My first time in Boracay

Being my first time in Boracay, it is a mix of excitement and blandness.

Excited because, at last, among other things, I am able to step on the most-talked-about white sand of its beaches.

Bland because I think Boracay is just as ordinary as any seascape.

What adds to my excitement is the blending and the bonding with my cousins, namely Roy Rojas, Lorena Perez and Ret. Col. Severina Anacion Rojas who has been inviting and egging me every now and then to come and join them on this trip.

You see, Ate (a term of endearment to an older sister or woman by blood or by affinity) has been here ten times.

It was Roy who initially brought his mom here since he came to this so-called paradise some twenty years ago.

He has been coming back since then.

It is the camaraderie, first and foremost that I am enjoying, among other things.

I love the filial conversations we have been sharing and living this past few days.

The backdrop of the pristine and crystalline waters adds of the enjoyment.

House by the sea

After an almost three-hour flight delay at the Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), we finally landed at the Caticlan Airport at past ten o’clock.

Wonder of all wonders, we were given the surprise of our lives when the pilot advised us that we just had a forty-minute travel from Manila contrary to a more than an hour scheduled flight.

“Nakapagtataka, dati, sa mga flights ko, higit isang oras pero ngayon, forty minutes lang. Sa palagay ko, bago ang eroplano sa tingin ko dahil nakita ko (I am just wondering compared to my flights before, we only had forty-minute travel. I think the plane is new and it is),” observed Roy.

After we docked off in Caticlan port, we proceeded to the lodging house Roy had booked months before the adventure.

We are staying here in a relatively small but cozy resort house by the sea.

Getting the feel of Boracay surroundings

At the moment, I am still getting the feel of Boracay, a barangay, and island which is under the jurisdiction of Malay town in Aklan Province.

Most of the time, I roam around the island and the neighboring streets, inner and outer, of the public places.

I go to shop native foods like vegetables from a place called talipapa (a makeshift market) but I find the prices higher than the prices of goods, wet and dry, in other cities, and specifically, Manila.

I have to pinch my self to remind me that this is a tourist, yes, a tourist destination and the prices here are meant for tourists, especially foreigners as well as balikbayan (returning from abroad) Pinoys who are able to spend away dollars and exchange them for hefty pesos.

At the moment, one dollar ($1) is equivalent to more or less, sixty two pesos (P62.00) which is quite a fortune if you have dollars in your pocket to exchange from.

The value of the peso has shrunk again, too bad but it doesn’t discourage Filipino tourists to come and splurge here.

On the ground, though, the high priced commodities apply as well to local tourists from various parts of the country who troop here anytime of the day.

If you’re a Filipino who is underpaid, underemployed or totally unemployed, the peso one earns isn’t enough to buy you a stick of banana cue here.

Boracay has, unwittingly or unwittingly, created a social divide.

Even if one says any Filipino can go and explore Boracay but if you only have a measly sum, where can it get you there with soaring prices of airfare, commodities, places to stay, food to feed you three meals a day etc.?

Well, there are many ways to skin the cat, so to speak.

Creativity is the name of the game.

Anyway, an obvious social divide in Boracay is the place of spendthrift places in the front beach, the affluence in the back beach and the apparent poverty in the main streets in the barangay proper, its cleanliness and orderliness are deceiving of the real economic situation of the island-barangay.

Foreigners in scanty bikinis

Being summer is the best time of the year for the arrival of most number of guests here, mostly multiracial but Filipinos are ubiquitous.

Guests come and swim in their usual casual wear of shorts, one-piece or two-piece bikinis, swimming trunks etc.

While foreign males usually don trunks for bathing, there are those who go by the scantily attire.

Nothing surprising.

What is noticeable, though, is the unwearing of the shortest swimming shorts or short-shorts among Filipino males, especially grownups.

I wonder why.

Is it the still the conservative attitude of the Filipino guys?

Or is it the male chauvinistic outlook that a public place for a Pinoy boy isn’t an ideal place to bare?

That girls and women are the ones to go nude for their visual delights as peeping Toms?

“Meron din namang mga lalaking Filipino na nagsusuot ng scanty bikini. Mga (There are still males who wear scanty bikini. They’re the) macho gaysl,'” said one male tourist guide chuckling.

No celebs in sight

At this time, I haven’t seen any local or even international celebrities in any place I go to.

I don’t know where are they hiding. (Laughs).

According to the tour guides, weekends here are teeming with celebs.

Roy, said that he has been seeing a lot of models, showbiz people, basketball players etc. during his past stay here.

These days, though, not a few celebs have acquired properties in Boracay.

According to tourist guides here, Miriam Quiambao-Roberto, Ethel Booba, Heart Evangelista, Joel Torre have houses here.

As I stand in the middle of the coast, I promise myself to be back here anyrime, anyhow.