Padre Burgos

Initial plan was to go to Cebu City and from there to Leyte. But some local festival spoiled everything. All hotels booked, transportation in mayhem, we decided to change a route. New plan was to take boat to Leyte from the north part of Cebu. But the boat didn’t show up. We got our money back and a “Thank you”. These guys must have heard of Ryanair! So, with the group of locals we headed for a different ferry. A REALLY bumpy bus and tricycle ride away was our new port. Well, not sure if it can be called port, but the boats were there, so... And we boarded. After 3 hours of high seas, few boat repairs on the spot and manual bilge pump we arrived on Leyte. And had to take another transport to town of Ormoc, where we were to spend the night. Have never seen van so full of people! We were literally glued to windows.

After a night and really tasty chicken on spit bbq we continued on to Padre Burgos. Finally we managed to forget one of our backpacks on the local bus – the one with the laptop and all important stuff! Jugs in full element... But chase on a moped with the local resolved the issue. Ups!

Place is mentioned in our 8 years old Lonely Planet, so we expected a nice spot. Boy, this was a different cup of tea. Village center (about 10 houses) and few dive resorts down the road – long way down the road... Can’t say they didn’t have Internet cafe and that it wasn’t a site, well judge for yourselves.

Diving was nice, but not really spectacular. Thing they are famous for are really whale sharks. So, we went for it. Really nice day. First the boat stops at the local village and local chief boards. And collects fee. Also, 2 tiny little boats join us – they are occupied by guys called spotters. They are supposed to find the sharks. Initial feel is that it is another tourist extortion – how is the guy on a small boat supposed to sea shark better than we on the big one? Boy, were we wrong! These guys row like crazy and dive every now and then and they do find the sharks! It was great experience, snorkelling with gentle giants. Just beautiful.

And that was it for us in Padre Burgos. But we liked whale sharks experience so much, we decided to head north to world Mecca of these beautiful creatures – next stop Donsol.

More pictures here.