the second day of our island hopping tour, we weren’t off to a very good start. for one (and major) thing, the sun didn’t wake up early on that tuesday morning of september. instead, the sky was pregnant with clouds. the clouds looked pregnant with rain. my folks were pregnant with worries of losing two of their hard-headed daughters at once to their stubbornness of going island hopping despite the parental advice not to.

call time was at 8. we left at 9. that was 1 hour of convincing our parents what a fine weather it was to go and explore el nido’s other stunning islands when it was clear to all of us that it was going to rain. and you know, with the rain comes the waves. and with the waves come the high possibility of enjoying a little premature swim into the sea far from the islands and far from the safety of our overturned boat. 1 hour of wait-and-see just to appease the frowns off our beloved parents’ faces.

so the minute we saw a group of koreans getting inside their rented boat after waiting for the weather to kind of clear too, we were like, “let’s go!”

our parents must have prayed the novena while we we were out there because halfway into our first island destination, the sun was up and shining a little too brightly on this gorgeous gorgeous GORGEOUS part of the universe:

“WOW!!!” can’t even begin to describe the ecstasy of seeing such a beauuuuuutiful island that i can’t help but elongate my words no matter how annoying that sounds. because it is worth all the extra letters in the alphabet. it is worth the emphasis. yes, it’s even worth the annoyance.

the great thing about this island, aside from the fact that it is already great in itself, is that the water here is perfectly calm! if you’ve read my previous posts about some of the islands we went to, chances are, i probably commented about the waves. those islands being on an open sea and all.

pinagbuyutan island is still on an open sea but its back side gets all the rough beating while the front area enjoys the luxury of calm and peacefulness and tranquility and all the other words that come to mind in relation to zen.

i could live here. just a touch of wifi and this place is heaven! seriously, though, i could live here. for all the obvious reasons.

it’s also the kind of place that makes you think, you know? and i’m not talking about the purely cognitive process. more like the emotional process. the kind of thinking performed by your hypothalamus. a soulful conversation between your hypothalamus and your liver with your heart just silently sitting there feeling guilty as hell for those times it acted on impulse and selfishly enjoyed every second of it.

yep, that kind of conversation. (the kind that lands you in a mental hospital. lol.)

so you could just imagine.

it was definitely a heartbreaking goodbye.