Last day in Boracay...

The weather yesterday (Tuesday) was spectacular and I took advantage of it by swimming for several hours at the section of beach in front of my little hotel. The water is warm, crystal-clear and the steady onshore breeze created just enough wave action to make it interesting. I had heard that there were a few noisy night clubs at the north end of White Beach. Being naturally curious, I took a motorbike over to the area to check them out. Lots of blaring music, open bars, dancers of every age all gyrating to the pulsating beat of western music from over-sized speakers. Out on the beach and fairly close to the water, they had placed dozens of low tables and cushions for people to sit on. Each of the tables, big enough to have four people or more sitting around them, had a lit candle-lantern. With the pounding music, the frenetic dancers, the shimmering moon reflected off of the water, etc., it was, as they say, a real moment: chaotic and beautiful at the same time.
Today, (Wednesday) I went with a few locals to the bat cave that a reader of this blog had mentioned in his Comment. Wow! What a trip that was. After bouncing around in a motorized tricyle for 20 minutes, we still had to hoof it through the jungle to the cave itself. Although I had been in many caves in my life, all of them had been "prepped" for tourists. This bat cave, however, offered no such accommodation. You had make your way down a very treacherous opening. Everything was pristine just as all caves are before man intrudes and commercializes them. At the bottom of the cave, (a descent of about 75 feet,) we walked over to an area to the back and saw pools of clear turquoise water. The pools were exposed to the sunlight coming from an unseen source beyond, and it gave off an other-worldly glow. The bats, of course, hung from the ceiling and remained mostly out of sight. In the water, there were small fish about 5 inches in length, and we even had a glimpse of several poisonous sea snakes. The air was heavy and humid at the bottom of the cave and everyone was sweating profusely. The trip out of the cave was equally dangerous since we only had one flashlight among the three of us. Luckily, we all made it back unscathed, but I'm quite sure that other visitors to this particular cave aren't always that fortunate. Tonight, I plan to get an outrigger to take me out on the bay to better view the awesome sunsets that they have here on a regular basis. Tomorrow (Thursday), I'm scheduled to take an early flight to Manila and then to head over to Hong Kong to hook up with Gino again. More later...