Cebu - Where to Go and What to Do

I'll be dropping by Cebu for one whole day before I head off to my paradise in Siargao for a 15-day vacation. Then back to Cebu again for another night before I head back to Manila. At first, I was just thinking of staying in a hotel or visiting my in-laws as I wait for my Siargao flight. I've been to Cebu so many times, especially when my sister was living there, that I feel like I've already had enough of what Cebu has to offer. Then I thought, why not try squeezing all the activities that I can, this time, by myself (no hubby in tow) and see how different this experience can be?! Hmmmm... quite scary since I've never done that before except in Boracay last summer when I did my one month vacay all by myself. I guess there's always a first  time for everything. ^_^

So I went through all my previous posts about Cebu to see if there's anything I'm willing to do again. If you haven't explored Cebu yet, you can refer to this list of awesome activities you can do in Cebu the next time you visit.

Where to stay in Cebu?

I know I usually stay in places that are affordable but for some reason, when it comes to Cebu, I was fortunate enough to have stayed and/or visited some of the most wonderful 3 to 5-star hotels. Here are some of them that you might want to visit too:

Illegal Fishermen at Gato Island in Malapascua

I'm back to my regular programming now. Teehee. My goal is to finish blogging about all those travels I did in 2010 so by the time I live in Boracay come summer, I can finally do a near real time travel blogging. I've never done that before. I always wanted to enjoy my travels first then just blog about them much, much later.While this method of blogging has been very enjoyable, it's also been time-consuming for me. Since it's a brand new year, I figured, I can try doing a more real time type of travel blogging starting this summer.

Anyway, moving on, here are snippets of my visit to this not-so-wonderful marine sanctuary that is Gato Island. I'll tell you why...

Seeing Gato island from afar...

Gato Island is supposed to be a marine reserve which is about 1 hour boat ride from Malapascua Island. I went there together with our team of divers (Carelle, RR and Ian) for their Monad shoal dive. They were excited to see white tip sharks! Gato island boasts of a cavern that runs through the island, about 25 meters in length. Since I'm no diver, I thought of just snorkeling instead.

RR ready to dive...

Unfortunately, by the time I hit the water, I couldn't see a single thing. The water was so murky and dark. When I did see a pair of huge lapu-lapu, I thought they were sharks so I panicked and went back up the boat and just sunbathed instead.

That's me catching some sun...

I thought the murky water was the worst of it. By the time my friends came back to the boat, Carelle was cryings coz she saw some dead nemos and dead swordfish (photos below).