The sea was navy-blue and choppy as the boat made its way out from Port Barton to a little resort on a private island. The water rose over the bow and splashed my face like a warm salty shower – even out in the sea, the water wasn’t cold. After about an hour, the boat turned in the direction of a pale cream strip of sand backed by a wall of greenery. We had arrived at Coconut Garden Resort. We waded ashore where we were welcomed by Melody and the boatman carried out packs on his shoulders to our bungalow.

The bungalows were spread around a garden, full of coconut trees and flowering shrubs of vivid pinks, purples and yellows.. The one restaurant had a raised wooden veranda overlooking the sea. There were wicker hammocks under the trees and sun loungers on the white sand.

This was truly a place of rest, relaxation and recuperation. There was nothing to do except sway in the shady hammocks, swim and snorkel in the sea,  read and let our minds drift. This was a place where the biggest decision of the day was what to have for dinner…and the decision had to be made by 2pm so the restaurant could prepare it. The island cast a spell on us….a sleeping, snoozing spell😴😴. It was the first place in the Philippines where there were no roosters crowing, no dogs fighting, cats screamming, no motorbikes during the night…..just the sound of the waves lapping and the cicaadas humming. Although there was one little lizard that made a really loud call, the Tokay lizard calling TOO-KAY, TOO-KAY. This chap was welcomed into houses because it ate cockroaches, mosquitoes and basically all sorts of flies.

Monkeys came out of the jungle at dawn to raid the cashew nuts from a tree on the grounds. The little boat went to the mainland once or twice daily and the biggest excitement was watching for its return and seeing if it would bring any more guests. There were only four or five guests staying while we were there – an Australian woman kept extending her stay and had been there for ten nights but most people stayed two or three nights. We stayed four nights and we’re also reluctant to leave.

One early morning, we decided to hike around the island. There’s was a steep tangled path going upwards. But it soon became impassable so we returned to our strip of sand. The Super Typhoon of December 2021 had wrecked havoc on the island and the path had not been cleared since then. Rampant growth takes over quickly in the tropics. The staff working in the restaurant and maintaining the garden didn’t walk anywhere anyway….they could a boat.

Boats called occasionally selling fruit or fish. Electricity was supplied by solar panels, a generator ran for a few hours in the evening and it was only possible to charge phones(or anything else) at that time. The weather was hot and sunny most of the time. The clouds rolled in in the afternoon and thunder rumbled in the distance until our last day when it lashed down for an hour or two. The thirsty ground loved the drink but the damp also woke up lots of sandflies and mosquitoes….I’m trying not to scratch my many bites as I write😮

Our journey back to Port Barton was on smooth waters and we were accompanied part of the way by a flotilla of butterflies, beautiful but strange to see so many butterflies, which seem so delicate,  flying over the sea

Port Barton was a sleepy town by most standards but for us after the peace and isolation of the island, it felt like a noisy metropolis with shops, motorbike fumes and so many people…and dogs. In a restaurant near the bus station we met a large English man with a heavily bandaged leg. He told us that he had been run over in Manilla, running away from two young guys who were trying to rob him. This was on top of his luggage getting lost on the flight and not arriving for four days. He sounded like he could do with some rest and relaxation and we knew exactly where to send him for some affordable peace (comfortable but not luxurious…Coconut Garden Island Resort😎

Our next stop is El Nido, one of the prime tourist attractions in the Philippines. Many people have said that’s it’s ‘too’ everything……too busy, too noisy, too polluted…but others have said that its also just too beautiful. I’ll let you know what we find.

Thanks for reading….sending you sunshine vibes🌞🌞