We hired this fine vessel, with a crew of four and Andrew, Matt and I went out to a nearby island to snorkel.

We left the ocean side of Mactan island and went across to a marine nature preserve. It was a fine day and we were pretty exuberant to get out of the dirty air of the city.

 

 

 

 

The water was amazingly clean and clear and there were plenty of fish to view. There was coral but it was sad. The captain said it would take another 20 years for the coral to really return because before the tourist industry became important they used to dynamite the coral and sell it. Anyway overall it was a really fine day in the water.

The boat guys took us to this so so seafood restaurant where they tried to push us to tourist prices. Most of the tourists who come here are Korean of Japanese who are famous for paying any number named. But we negotiated a fairly priced and pretty good meal. These are pictures of the restaurant, the lovely view out the side, and a picture of our chefs working the wok.

 

We returned sunburned and happy.

Had to take this little motorcycle cab from the wharf up to the main road to catch a real taxi.