travel. eat. write: Club Paradise...A Paradise Indeed!

After a very filling island breakfast of banana pancakes, lightly scrambled eggs, ham, fruit juice and coffee in El Rio y Mar, we said our goodbyes and went on a 20-minute boat ride to Club Paradise.

I could already see the fine white sand from afar. The trio and the other staff greeted us with songs and refreshing pink cherry cocktails. Everyone was equally hospitable and accommodating as in El Rio.

YOU REALLY DO GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Club Paradise is paradise indeed! Our room is spectacularly elegantly designed, spacious and spotless. Since we went on a non-peak season, it felt like we had the island to ourselves. All meals are served buffet style. The food selections are not as diverse as the ones in manila but everything is prepared fresh and everything tasted great.

Day 1

We started our stay with a very filling lunch. Afterwards, we immediately changed into our swimwear but since it was still too hot for me to go swimming, we headed straight to the bar/clubhouse to work a bit. If I could work everyday with this view, I’d be in heaven!

At about 3:30pm we strolled around the island. The clouds were starting to get dark from afar and it was not a good time to snorkel so we just fooled around taking pictures and went swimming on the beach and the pool. The sand was so soft and fine.

Dinner was romantically set up on the beach with the trio serenading us with English and tagalong love songs. The weather was perfect, not a drop of rain.

Day 2

I woke up to the sound of the animals in the forest and the lagoon. There was just so much to do in so little time and we did not want to waste any time. We went snorkeling before breakfast. Their house reef is literally 5 feet away from the shore! The corals were not as colorful as the ones I’ve seen in Apo island but the fish...there were just so many of them, in so many colors as well.

Now, since the flora and fauna in the island is well preserved, you could see big birds, bats and big monitor lizards here and there. Most of them live in the lagoon and the mountain trail. After breakfast, we went for a hike in their lagoon trail. I can deal with a lot of things but crawling animals is not one of them. As we started trekking along the lagoon, we started seeing huge heads popping out of the murky water...they were huge!!! I wasn’t too sure about taking the hike in the first place and this made me even more anxious! A few minutes trek led us to the hidden beach. The beach is a bit rocky though so it is not the best spot to go swimming.

After the hidden beach, we reached Eagle’s point. The view was breathtaking and picturesque. Right after Eagle’s point, we started to see monitor lizards of different sizes and hear crawling sounds here and there. I was on my toes the whole time...freaking out the whole bloody time until we were back at the lagoon. R, typical of him, was laughing at me the whole time while I only calmed down when we reached the cemented pathway.

After our trek, we had apple juice and ripe mango shake and took our spot at the beach front. The view was amazing and the breeze was so cool. A few minutes into reading my book and then...snoozed until lunchtime. Talk about buhay baboy! Haha

We had a late lunch but even then, we only had a few bites to try the food because we were still full.

The whole afternoon was spent beach bumming. At four we freshened up and rested a bit before our cruise. Already dressed for dinner, we hopped in the boat for the romantic sunset cruise. It was a 1-hour slow ride around the island.

Since we were already dressed and dinner won’t be ready for another hour, we just sat on the beach chairs to chat. I love talking to R. At sundown, the fruit bats started to launch. My gosh, they were HUGE! You’d almost think they are eagles or similar-sized birds...that HUGE!

We then went to the check out the books in the library area. They have a lot, in various languages too. I think most are books that guests left. After reading and chatting, we had a couple of games of pool then headed to the dining area for some delicious buffet. I loved everything I ate, the lamb, the seafood, the fish chowder and everything else! Most of all, I loved that they remember every detail about their guests. In the orientation, I wrote my food restrictions (eggplant and watermelon). During dinner, they served beef moussaka. They were gracious enough to approach me and tell me that the dish had eggplant in it. When we got back to our room, Jessica from the reception desk ringed us up to remind us of our flight details and the exact time when our ride would bring us to the airport.

After dinner we went dancing a bit, watched the Cirque du Soleil that R has in his Ipod and slept soundly after a full day.

Last day

I was almost sad to leave the island. I’m never that sad to leave any destination because I know that there is always a new destination to look forward to. This time though, because I loved the place so much, I was a little bit sad to leave.

After checkout time, we had a few games of table tennis, thanked the manager, Ms. Loida and walked to the boat. Our sendoff was the trio singing a farewell song and the staff and Ms. Loida waving goodbye until our boat made its turn.

As of this writing, this is officially my favorite island destination. I love it for the nice and spacious rooms, the very fine and sift sand, the GREAT service, good food, the accessible reef, the many other activities to choose from and the best beach bumming experience I have ever had...and believe me, I’ve had PLENTY!