July 6th & 7th:
We caught our 11:35 pm flight from Seattle to Manila on the night of the 6th. Here are all four children ready to go with all of our backpacks in tow waiting to board our plane in Seattle.
The Philippines Airlines sign at our boarding gate at SeaTac.
The group picture I took of the six of us on the plane ready to take off. After a less than stellar sleep for all of us on the long plane flight there, we arrived in Manila at 4 a.m. on July 8th.
July 8th:
After checking into our hotel early in the morning, we rested for a few hours before heading out for our first official day in the Philippines. Needless to say, Manila was quite the crazy place as our first stop on this trip! We caught a taxi outside of our hotel and made the hour drive through traffic to spend the afternoon in the historic district called Intramuros.
Our first stop was for lunch at the famous, fast food restaurant chain called Jollibee.
We then spent a few hours wandering through the streets of this historical district. We visited the Manila Cathedral first.
And then we walked over to the old, Fort Santiago to explore for an hour or two.
This fort reminded us so much of scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was really cool to explore.
After waiting out our first of many deluge rainstorms that we encountered during our trip, we stopped at a few gift shops to purchase some souvenirs before eating our first halo-halo in the Philippines!
July 9th:
After an early morning catching our first domestic flight, we arrived in Puerto Princessa in the Palawan Island chain. Here are the kids and I posing in the LOVE Philippines sign that we saw in every Filipino airport we visited during our trip.
After a ride from the airport, we arrived at Vista Verde, one of our favorite places where we stayed during the entire trip. This small hotel in the jungle consisted of just the owner's house, the hotel employee's house, and our house. So, we basically had the place to ourselves, including the incredible, infinity pool. The kids immediately wanted to go for a swim in this beautiful, private pool.
We then walked down the street to an amazing restaurant over the water called Badjau Seafront Restaurant.
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We enjoyed one of the most delicious meals at this restaurant that we had during our entire trip.
After our fancy lunch, we came back to our hotel and enjoyed our one free afternoon that we had in this town swimming in our private pool.
Thanks to Ron and the boys making a grocery run to town and back in a tuk tuk, I was able to make a dinner in the amazing, open-air kitchen that is located on top of our two bedrooms. It was so cool to cook and eat up there with the geckos running around us.
Ron and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary today!
July 10th:
Today we went on our big outing and reason for coming to Puerto Princessa--to visit the underground river which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. After taking a van ride from our hotel to a marina, we then took a boat ride out to the island where this underground river is located.
A family photo at the beginning of the trail that took us to the cave entrance.
We were then able to board a boat with a guide and head into the cave. The guide then paddled us 2 kilometers down the river before we turned around to head back out. We were in the dark the entire time with our guide shining a single light around the walls and ceiling of the cavern. It was amazing.
Ella and Logan smiling at me as we exited the cave and returned to broad daylight.
Our family with the entrance of the cave behind us.
After the cave, we drove to a beach where we walked along the water to a trail at the far end. We then hiked up a hill to the place where the zip line started at the top.
After getting our gear on at the top of the hill, we began zip lining one or two at a time over the ocean.
A family photo before we began zip lining.
The first to go were Lia and Ella. They told me that they sang "I'm on Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons as they flew over the water. What a fun, sister memory that will be for the rest of their lives.
Ron and Emmett went next.
Logan went second to last (before me).
Off Logan goes! It was so amazing to zip line over beautiful blue water.
After our adventures, we stopped at a small, fruit stand and enjoyed some freshly made smoothies before heading back to our hotel.
July 11th:
Today we traveled from Puerto Princessa to El Nido in a private, air conditioned van which made the five hour drive very pleasant. Here are the girls riding together in the backseat.
Emmett cruising next to me on the middle row.
After arriving in El Nido and checking into our hotel, we decided to go out and explore this beautiful town surrounded by dramatic rock cliffs.
We ended up spending our evening on the roof top of another hotel that allowed use their pool if we ate dinner at their restaurant.
The stunning view from the top of the hotel.
We ate a delicious dinner after swimming before heading back to our hotel.
July 12th:
We headed out bright and early to meet up with our first of two water tours that we went on during our stay in El Nido. Here are the four kids following Ron down the street as we walked from our hotel to the waterfront.
All six of us on the boat and ready to go out on Tour A. We made several stops throughout the day including the Big Lagoon, Shimuzu Island, Payong Payong, and Seven Commandos Beach.
We thoroughly enjoyed kayaking in Big Lagoon first. It was so beautiful there.
We enjoyed snorkeling in a second area where our boat stopped.
We stopped at Shimuzi Beach for lunch. Here is a family picture that we had taken right next to the beach where we ate lunch.
A group photo of the kids from the front of our boat at another area where we stopped to snorkel in the afternoon.
We finished off the day by spending an hour on the beautiful 7 Commando Beach. This is the view of some of the boats and islands in the background from the beach.
The kids enjoyed all taking a turn on the rope swing that we found on the beach. Here is Emmett taking a turn!
and Lia!
July 13th:
Today we went on two outings from El Nido. The first was the Canopy Walk where we were able to hike to the top of Taraw Cliff to see stunning views of the bay of El Nido below.
The sign that greeted us at the top.
Our family photo taken at the top of the cliff with the stunning view in the background.
Our family walking back down through the jungle after reaching the top.
The kids walking down the hanging bridge one at a time.
After returning to our hotel, we quickly changed and grab a taxi to drive us out to Nacpan Beach where we spent the afternoon.
We ate lunch in a fancy hotel restaurant right on the beach.
And then enjoyed the beautiful beach and pool afterwards.
The four kids swimming in the hotel pool.
We took the same taxi back to El Nido in the late afternoon and then walked into town for another delicious dinner. Here are the children enjoying gelato for dessert after finishing dinner.
July 14th:
We headed out early again for our second, all-day tour in El Nido called Tour C. We made many stops throughout the day, including Cadlao Lagoon, Star Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach, and Helicopter Island. Although it rained on and off all day long, we still enjoyed this second water tour. Here are Ron and the boys kayaking at Cadlao Lagoon.
The boys jumping off our boat.
A family photo at the front of the boat.
We stopped at Matinloc Shrine for lunch. Although it had been raining and the sky was very cloudy, the water was still a brilliant blue color!
Emmett found a swing at the shrine!
We climbed to the top of a view point above the shrine after lunch.
We finished off the afternoon by spending an hour on a beautiful beach on Helicopter Island. Here are Logan and Ella playing in the sand.
One of my favorite family photos from our trip taken on Helicopter Island.
July 15th:
The kind owner of our El Nido hotel offered to drive us to the ferry terminal in her awesome, purple truck. Here are Ella and Emmett waiting for their ride in the truck bed.
The Hartland fam waiting for the ferry to depart from the dock for the five hour ride to Coron. Since it rained the majority of the day, it turned out to be the perfect day for travel.
We had a 15 minute ride in a tuk tuk from the ferry terminal in Coron to our hotel. The girls and boys split up, so here are Lia and Ella smiling at me from the back seat.
The boys were in a tuk tuk right behind us and we couldn't get over how funny it was to see Emmett leaning out of the front seat waving to us. It's just a good thing that he never fell out!
We finished off our travel day to Coron by eating at our first McDonald's dinner in the Philippines. We thought it was so funny to see spaghetti, fried chicken, curry, and rice on the menu.
We then came back to our new hotel and enjoyed finishing off the evening in our pool that lit up in fun colors every night.
The four kids posing for mom.
July 16th:
We headed out early for our one and only water excursion while on Coron. We made many stops along the way, including Green Lagoon, Atwayan Beach, Bulog Dos Island, CYC Beach, and Kayangan Lake. It rained most of this day long, but since it was warm, we managed to make the most of it and have a good time.
Ron and I snorkeling with Emmett at our side.
All six of us kayaking in a lagoon that we had entirely to ourselves.
Stopping for a picture on our hike up to Kayangan Lake.
The family hiking down the steps to the lake below.
The kids and I floating in Kayangan Lake.
Walking to our boat in the rain after hiking back from the lake.
July 17th:
We were lucky to get a break in the rain on this day to do some fun activities outside. We started off by catching a ride in a fancy tuk tuk into town for breakfast. Here are all four kids looking at me before we took off.
The kids and I enjoyed eating breakfast at a delicious, little crepe restaurant while Ron walked down the street to find a more Filipino breakfast option to eat.
We then took a long tuk turk ride out of town to visit the Maquinit Hot Springs.
We spent a relaxing hour or so enjoying this hot spring located right next to the ocean.
Ron and the kids playing in the small waterfall that connected the two pools.
Afterwards, our tuk tuk driver drove us to the base of Mt. Tapyas where we climbed over 700 stairs to reach the top. Here are the kids with the view of Coron in the background.
There is a Hollywood-style sign at the top of the mountain that spells Coron that lights up every night. Here are the kids standing between each of the letters.
The family taking the stairs back down to the bottom of the mountain.
We headed back out in the early evening to walk into town and buy some food along the way. Here are Ron and the kids waiting for a vendor to finish cooking some meat right in front of them. Soon after this pictures was taken, it started to rain, so we caught a tuk tuk back to a restaurant walking distance from our hotel for dinner. Little did we know that it would not stop raining hard for the next 24 hours!
July 18th:
We woke up bright and early to get ready for our second, water excursion on Coron. It wasn't until we had been waiting in the lobby that Ron checked his email and discovered that our tour had been cancelled due to the rain. As disappointing as this was, we were all grateful to not have to spend another day in the rain like we did for the water excursion two days ago. Instead we went back to our hotel to spend a quiet morning relaxing before heading out for lunch in a cute cafe. This is the rainy scene outside of our restaurant window that I took a picture of while eating lunch.
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We enjoyed a massive feast for lunch that day.
Afterwards, our driver took us to the only indoor activity that we could find to do that day--tour a small, cashew factory. We first went to the basement of the shop to see how the employees shelled the cashew nuts.
We then shopped in the store above and bought several small bags of seasoned cashews.
After returning to our hotel for a rainy swim in the pool and some more relaxing in our hotel room, the rain finally stopped in time for us to head out to dinner.
After we finished dinner, we enjoyed walking back to the main street to catch a tuk tuk to our hotel without rain pouring down on our heads. This is the picture that I managed to take with the Coron sign lit up on the hillside where we had been the day before.
One of our favorite parts of this hotel was the darling frogs that would appear and croak in the fountain next to the pool every night. The three younger children and I would go out every evening before bedtime to see if we could get close enough to the fountain to try to find them without scaring them and stopping their croaking. Here are Logan and Ella standing by the fountain on our last night there.
July 19th:
Today turned out to be our one stressful travel day of our entire trip. We had no idea until we were leaving our hotel early in the morning to catch our van ride to the airport that the heavy rains we had been experiencing were caused by an actual typhoon that had hit the Philippines a few days earlier. When we got to the airport, we learned that all flights the previous day had been cancelled due to the rain and that all outgoing flights that morning were delayed. Since we had to catch a connecting flight in Cebu City on our way Siargao, I immediately began to worry. Luckily, we had a four hour layover in Cebu City, which helped ease my worries. After waiting a long time at the airport, our plane finally departed 2.5 hours later. Thanks to the long layover we originally had in Cebu City, we were able to catch our second flight to Siargao. Here are the kids eating Dunkin' Donuts in the Cebu City airport after we made it to our gate and let out a massive sigh of relief.
Ella and Emmett doing pull ups in the tram that took us out to our plane waiting for us on the tarmac.
Ron and the kids standing in front of the Cebu Pacific plane that took us to Siargao.
July 20th:
We spent two nights in Siargao in the town called General Luna in a darling, little rental house called Casa Ella. As one can imagine, Ella was very excited about it. This house was so nice, clean, and spacious and we even had our own private yard, fully fenced in. It was one of our favorite places that we stayed in during our time in the Philippines and I felt bad that we only got to spend two nights there.
We headed out in the morning to experience two fun adventures in Siargo. Here is a picture that our tuk tuk driver took of us at a view point that we passed on our way to the river.
We first stopped at the Massin River to hire two guides to paddle us down the river and back. Here are the boys in their boat.
Ella at the front of the girls' boat.
After returning back to the start of the river trip, Ron and the three younger kids enjoyed jumping off a tall platform several times into the river. Here is Ella doing her thing!
Our tuk tuk driver then drove us from the river to the well-known surfing beach called Cloud 9. Here are all four kids posing at the entrance of the beach with all of the surf board rental shacks behind them.
We then hired three surf instructors give Lia, Logan, and Ella a one-hour lesson. Here are the kids getting some quick instruction on the beach before heading out into the water.
While Ron took pictures in the water, Emmett and I were able to walk out onto the pier and have a perfect view of the three kids for the entire hour. It was amazing to see how fast all three of them learned and to watch them catch wave after wave. All three of them did such a great job! Here is Logan riding a wave in.
And Ella!
And Lia.
All three kids with their instructors and their boards after their lesson was complete. This was such a cool experience for all of them.
We then wandered down the beach and found a really nice restaurant to eat lunch. We spent a peaceful afternoon eating a late lunch on the beach and then swimming in the ocean before heading back to our rental house.
July 21st:
We headed out this morning and caught another tuk tuk who drove us to Magpupungko Beach that is famous for its tidal pools that are only accessible at low tide. We got there a little late, so the tide was already starting to come in, but we were still able to enjoy them for about an hour before the life guards closed the pools down for the day. Here are all four kids enjoying one of the tidal pools together.
The kids and me.
The family picture we got with one of the pools in the background. Logan and Ella enjoyed climbing up and jumping off the big rock behind us several times before we had to leave.
After the tidal pools closed down, we walked back to the beach and enjoyed spending the rest of the morning there. Although the tidal pools were very crowded with tourists, everyone left after they closed for the day, so we enjoyed this nice beach to ourselves and ate lunch in another beachside restaurant.
The kids standing next to some impressive sand art that someone had sculpted on the beach. It says, "I love Pillar," which is the name of the area where this beach (Maspupungko) is located on the island of Siargao.
After returning back to our house, we showered and headed out to spend the evening in General Luna. We enjoyed walking the main road that has lots of nice restaurants and shops. I insisted on us stopping at this turon stand to buy some banana lumpia since it is a Filipino dessert that I love and this was the first time that we had seen it for sale on our trip.
We then ended up in a really cool, barbeque restaurant to eat dinner that played live music.
July 22nd:
After two quick days in Siargao, we caught a van back to the airport to catch a flight back to the island of Cebu where we stayed until the end of our trip. Here are the kids waiting to catch our plane in the Siargao Airport.
After arriving in Cebu City, we found our private driver waiting for us right outside of baggage claim. Since we have never had a private driver waiting for us at any airport with our name on a sign, we had to take a picture with him. He then drove us a little over 3 hours to the town of Moal Boal where we spent the next four nights.
After checking into our hotel and swimming in the pool, we caught a tuk tuk into the small, beachside town of Moal Boal to eat dinner in a funky restaurant.
The restaurant even had little tables to play games on while we waited for our food to be prepared.
July 23rd:
Today was the day that I had been looking forward to the most out of our entire trip as we got to swim with whale sharks which was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We had to get up at 2:30 a.m. to catch our 3 a.m. van that picked us up and drove us to the town of Oslob. We arrived there at 5 a.m. on the dot and checked in to get our number that told us when we got to go out and swim with the whale sharks. The guides started taking people out in the first boats at 6 a.m. and we had to wait an extra hour before our number was called. Here are the four kids standing next to the water after the sun had risen since it was totally dark when we arrived.
After our number was called, we got our life jackets on and waited to be told which boat to board. After a quick paddle off from the shore, our boat pulled up to a circle of other boats and we were allowed to get in the water for exactly 30 minutes. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever experienced!
At first, there was only one whale shark swimming in our area, but then a second one joined our group. By the time we were called out of the water a half hour later, a third and fourth one had swam over to our area to feed on the food that the guides were throwing in the water. Being able to swim with these massive, gentle giants and to get so close to them was almost out of this world. It will be an experience that I will never forget.
Lia giving Ron the hang loose sign with one of the whales behind her.
And Ella doing the same. What brave girls!
A great picture Ron was able to take of the front part of one of the whale sharks.
After we finished swimming with the sharks, we had a chance to do a little shopping in the area next to the beach before heading back to our van. Since we hit a lot of traffic on the drive back, it took us three hours to get home and we arrived back to our hotel at 11 a.m. Since we felt like we had already experienced a full day and it was only 11 a.m., we decided to spend a quiet afternoon at our hotel and enjoy the pool and the beach. Here is the family eating lunch at our pool after having it delivered to our hotel from a local restaurant.
After a restful afternoon, we headed back into the town of Moal Boal for dinner and ate at this cool, open-air restaurant at the top of a 3-story building called the Hungry Monkey.
There was even a very rickety set of stairs that we were allowed to climb to the top story of this building to get a 360 degree view of the town and the ocean. It was really neat to be up there at sunset time.
July 24th:
We caught a tuk tuk into town and then walked right out on to Panagsama Beach. We dropped our stuff off on top of a cement wall and swam right out to the "sardine run" that occurs daily a few hundred feet off of this beach. Although Lia, Ella, and Emmett did not really enjoy it, Logan, Ron, and I had a great time swimming over and through thousands of sardines. It was like something out of an ocean documentary.
Luckily, there was an outdoor restaurant that overlooked the water that allowed the other three kids to hang out at while Ron, Logan, and I finished swimming with the sardines. Here are the three of them waiting at their table that overlooked the water.
After we were done swimming with the sardines, we moved upstairs and ordered a large lunch that we enjoyed while watching the swimming tourists and boats come and go in the water below us.
After lunch, we returned back to our hotel to spend a second, restful afternoon in a row. The three younger kids had fun playing in the pool.
Logan and Emmett swinging on our hotel swings located right on the beach.
Lia, Logan, and Emmett then joined me for a really fun walk along the beach as we wandered from one tidal pool to another, checking out all of the interesting sea life. We saw some animals that I have never seen before, including a giant sea slug.
After beach combing at sunset, we joined up with Ella and Ron and went back into town for dinner. We ate in a really cool, food court that even had a cotton candy stand that Ella and Emmett ordered their dessert from.
July 25th:
Today was one of the greatest and funnest days of our entire trip as we went ziplining and canyoneering through the jungle outside of Moal Boal. We started out with zip lining over the jungle before spending the next several hours traversing through a river while jumping off of rocks and waterfalls, sliding down rock slides, and jumping off of rope swings. We were blessed with a wonderful group of six Filipino guides who stayed with us the entire time, helping us navigate through the river and taking our pictures and video at every turn. We had so much fun and will never forget this amazing experience!
The four kids waiting at the top of the platform to go zip lining.
Lia and Ella went first out of our group. Then Logan and Emmett went together at the same time as Logan and me.
Lia and Ella taking off!
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After we zip lined down to a lower platform, we met up with our six guides and hiked down into a valley where we started our canyoneering adventure in the river. Our head guide, Julien, held Ron's camera the entire time and took the most amazing pictures and videos of us. Here is one of our favorite family poses that we had taken that was created by two of the other guides hiding behind us and splashing us with water from their helmets.
Ella sliding down the giant rock slide at the beginning of our adventure.
Another fabulous, family photo that Julien took.
At one point, the guides arranged us in this giant, human wheel and then spun us around multiple times. It was so much fun and I love how this picture turned out.
Emmett jumping off a small waterfall to a guide waiting below. Emmett's guide, Jerry, could not get over how brave he was for someone his age. Jerry said that he rarely ever works with a child as courageous and enthusiastic as Emmett who was willing to jump off high ledges without hesitation.
An awesome action shot of Logan jumping into the river below.
A fun, floating, family picture.
Another family photo with a small waterfall behind us.
Towards the end of our canyoneering experience, we were able swim to and then climb up behind a massive waterfall. It was so awesome to sit behind that powerful waterfall and hear and feel the water rushing down to the pool below. Here is the family picture our guide took before we had the chance to dive under the waterfall one at a time.
We ended up swimming in a few large pools at the end of our hike down the river. Here we are taking a family picture in the water before taking turns swinging off of a rope swing.
At the very end of our hike, we ended up in the large pool underneath Kawasan Falls. We enjoyed swimming in this pool for several minutes before hiking back to our van that was waiting for us out on the road below.
A group picture with us and all six of our amazing guides.
Emmett bonded so much with his guide, Jerry, that they actually held hands and talked the entire walk from Kawasan Falls to our van. It was just the sweetest thing that I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.
The van then drove us back to the meetup area where we ate a delicious lunch. Before leaving to head back to our hotel, I asked for a picture with Ella's guide, Joshua, and Emmett's guide, Jerry, since they did such a great job taking care of Ella and Emmett during our many hours canyoneering down the river.
After heading back to our hotel, we showered and caught a tuk tuk into town to eat our last meal in Moal Boal. We enjoyed eating Ube flavored ice cream as our last dessert in this town knowing that this is a flavor we will probably never eat again unless we return to the Philippines.
July 26th:
After saying goodbye to the wonderful staff that worked at our hotel in Moal Boal, we climbed into our private van and drove the three hours back into Cebu City. Here we are posing with our favorite hotel employee, Ika, who absolutely loved Emmett!
After arriving in Cebu City, we quickly checked into our hotel and changed into church clothes. We dashed to the McDonald's down the street for a late lunch before catching a taxi to drive us to the Cebu City temple. Lia had requested several months earlier that she and Logan get to do baptisms for the dead while we were on this trip. We thought that this was such a great idea that Ron and I adjusted our schedule to spend the night in Cebu City the day before flying home so that we could visit the temple there. We managed to get to the temple a few minutes before our 3:30 check in time for our 4 pm baptism reservations. Here is the family photo we had a temple security guard take of us before heading in the temple.
While we were inside the temple for an hour, Ron, Ella, and Emmett explored the massive, temple compound. After we finished at 4:30, all six of us wandered into both of the church buildings and the visitors center on the grounds. It was so incredible to be able to visit an LDS temple in this country and to marvel at all of the things that are the same and different here. It was the perfect way to finish up our three weeks in the Philippines.
After returning to the hotel from the temple, we enjoyed spending the early evening in the rooftop pool of the very tall hotel where we stayed for one night. It was so cool to have such an amazing view of this huge city from the pool above.
July 27th:
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast in our hotel before packing up and heading to the Cebu City airport for one last time on this trip.
After arriving in the Cebu City airport, we decided to eat some lunch before catching our flight to Manila.
We found a little food court to each lunch at and Logan and Ron finally were able to eat some lechon, which is the whole, roasted pig that Cebu is famous for! We couldn't get over how funny it was to see an entire, cooked pig in an aiport.
Emmett decided to have some lechon, too. Here are the two boys enjoying this classic, Filipino dish together.
After a little over an hour flight to Manila, we had a 5-hour layover before catching our 10:20 p.m. flight home to Seattle. Luckily, the time went fast and our flight left just a few minute late.
Once again, I sat next to Ella and Emmett on our 13-hour flight home. Luckily, all six of us slept a few more hours on this flight than the one coming out to the Philippines. I think that we were all exhausted from our three weeks of running nonstop.
"Welcome to the United States!"
The kids posing in front of the sign that is engraved in stone above their heads that greeted us as we walked off of our plane and into customs. As amazing of a trip as this was, we were all so grateful to have made it safely home and to be back on American soil.
