Cebu 2012: The Great Santa Fe Beach

Cebu 2012!

To celebrate our eighth year together, Paolo and I went to the Queen City of the South with his good friend, Jeff and his girlfriend Jen. We booked our flight last January, thanks to Cebu Pacific's 699 promo that we finally decided to go here instead because we originally planned of going to Davao or Bacolod for our anniversary. We even thought of Dumaguete, actually!

Get your browsers ready, this one's loaded with photos. :)

At NAIA Terminal 3.

Paolo and I took the 6:50 AM flight. We anticipated the long travel going to Bantayan Island--three to four hours bus ride going to Hagnaya Port plus another one and a half hour ferry ride from Hagnaya Port to Santa Fe Wharf. Define air-land-sea transfers here. But when we arrived at Mactan, we headed to Mandaue City for a brunch. Then from the North Bus Terminal, we took the Ceres bus bound to Hagnaya (Php 150/pax). Four hours later, we took the Super Shuttle Ferry at the Hagnaya Port (Php 180/pax) to get to Santa Fe Wharf.

Welcome to Santa Fe Wharf.

Almost six hours of traveling, whew! All the blogs I read about getting to Bantayan Island said it was quite exhausting but after seeing such a wonderful town like this, you're gonna say, "It's worth the wait." I'm joining the bandwagon now. It's a paradiso! 

From Santa Fe Wharf, a girl holding a sheet of paper with my name on it waved on us. It's Anne. She picked us up, introduced us to Tita Doris and brought us to a very beautiful place called Kandugyap. Kandugyap, which means "house by the sea", served as our home for two short nights. It's a lovely piece of property in a long stretch of island in Santa Fe with big rocks and white, powdery sand and pristine, crystal clear blue water. The Mediterranean-inspired villa was exclusively reserved for us. It's magical, the view's breathtaking, everything was beyond perfect. And let me add an excellent service on that.

Kandugyap: House by the sea.

The boys took over the kitchen and Paolo did not let me touch anything there. Well, I didn't want to feel so useless so I prepared the table for dinner and also fixed and washed the dishes after. We had grilled fish, chicken barbeques and pork nilaga and had a few drinks at the cliff to end our first night there.

 Dinner is served! Thanks, boys!

First night, yay!

We called it a day after consuming two to three bottles of beer to wake up EARLY for the next day. Sunday morning, our host prepared scrumptious breakfast for us: fried eggs, danggit and other sorts of dried fish. The boys also cooked fried rice! What a good way to start our day!

Good morning, Bantayan!

The boys went to the market after our heavy breakfast to buy danggit, fried fish and squid for pasalubong because the locals advised us to buy directly from there. Danggits from Cebu come from Bantayan so we expected cheaper price. :) They also brought stuff for our lunch, including a "pogita" for only Php 80! Oh yeaaah!

And while the boys are out, here's what Jen and I did:

We took photos! Hee hee hee.

You know it. A good place deserves a mini photoshoot. Jen and I stroke our best poses to keep personal souvenirs. What can you say about the facade of our villa? Santorini-inspired! I can't find the right words to explain Kandugyap. All I can say is.. see it for yourself!

A better view of our exclusive villa!

Lunch of the day: Deep-fried breaded shrimps, tocino dried fish and ensaladang kamatis.

I love this photo. It somehow reminds me of Patty Laurel and I don't know why.

It's the most awaited beach time!

Oh. Yeah. No bikinis this time. Lolol.

I less than three this man! My belly's a witness! ♥

Chwaaaan! ♥

And oh btw, meet Jeff and Jen who looks like my bestfriend/cousin, Aieen!

"Day 2"

We will, we will ROCK ya.

Hand signs. 5 + 3 = 8 years. But Paolo kinda looks creepy here.

When we went back to the villa, it rained hard. Perfect timing for me to watch the Green VS Blue game of La Salle and Ateneo! The boys (as usual) prepared our dinner while the girls repacked our things for our departure the next morning. The clock ticked too fast. It was our last night in Kandugyap, sad to say. But looking forward, February 6 was just a sleep away to officially call our relationship an 8-year long. ♥

Monday morning. We all got up by 3:30 AM to take the 5:30 ferry ride but we missed it so we took the 7:30 ferry instead. By lunch time, we're back at Mandaue City and were surprised to see a lot of people outside. Moments we realized there was a 6.8 magnitude earthquake which was also felt in Cebu and a tsunami warning was raised three hours after we hopped off the ferry. Oh God, thank you for keeping us safe.

We kept going with prayers inside of me. We had our last lunch at CNT Lechon, bought another set of pasalubong at Island Souvenirs in Mactan and killed time at Starbucks right beside Island Souvenirs.

After four years, I had the courage to eat Lechon Cebu again.

My fake smile! The earthquake really scared me!

Eight long years. Our Iloilo/Guimaras trip during our seventh anniversary has just passed. Next thing I know, we're on our ninth, tenth, so on and so forth. It takes time, I know. But I must say, I'm enjoying every minute of us together. :)

♥,

Marianne