What’s wrong with this picture? Did the foreigner girls grab the best seats on the boat? No, the Filipinos who take this boat back and forth from Dumaguete to Apo Island just know better. It was a wet ride and they stayed the driest (the woman wearing eye protection should have been our first hint)

The boat pulled up to a beautiful paradise. The water was crystal clear and teeming with healthy coral reefs and fish. In the pic above, you can see Liberty Lodge (the place we stayed for 3 nights) nestled into the hill.

Apo Island, is a small volcanic island off of Dumaguete, and not to be confused with Apo Reef (another place in the Philippines we visited). There are fantastic coral reefs just offshore and the volcanic soil allows for a nutrient rich environment to support it.

It’s a very relaxed and serene island with only a few hundred permanent residents and one hotel. There was one quirk – they have brownouts. Blackouts, of course, is when the electricity suddenly cuts out. Brownouts, on the other hand, are when the electricity is intentionally cut off to conserve power. Every night, Apo Island cuts the power off – except the night they turned it back on at 3am for catholic mass.

The snorkeling and diving are fantastic and a short swim from the shore. The dive shop I got certified at in Orlando, Florida, had an Apo Island dive trip planned a year and a half in advance on their calendars in the office. We discovered they have a bunch of resident turtles that hang out only feet from the shore.

They feed on algae and at any given time we could look around and see 5 at once. There was also some sea snakes – which aren’t aggressive but are venomous.

This island was so beautiful. Truly relaxing and stunning scenery.