Once we got as far as the moto-cab could go we got out and hiked the rest of the way to the top of the mountain. At the top was the most beautiful, and to be fair the only, waterfall I have ever seen. It was amazing to say the least. The cliff was huge and the pool at the bottom of the falls was perfectly clear. I jumped in immediately and just about froze solid. Apparently waterfalls falling on your head feel like someone pouring ice water down your neck. Burrrr. I was also surprised by how difficult it was to swim under the waterfall. There's actually quite a current from the water pushing you away from the point directly under the fall. If I knew more about physics I'd probably understand this better...I'd better consult Dr. Dad on this one.

While swimming in the waterfall Jessi and I made some new friends. They were a family from Australia visiting relatives here in Camiguin. They were very kind and friendly and offered Jessi and I a ride in their truck to the nearby hot springs. We figured they didn’t seem like the ax-murdering type so we piled in the truck and off we went to our next destination.

The hot springs here in Camiguin are heated by the island’s volcanic activity. All the various pools are carved from the jungle and paved with volcanic rock, then the water is piped from…well, wherever volcanic water comes from. Our new friends had more touring to do so after a long goodbye and many photos, Jessi and I were once again on our own. We spent a lot of the afternoon floating around the various pools. After we were sufficiently water-logged we decided to hike back to our resort. It was a good hike and we got to see a lot of the lovely surrounding landscape. We also got to be on our own the entire day; after being so closely monitored since I’ve been here I felt like William Wallace himself yelling, “FREEDOM!” as I hiked along the jungle road.

Once back at the resort Jessi and I decided to get a massage. Now, if you’ve been reading my blog you probably remember my 1^st massage in Manila. Maybe you’re wondering why I would go for round two. Well, first of all it’s so cheap it’s practically free. And secondly, I like massages, who doesn’t? It all started out well. We were being massaged on the veranda of our resort, overlooking the beach. Lovely. I was enjoying the back rub portion. Then came the butt…okay, fine, I got this. Then my masseuse asked me to flip over and that’s where things got weird. First, she completely removed my top. So there I was, bare-breasted on the deck. Then she proceeded to give me some kind of rib-rub. Getting weirder…and then she gave me what I usually consider a breast exam. I really have no words for this and since I could go too far describing this I will just stop right here. I’m sure you can imagine my reaction. Luckily my masseuse put my top back on and I thought, “Ok, creepy stuff over.” Wrong. She then began to massage my head and pull my hair. And this wasn’t like a gentle tug, this was a strong hair pull. Followed by multiple strong hair pulls. At this point I was starting to wonder if I had falling into a Harliquin romance novel. Finally my hour was up and Jessi and I went back to our rooms to discuss the details of our truly full body massage.

In the time it took to write this the sun has gone down. The beach is dark and I'm thinking I'll go out there to star gaze later tonight. Now I’m off to dinner and then hopefully I will get to end my night with a phone call from Jon. That will be the perfect end to a lovely day on the island.