All together, it has been a good month on Boracay, with a welcome break to breathe on the Carabao island for a few nights. There is definitely a difference in activity between the first week I spent there and the last few days. When I arrived in end of February, I could count to over 120 kitesurfers on the bulabog beach on a good day. Towards the end of March, the number had gone down significantly to about 30-40 at most. It is not just a coincidence, because the wind has been steadily going down as well, especially the last few days didn’t have much in store for wind addicts.
So, what do kitesurfers do when there’s no wind? They go to the bar! In the last few days, me and the other guys downed a countless number of san miguel’s and red horse while losing game after game of pool to the locals. A funny detail about having a beer in the Philippines is that they put a tissue around the top before serving, and that means that the day after you can count the number of tissues in your pocket. I was quite desperate towards the end, and finally there were some good days of surfing. It is not so often you can say that you “had it” of drinking beer at a palm fringed white beach, but that was it.
Another activity you can do on the no-wind days is scuba diving. It was my first time ever, and the location for doing it was pretty much perfect. There’s a lot to see, and the water is very clear. I felt like I was in a big aquarium! I have practiced quite a lot of free diving before, and I think I’m pretty good at holding my breath, but being able to look at things with more calm was really cool, and you can see other things as you go deeper. For example a big sea turtle that was resting at the bottom at around 10m depth.
On another calm day I just took a book with me to the beach, to read under a palm tree. Not bad that either.
All in all, I am really glad I got around to buy the 12m kite, as the wind got significantly weaker the last two weeks. I got time enough to get the back-roll to the left working good, and some pretty massive jumps going right. Progress is simply so much faster when you can practice 3-4 days a week than as home in Sweden it can sometimes go weeks between the occasions. And having the water temperature at 26-27 degrees helps too!
During the last week it was raining quite heavily, like the rain you get from a thunderstorm, and it was going on for hours at a time. It was of course connected to the absence of wind as well, so it meant little or no kitesurfing.
This had a number of side effects. For example, sometimes when we were out at night in the bars we got caught while waiting for the rain to stop. And this could mean several hours. It created quite a special mood. We spent several nights caught in the “Exit” bar, but as there was no wind, it didn’t really matter that much that it was impossible to get up in the morning after.
Another side effect was that the streets got so flooded that they connected to the nearby dams, ponds and streams. So the other day when I saw a group of fish swimming around in a puddle in the street it took me quite a while to figure out how they got there.
With all this rain and strange weather I expected a really bumpy flight to Manila and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but surprisingly it was very calm, one of the calmest in a while. The only effect I could see of the rains were a mud slide on the road between Caticlan and Kalibo.
Oh darn! Not enough wind! What to do, what to do… :-) This shot is from the Freestyle Academy where I spent most of my time in between the sessions.
Gustav doing some distance studying at the Levantine bar, while trying to end the stock of chili chicken.
Whohoo! My brand new Slingshot Rally! The hang-time of this baby is simply greeeeat!
´Markus first night out I believe! I can’t believe he made the 10.000+ km journey to come over. Here we are with a couple of dive instructors, my room mate Roxane and Dean who got the most crazy one-strut kite I ever seen.
A hard knock life, here at the beach with Markus.
Markus, Nicole and me having some fresh fish from the fish market. Yummy!
Some garlic shrimps perhaps?
The view from the hotel, before leaving.
A stark contrast, not only in this photo. We had probably the worst Indian food ever, with the best view ever.
Freestyle academy poster!
Hmm. I have a drivers license for car, light weight truck, and military fire trucks. I guess I have to look for another job.
Our home composed hotel bar. The only liquids you need – Boracay rum, sunscreen, disinfectant alcohol and mosquito repellent. All in a wide variety.
Yehaa! Approaching speeds of 30 km/h! This trike driver was either crazy or in a big hurry.
The yard of the new hotel, pretty fancy, don’t you think?
I contemplated getting some facelift at Dr. Mendez, but in the end decided not to.. Anyways, here’s his number if you should feel the urge.
Puka beach. Not bad…
27 degrees in the water, just enough to refresh from the heating sun! :-)
As you can see, a lot less wind, you can just barely plane sometimes.
In a hurry, but still need to get drunk? Get an Antonov “Vodka on-the-go”! I just can’t believe this advert, we laughed ourselves silly over it!
Hey! Wait! Is that the wind coming back there at the horizon? Uh, no… This is what bulabog beach looks like at low tide with absolutely zero wind.
And sometimes it rained and the wind came back. Geeez!!!
Most of the time the weather was good. Here reading a book under this very palm at the white beach.
I had this view practically every morning for almost 10 days straight. Either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Japolitaly was the name of restaurant serving me countless pasta alla arabbiata and mango shakes.
Some of the backstreets close to Bulabog beach.
One of the narrow alleys to pass from the bulabog beach back to the main road.
Dinner with the guys at Pinoy Delight the night before going to Manila. David, Me, Suresh, Clement and Stefan. David entertained with his countless stories from living in the harsh Australian outback.
Oh shit! I’m on the pool list! David talked me into having a game against him. Bad idea.
David crushing his opponents before Red Horse took over and humbled him.
The main road of Boracay, on my way to Manila.
Taking the wooden boat to the main land.
Some construction work on the way, check out all the guys with T-shirts on their head.
